Posted on June 8, 2019

My garage door, can it be fixed

Everyone has been there; up late the night before, you hit snooze on the alarm one too many times and now you're running late and have no time for fix. Accidents happen; sometimes people slide into the garage door in bad weather, other times people forget to take down their ski/bike rack and that causes damage to the door. However it happened, it can be fixed, so take a deep breath and compose yourself.

First things first, check the extent of the damage. Look at the rollers, are they still in their tracks and attached to the hinges? What about the lifting cables? Are they still aligned with the drums they wind around? Whatever you do don't touch any of the parts! The lifting system (bottom bracket, lifting cable and springs) is under extreme tension, equal to the door's full weight, and you don't want to end up in the emergency room!

Unfortunately, there isn't much you can do to remedy the problem. Don't touch anything and call a garage door expert right away, you can probably find the number of the person who fitted your door on the housing of the door opener. Then get in touch with someone to give you and the kids are ride to work and daycare.

Depending on the extent of the damage to both the car and the garage door you may need to contact your car insurer and home insurer, don't forget your car insurance will not cover damage to garage doors. But before you call, examine your policy, it might not be worth making a claim.

It's impossible to estimate without knowing the extent of the damage and the age of your door. Sometimes doors are so old that you can't order replacement sections, in which case you would need to replace the entire door.

If you need to replace one section, work out the price of a complete 4-section garage door and divide it by four. As with most repair works, labor costs make up a significant portion of the overall cost, this is because the door must be taken apart and then re-installed as if it were a new door.

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