Off-Track Garage Door Repair

What Causes a Garage Door to Come Off Track

The most common causes, roughly in order:

• A car bumper catching the door or the vertical track. Very common, and the track is usually bent where it was hit.
• A broken or slipped lift cable, so one side loses support and the door twists.
• A broken spring letting the door fall fast and hard.
• A roller that seized, wore out, or came out of its hinge.
• The door closing on something (a trash bin, a bike, a ladder) and the cable going slack while the opener keeps driving.
• Track bolts that have worked loose from the frame over years of use.

Why You Shouldn't Force an Off-Track Door Back

When a door comes off track, the springs usually aren't supporting it anymore, so it's carrying its full weight. Pulling or prying on it can bring it down. If it's hanging at an angle, part of it is supported and part isn't, and it can drop the rest of the way with little warning.

Running the opener makes it worse. Driving a twisted door bends the tracks and tears hinges out of the sections, turning a hardware repair into a new door.

Leave the door where it is, keep people and cars clear, and unplug the opener if you can reach it safely. Then call us.

How We Fix an Off-Track Garage Door

First we secure the door and support its weight. Then we guide the rollers back into the tracks, realign the sections, and fix whatever caused the problem: a cable, spring, roller or bent track.

Bent or kinked track gets replaced, because a track with a kink keeps catching the rollers. We also check the hinges and the top of each section for tearing, which is where damage shows after a door has been forced.

Finally, we rebalance the door and run it several times before reconnecting the opener. Call us and describe what you're seeing, and we'll tell you how to keep things safe until we get there.