When your garage door is having issues, it’s often a game of safe-or-sorry in your head. Does it need replaced? Or can I get away with just fixing the problem at-hand? A new garage door installation is a decent chunk of money; and while it’s a great investment in your home equity (99% ROI!), it’s still a project you may have to save up for. So if you can avoid it – while keeping your garage door working safely and correctly – you should look into your repair options.
Oftentimes, switching out a few components and making a couple adjustments can help you avoid replacing it. It’s all going to depend on the depth of the issue. Are we talking some minor dents and scratches? A noisy, rickety garage door? A busted panel? Bent tracks? When is enough enough? Maybe it’s time to let the garage door die and install a new one.
Or maybe not.
For Surface Damage: Refacing & Resealing Your Garage Door
However nice or new your garage door is, denting, scratching and weather damage can wreak havoc on the door’s appearance. And this isn’t just less-than-curb-appealing; some of these issues can lead to larger ones if you leave the paint peeling or the tear in the panel to fester:
- An improperly-sealed garage door surface leaves a steel garage door open to rust and a wood garage door open to rot.
- A small rusty corner or tear in a garage door panel can lead to full-on corrosion in that part of the door.
- An unsealed garage door is more susceptible to light and weather damage, shortening its life.
The good news is surface issues are easy to take care of. Dents in aluminum door panels can actually be reversed and the surface integrity restored. Dents in steel can be filled with a steel putty, sanded and painted to look like nothing ever happened. Discoloring and sun damage in a wood garage door can be minimized and prevented with a good stripping, sanding and resealing with a UV-protective poly.
While surface damage isn’t something that warrants a whole garage door replacement on its own, full-view (or frosted) aluminum and safety glass garage doors are known for the resiliency of their appearance. Just saying.
For Opener Issues: Upgrading your Garage Door Opener
Many garage door opener malfunctions are super-simple fixes – most of the time it’s not even really a “repair”. If your opener has only been working sporadically, stopped working, or isn’t responding, first check:
- Remote batteries
- Power source
- Fuse box
- Sensor eyes
- Physical obstruction
A few garage door opener problems that will require a repair but don’t really have anything to do with the condition of your opener include:
- Worn/broken torsion springs (Always call a professional garage door repair company for this one!)
- Broken trolley
- Door is off track
- Cables need tightened
- Opener limits need adjusted
- Motor needs replaced
At the end of the day, though, opener units aren’t meant to last forever. You use them, like, thousands of times per year; of course they’ll wear out after a decade or two. If your garage door opener is constantly having issues and the repair costs are adding up, it’s a sign it’s time for a new one.
The good news is, you don’t have to replace your garage door just because you’re installing a new opener. Plus, there are other benefits to replacing your garage door opener!
- Smart technology makes remote use and monitoring a reality
- Modern access options improve home security
- Garage door battery backups increase personal safety and convenience
For Structural Damage: Replacing Only One Panel
Sometimes extreme weather or human error can lead to a bent and twisted garage door, which may lead you to believe you’ve got no other option but a new garage door installation. But not so fast. If the damage is only limited to one panel and not the entire door, you might be able to get away with replacing only that panel.
Garage door repair professionals can get this job done quickly and correctly, leaving you to then decide if you need to paint or stain that panel to match the others. In a weekend, you can go from an inoperable and unrecognizable garage door to one that looks like it’s new.
It’s important to deal with a structurally-damaged garage door panel as soon as possible. No part of a garage door works independently, so weakness in one section can compromise the entire door by torqueing the door and the tracks unevenly, putting unbalanced strain on the opener, rubbing against other panels making them more susceptible to rust, etc.
For Stuck or Slow Garage Doors: Making Adjustments
If the door runs slowly or gets stuck on either side, you likely only have a simple repair issue. It will require replacing some parts and perhaps some adjustment, but you won’t need to pay for a brand new door. You might also consider resetting and adjusting the switch on the motor casing assembly, especially when transitioning into a new weather season.
Possible culprits of a difficult-to-move garage door include:
- Bent tracks
- Broken rollers
- Loose or frayed cables
- Worn or broken garage door spring
- Dead opener motor
- Garage door is off track
- Opener doesn’t have enough HP for the weight of the door
- Broken trolley/damaged trolley track
- Rusty door panel hinges
These are all issues we can easily take care of for you, and/or we can diagnose the problem and let you know if the repair is safe to do yourself.
Pro tip: Garage door springs are literally never a DIY garage door repair. Period.
For Damaged Tracks: Giving Your Garage Door a Little TLC
The tracks your garage door sits in are what keep it balanced and in place. A bend in one of the tracks can damage roller arms, drag that side of the garage door down, or make it impassible altogether. But bent tracks are an easy fix you can do on your own in less than an hour.
With years of use, tracks can also become loose in the brackets that anchor them to the wall. This is also another easy DIY – just a bit of tightening loose screws. And a fully-broken track, if caught early, can easily be replaced by a professional technician.
However, if you’re dealing with stripped or seized screws and damage to the drywall and framing, give us a call. It’s almost definitely something we can repair, but you need to know the extent of the damage first. If the garage door will need reframed to ensure the tracks are stable, it may be a good time to consider replacing the door.
It also might be time to replace the rollers that sit in the garage door tracks. Nylon rollers work better than metal ones – they create less friction and can’t corrode. When you’re dealing with a track issue, take the opportunity to clean out the tracks and rollers, and then lubricate the rollers, but not the track.
And while you’ve got the garage door lubricant out – do all the other moving parts, too. Proper care is key to extending the life of your garage door and putting off that inevitable garage door replacement.
When is it Time to Give Up the Garage Door Ghost?
Deciding on repairing vs replacing your garage door is a lot like deciding the same thing on a car. When are the constant issues and repair costs adding up to the point where it doesn’t make sense on a financial level? Then there’s convenience to think about – are you really here for dealing with several Saturdays lost to at-home repairs and several more emergency service calls for a broken garage door?
The other huge thing with a garage door is the safety of your home and all the people in it. An unsound garage door is a safety hazard, and it’s likely not stopping your home from break-ins. Plus there’s that nearly 1:1 return on investment when you choose to install a new garage door.
The rest is up to you!