Garage door repair near you
We repair garage doors across Woodlawn, where small detached garages behind some of the bungalows bring calls for seized rollers, bent tracks, worn-out springs and old wood doors that no longer fit their openings.
Updated
Woodlawn is mostly small working-class bungalows, more modest than the larger houses in King and Piedmont next door. Behind some of them sits a compact detached single-car garage, and some lots have no garage at all.
NE Dekum Street carries a small strip of shops, Woodlawn Park spreads across more than eight acres at NE 13th Avenue, and NE Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard is the main arterial close by. About two-thirds of Woodlawn homes were owner-occupied in 2010, so many garage decisions here are long-term ones: keep the door you have running, or fit one that will last.
For garage doors, the age of the house shows. A replacement for an old opening may need a non-standard size, a wood door that has taken rain at its bottom edge for decades goes soft there, and newer infill houses, some with attached garages and modern openers, add to the mix. Those bring the opener and photo eye calls, and the older garages bring nearly everything else.
A small detached single-car garage behind a Woodlawn bungalow may hold storage, bikes or a workbench rather than a car. A door on a garage used that way may open only a few times a month.
That light use changes what breaks. Rollers dry out and stop turning, hinges stiffen, and springs sit under tension through every wet winter. A door lifted by hand loads its handle, bottom section and track brackets, and shelving shoved against a vertical track can push it out of line. On wood doors the lowest section takes the splash from the driveway, so rot usually starts there.
When a Woodlawn garage is small, detached and lightly used, these are the calls it brings: seized rollers and hinges, tracks pushed out of line, extension springs, rotted bottom sections and new doors.
A door that opens only now and then ends up with seized steel rollers and cracked hinges, and it groans or jerks when someone finally heaves it up. Replacing them with quiet nylon rollers and hinges of the same number leaves a hand-lifted door gliding instead of grinding, and a light spray on the hinges each fall keeps it that way.
Shelves, lumber and bikes stacked against a vertical track push it out of plumb or loosen its brackets, and the rollers start to bind. We straighten or replace the bent sections, anchor the brackets back into solid framing, and ask you to keep a hand's width clear along each side, with hooks and racks placed where they cannot touch the door.
Older, lighter doors on small garages usually rely on two extension springs stretched alongside the horizontal tracks, and when one sags or snaps the door turns heavy and lopsided. We replace both and thread a safety cable inside each spring, so a future break cannot whip loose across the garage.
On a wood door, the bottom section soaks up driveway splash for years before it goes soft. If the upper sections are still sound, we replace or rebuild just that lowest piece and refit its hardware, which keeps the door you have and costs less than starting over.
When rot has reached the jambs or several sections, a new door is the sounder buy, and owners turning the garage into a workshop can pick an insulated steel door that holds heat and closes more quietly. Because the opening may not match a stock size, we measure it and the headroom, then order a door to suit.
From I-5 we head east on NE Rosa Parks Way or Killingsworth Street, then cut over on Dekum, Ainsworth or NE 15th Avenue to reach your block, and NE MLK Jr. Boulevard is the other main way in.
When a Woodlawn garage sits behind the house, the job means walking parts and tools down the driveway and past the back porch. Tell us when you book how the garage is reached and whether stored things block the door; clearing a path to it and along both tracks before we arrive keeps the visit short.
Woodlawn Park covers 8.23 acres at NE 13th Avenue and Dekum Street and became city property in 1975.
Woodlawn borders Sunderland to the north, Concordia to the east, King and Vernon to the south, and Piedmont to the west.
The shops along NE Dekum Street and Woodlawn Methodist Church are two of Woodlawn's anchors.
In 2000, 43 percent of Woodlawn residents were African American, and the neighborhood has changed considerably in the years since.
Remembering Woodlawn, a book reviewed by the Portland Tribune, looks back at the history of the neighborhood.
Yes. A single-layer steel door weighs far less than an old solid wood door, and with springs sized to it, lifting by hand takes little effort. Since an older Woodlawn opening may not be a stock size, we measure first and have the door made to suit. When the springs are right, the door should hover in place if you let go of it halfway up, which is the test we run before leaving.
Yes on both counts. Woodlawn falls in the 97211 ZIP code, and we take calls from the Dekum Street shops out to the Concordia and Sunderland edges. When you book, name the nearest cross street and say whether the garage is reached from the front of the lot or from another side, and we will plan the visit, the parking and the parts around it. A newer infill house with an attached garage is covered just the same.
Often the same day, provided you reach us during business hours. A door left shut since fall usually needs its rollers, hinges and springs freed and checked rather than forced. Please do not yank the handle or pry at the bottom edge; if a spring has let go, the door's whole weight lands on whoever is lifting it. A photo of the springs sent ahead helps us bring the right pair.
No trip charge applies once you go ahead with the repair. Woodlawn pays the same posted rates as anywhere else in the city, so the drive in from I-5 is already covered. The only separate line is the diagnostic visit, and it comes into play only if you decide to leave the door as it is after we have looked it over and explained what we found, in writing if you want it.
It can, because every hand lift loads the handle, the bottom section and the lowest track brackets. When the springs weaken, more of the door's weight lands on those spots, and screws start pulling out of the metal or the wood. On a visit we check the spring tension, refasten the handle and brackets into solid material, and replace any cracked hinge on that bottom section.
For living space, yes: converting a garage into a room or an accessory dwelling unit takes a Portland building permit. A workshop that stays a garage needs no permit for a same-size replacement door. Our garage conversion guide covers the details, including what happens to the door opening, and we can remove the old door or fit an insulated one once your plans are settled and any framing is done.
Clear a few feet of floor just inside the door and a strip along each track, all the way up to where the tracks curve overhead. Move bikes, shelving and anything hanging near the springs or the opener rail. Leave the door closed if it is stuck, and keep the power on so we can test the opener, if there is one, once the repair is done. Pets are happier inside the house while we work.
These neighborhoods border Woodlawn or share its I-5 and MLK routes, from Kenton across the freeway to Alameda up on the ridge.
Call with the symptom, or text a photo of the door and the opener, and we will name the part and the posted price before anyone drives out.