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A few of the most common garage door issues are easy to fix on your own – things like misaligned garage door photo eyes or sweeping the track free of debris. Others are not so simple. Anytime your garage door repair requires disassembly, manipulation of the door, or more in-depth parts replacement/repair we strongly advice calling a professional. We aren’t saying that to get your business, we’re saying that because we have seen more than our fair share of horror stories.
DIY garage door repair can be dangerous and the team at R&S always shudders when we get a call from a client who was injured after trying to repair their own door.
Avoid These Dangers By Using a Professional Garage Door Repair Company
Here are some of the fix-it items that can result in dangers to both you and your garage door.
A malfunctioning garage door opener. If it’s not something simple like the photo eyes causing your opener to malfunction, be very, very wary of trying to fix a malfunctioning opener. The garage door can be incredibly unpredictable, and this is dangerous. If the door happens to get off track, you can be thrown off balance from your stepping stool or ladder, or the sheer weight of the door can cause injury.
The spring of a torsion spring. There are still many reliable garage doors that open using a torsion spring system, rather than an extension system. To operate, the torsion spring is mounted horizontally above the garage door. The spring it wound up with the door is pulled down and that wound up energy is powerful. It’s used on the other side when you open the door, to help energize the door’s lift. If you wind up on the wrong side of a wound up torsion spring when it breaks, the force is violent and serious injury can occur.
Using the wrong tools. Garage doors have very specific mechanical parts and some of them require professional tools. These tools are not typically found in the average homeowner’s toolbox. This can lead to you running to the hardware store to purchase a tool you’ll never use again, or it can lead to you trying to manipulate the part to the best of your ability using the tools you have. This is a bad idea because not only can it lead to potential injury, it can also lead to a broken or damaged part, which puts you right back where you started.
A collapsed replacement garage door. Watch a YouTube video about replacing or installing a new garage door and it all looks so straightforward. The reality is quite different. First, it is at least a two person job, and both parties need to know what to do when. Second, garage doors are very heavy and modern residential garage doors – with their multi-layered construction – are cumbersome. One wrong move and the entire door can come crashing down, injuring yourself as well as the door. Assuming you remain unscathed, that damaged door will no longer fall under warranty because you violate the manufacturer’s recommendations by not using a professional installer. Now you’re injured, have a trashed garage door, and still have to fork out money for a new one and professional installation.
Replacing garage door panels. Here’s one that seems pretty simple at the outset; how hard is it to replace a garage door panel anyway? Well, first you may have problems getting your hands on the correct panel if you door is several years old. A professional garage door repair and installation company, on the other hand, can typically order one with a single call to a vendor. If you are able to get the correct panel, you still run into potential issues like door panels that break while you’re trying to install them, or cracking or chipping adjacent panels when you’re trying to remove/replace the damaged one. Worst of all, if the door manually malfunctions while you are in the midst of the repair, you risk the door opening and/or closing while you are in its path or near the tracks.
A painful fall. The number one leading cause of injury and deaths on the home front is falls. In almost all cases, a garage door repair will require standing on a ladder or elevated platform of some kind. If you get in over your head (pun intended) or make one wrong move, your fall can be life changing. No reasonable labor charge is worth that risk.
Don’t get too carried away in the DIY world. Dedicate those commendable intentions to the more risk-free home repairs – gosh knows there’s plenty of them – and honor your door’s manufacturer’s instructions. Contact a licensed garage door company. You’ll benefit from quick, accurate diagnosis and a timely repair.
