Any hour. A person answers.
Garage door won't open with your car inside?
Leave a broken spring alone and don't try to lift a heavy door yourself. Call or text us. Our garage door call-outs run around the clock, and you get the price before any work starts.
You approve the price before we start. Not sure it's really us? See who's coming.
My garage door won't open and my car is inside. What now?
First check whether the power is out or a breaker has tripped. If you can see a gap in a spring above the door, or a slack or frayed cable, don't lift the door or pull the release: the door can be far heavier than usual and may drop. Call a garage door technician.
Check the simple things first
- Power. After a storm, is the neighbourhood out, or has a breaker tripped? A dark opener light is the giveaway.
- Remote and wall button. Is the opener on its lock or vacation setting? Is the remote battery dead?
- The bottom seal. If slush froze overnight, the seal may be stuck to the floor. Free it before you try the opener again.
- The safety sensors. The two small eyes near the floor must see each other. Snow, salt spray or a knocked bracket stops a door closing, though not opening.
If all of that checks out and the door still won't budge, it's probably mechanical.
Leave a broken spring alone
Springs carry most of the door's weight. When one goes, the door can suddenly be far heavier than you expect.
- Look above the door for a gap in the spring's coils.
- Don't pull the release cord if a spring or cable looks broken. The door can come down hard.
- Don't try to lift it by hand or push it with the car.
- Keep kids and pets well back.
Springs are under heavy tension and cause real injuries. This job needs a technician with the right winding bars and parts. Garage door spring repair.
Salt, rust and a door that finally quits
On the coast, garage hardware wears from the outside in. Salt carried in on the car and blown in off the water rusts springs, cables, hinges and roller bearings. Rollers seize, the opener strains to compensate, and one damp morning a corroded spring or frayed cable lets go. If your door has been getting louder, slower or jerky, that's usually why.
Getting the car out
We come at any hour. The quickest safe way out is usually to replace or secure the broken spring or cable so the door runs normally. Sometimes we open and secure the door that night and finish the repair the next day. Either way, you hear the price before we start.
Openers, cables and tracks
Not every stuck door is a spring. A failed opener, a snapped cable, or a door twisted off its track after a gust can all trap a car. We fix them all, at homes and businesses. All garage door repairs.
Questions people ask
- The power is out after a storm. How do I get the car out?
- If the springs and cables look intact and the door is fully closed, pull the red release cord and lift the door by hand. A healthy door should feel fairly light. If it's heavy or won't stay up, lower it and call us.
- How can I tell if a spring has broken?
- Look at the spring above the closed door. A visible gap in the coils means it has broken. You may have heard a loud bang from the garage, and the opener may hum or lift the door a few inches and stop.
- The door seems frozen to the floor. What do I do?
- Wet snow and slush can refreeze along the bottom seal overnight. Don't keep pressing the button, because the opener can strip gears or bend the top panel. Free the seal gently with a plastic scraper, or call us.
- Does salt air affect garage doors?
- Yes. Near the coast, springs, cables, hinges and rollers rust faster, and a door that has been getting noisier or slower is often telling you a part is near the end.
- Do you repair commercial overhead doors too?
- Yes. We work on residential garage doors and commercial overhead doors: springs, cables, openers, tracks and panels.
Call now. A person answers.
Open 24 hours, 7 days. You approve the price before we start.