Garage Door Repair Questions, Answered Plainly

Call, text or use the quote form, whichever is easiest for you. A text with a photo of the door is the quickest path to an exact price, because we can see the spring, the cables and the opener before we talk. Once you agree to the price, we set an arrival window that fits your day.

An adult should be there at the start and at the finish. We need to hear what the door has been doing, agree on the work, and walk you through the final test. In between you can go about your day, since we work from the driveway and the garage and need no access to the house.

Clear a strip about three feet wide in front of the door and along both tracks, and move the car out if the door still opens. If the car is trapped inside, leave it where it is. Put pets in the house, and leave power on to the opener so we can test it afterward.

Yes, whoever installed it. Springs, cables, rollers, tracks and openers follow common sizes across the major brands, and we carry the usual ones on the truck. When a part has been discontinued, we find a compatible replacement or tell you plainly that it is no longer made.

A wound torsion spring stores enough energy to cause a serious injury if a winding bar slips. The job takes proper bars, the correct spring size and a fixed order of steps, and a mistake happens faster than anyone can react. Spraying the coil with garage door lubricant is fine; loosening a set screw on a wound cone is not.

No, wait until the door is fully open and stopped before anyone walks, drives or rides a bike through the opening. Photo eyes and the opener's auto-reverse are backups meant to catch a mistake, not a reason to race the door. A worn lift cable can snap while the door is moving, and a snapped cable lets one side drop.

Lay a two-by-four flat on the floor in the path of the door and close it with the wall button. The door should touch the board and reverse. Then pass a broom handle through the photo-eye beam while the door is closing; it should stop and go back up. If either test fails, stop using the opener until it is adjusted. Opener instructions call for the board test once a month.

At least five feet off the floor and within sight of the door, which is the height opener manufacturers call for in their installation instructions. Keep remotes out of reach too, and teach kids never to run under a moving door. Working photo eyes add a layer of protection, but the door should never become a game.

Almost always, as long as the door is balanced. The springs carry the weight and the opener just guides the door along its track, so we first check that it stays put halfway with the opener disconnected and that the top section can take a reinforcement bracket. A wall-mount opener also needs a torsion spring door and room beside the shaft.

Yes, on a sectional door, using a timer-to-close feature on the opener or a compatible add-on control. Federal rules require the opener to flash a light and sound an alarm for at least five seconds before an unattended close. The same rules do not allow it on one-piece tilt-up or swinging doors, and a blocked or faulty photo eye keeps the door from closing at all.

Not automatically. An opener that has photo eyes, runs quietly and is sized for the new door can usually move over with fresh travel limits and force settings. We suggest replacing it when it has no photo eyes, still uses an old fixed-code remote, or lacks the power for a heavier insulated door.

We cover Portland and its suburbs in Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties, plus Scappoose and Clark County, Washington. That takes in neighborhoods on both sides of the Willamette, the Westside out to Hillsboro and Forest Grove, Lake Oswego down to Oregon City and Canby, east out to Gresham, Troutdale and Sandy, and Vancouver, Battle Ground and Camas. The service areas page lists every neighborhood and city.

Yes. We work for landlords, property managers and HOA boards as well as homeowners, from one rental house to a row of townhouse garages. For a rental, we can arrange access with the tenant and send the photos and the invoice to the owner or manager, so nobody has to take a day off to meet us.