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When your garage door suddenly stops working, the first instinct is usually to try to get it moving again. Maybe you need to get your car out. Maybe the door is stuck halfway open and you need to secure the house. Or maybe you keep pressing the opener button, hoping it will work on the next try.
Sometimes, those attempts can turn a relatively straightforward garage door repair into a much bigger problem.
At Heavenly Garage Doors, we handle emergency garage door repairs throughout Nashville and Middle Tennessee, and we’ve seen what can happen when a homeowner unknowingly tries the wrong thing before calling for help.
If your garage door has failed, here are some of the most important things to do, and not do, before your technician arrives.
If your garage door doesn’t move normally the first time you press the button, don’t keep pressing it.
Your garage door opener is designed to move a properly functioning and properly balanced garage door. If a spring has broken, a cable has come loose, or another part of the door has failed, repeatedly running the opener can cause additional damage.
A loose cable, for example, may be a repairable problem. But continuing to operate the door can allow that cable to wrap around other components, pull the door unevenly, or damage the panels.
What could have been a service call can become a much more expensive repair or even require replacement of part of the door.
If something looks or sounds wrong, stop operating the door and take a closer look.
This is one of the most important garage door safety precautions homeowners should know.
The red emergency-release cord disconnects the garage door from the automatic opener. Under the right circumstances, that’s useful. But if your garage door is open or partially open and has a broken spring or another problem affecting its weight, do not pull the emergency release cord.
A typical garage door can weigh 150 to 200 pounds or more. Normally, the spring system helps counterbalance that weight.
If the spring is broken and you disconnect the opener while the door is raised, there may be nothing left supporting the full weight of the door.
It can come down hard.
We’ve had customers crush the bottom panel of their garage door this way. More importantly, a falling garage door can cause serious injury to anyone standing underneath or nearby.
If the door is stuck in the open or partially open position, leave it alone and call a professional.
If you’re looking at the inside of your garage door trying to determine what’s wrong, you may notice certain bolts, brackets, or other components marked with red paint.
Red means stop.
Manufacturers use red markings on certain garage door hardware as a warning because those components may be connected to parts of the door that are under significant tension.
The bottom brackets are especially important. Garage door cables typically attach near the bottom of the door, and those cables work with the spring system to lift the door.
Never loosen, remove, or adjust this hardware yourself.
Garage door springs and cables store significant mechanical energy. This is not an area where homeowners should experiment with a wrench to see whether something is loose.
A loose garage door cable is another situation where doing nothing is often the safest thing you can do.
If you notice a cable hanging loosely beside the door, don’t press the opener to see whether the door still works.
The cable can become tangled or wrapped around other components as the system moves. The door can also begin lifting unevenly, potentially damaging the tracks, rollers, or door panels.
Leave the door where it is and call a garage door technician.
One clue that you may have a broken garage door spring is a door that suddenly feels extremely heavy or won’t open even though the opener seems to be trying.
The spring system is what makes a heavy garage door manageable. When a spring breaks, the opener may no longer be capable of lifting the door safely.
Don’t try to solve the problem by having several people muscle the door upward.
If you suspect a broken spring, stop operating the door and have it inspected.
Not every garage door problem requires a major repair.
One of the more common issues we see involves the photo-eye safety sensors near the bottom of the garage door tracks.
These sensors can easily get bumped while moving things in and out of the garage. If one is knocked out of alignment, the opener may think something is blocking the doorway and refuse to close the door.
Look at the sensors on both sides of the garage door. Make sure nothing is blocking them and check whether one appears to have been bumped out of position.
You can also look for blinking indicator lights, which may point to an alignment problem.
If the sensors appear to be the problem, don’t start taking the garage door apart. Let your technician know what you’re seeing.
This may be the most useful thing you can do before calling for emergency garage door repair.
Stand safely inside the garage and take a clear picture showing as much of the back of the garage door and its hardware as possible.
Then send the picture to your garage door company.
At Heavenly Garage Doors, we can often look at a picture and get a good idea of what has happened before we even arrive.
That can be especially valuable when your car is trapped inside.
We’ve had more than one customer have a garage door fail on them with their car stuck in the garage. They had to get to work the next morning, so they snapped a picture of the back of the door and sent it to us.
From the photo, we were able to identify what was happening and tell them how to safely open the door in their particular situation.
That does not mean every broken garage door can be safely opened manually. Whether it can be opened depends on what has failed and the condition of the door.
That’s why sending a photo and getting instructions for your specific door is much safer than trying different things on your own.
If the garage door is crooked, hanging unevenly, partially off its track, or stuck overhead, keep people and pets away from it.
Don’t walk underneath a damaged garage door to inspect it.
Don’t let children play around it.
And don’t attempt to straighten an off-track door yourself.
A garage door is a large moving system under significant weight and tension. Once something has failed, you can’t necessarily predict how the rest of the system will behave.
When you call for emergency garage door repair, a little information can help your technician understand what may have happened.
Tell them:
And whenever possible, send a clear picture of the inside of the garage door.
For an experienced garage door technician, that picture can reveal a lot.
Some garage door problems can wait for a scheduled service appointment. Others need more immediate attention.
Call for emergency garage door repair if:
When in doubt, stop using the door and call.
If your garage door suddenly stops working, don’t make the problem worse by repeatedly operating the opener or trying to disassemble the door yourself.
Take a picture of the inside of the door, note what happened when it failed, and give Heavenly Garage Doors a call.
Our technicians provide garage door repair throughout Nashville and Middle Tennessee and can help diagnose broken springs, loose or damaged cables, off-track doors, opener problems, sensor issues, and other garage door emergencies.
And if your car is trapped inside, tell us when you call. We’ll help determine the safest next step based on what’s actually happening with your door.
When something goes wrong, stop, snap a picture, and call Heavenly Garage Doors before you start pulling cords or turning wrenches.
143 New Shackle Island Rd Suite 8,
Hendersonville, TN 37075
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