Los Angeles County
Garage door problems: why a door will not open or close
Most faults show up as one of five symptoms. Pick the one that matches what your door is doing, and we will point you at the likely cause and tell you what not to touch.
Start here
What is it doing?
Pick the closest description. Two of these are faults to stand back from.
Two faults you should not touch
A garage door spring stores enough energy to break bones, and a snapped one often shows as a visible gap in the coil above the opening. If a spring has snapped, or the door has come off its track or dropped a cable, stop using the door. Do not run the opener again, do not try to lever the door back into place, and do not attempt to wind, adjust or replace a spring yourself. Park on the driveway, keep children and pets away from the opening, and leave it as it is. Spring replacement and cable and track work are done under load and belong to a technician with the right tools.
What is safe to look at first
Two checks are harmless. Look at the safety sensors near the floor on either side of the opening and see whether something is blocking them or has knocked one out of line. Then check whether the door was left on the manual release cord after a power outage, which leaves the opener running with nothing attached to it. Past those two you are into parts that are under tension.
If you want us to diagnose it
If the door has been getting noisier over the past few months, garage door noises says what each sound usually means. If your door is doing something none of these pages describe, put it in your own words when you get in touch. Symptoms that sound vague on the phone are usually obvious in person.
Some faults will not wait, and emergency garage door repair covers which ones. The rest are ordinary repair. Inspection and estimate are free whether or not you approve the repair, and the part we install is written on the invoice with its specification. Check we cover your part of Los Angeles County, then book the visit. What affects the price explains what moves the number, and you can ask about financing.
When repair stops being the sensible answer
A door that keeps failing on different parts is usually telling you it has reached the end. If you are close to that point, look at the front of the house as a whole, then see a replacement door on your own frontage before you commit to anything. Upload a photo of the house, choose a direction, and judge it in place.
Get the door looked at.
The price is written down before anything is touched, and it holds. Nothing else is done without your say-so.