While garages primarily protect your vehicle and belongings, they’re also your home’s first impression. Next time you stand inside your garage, keep your eyes and ears peeled. You may notice tell-tale signs of damage that can easily be fixed, or it might be time for a new garage door entirely.

A Garage Door Checklist:

• Listen for noise: is your garage door making a squeaking, rattling, or grinding sound?
• Look for damage: are your garage doors scratched, broken, or rusted? Does the wood appear warped or cracked?
• Check the security: is your locking mechanism no longer working?
• Evaluate safety: does your door seem to fall heavily while closing? Does it continue closing when objects are underneath it (instead of auto-reversing like it’s supposed to), putting you or your valuables in harm’s way?

If you answered “yes” to any of the checklist questions above, it might be time for a new garage door. Not only will a new door improve your home’s safety and security, but it will also boost your curb appeal, potentially save you money on your energy bills, and increase your property value.

Common Problems that can be Fixed

So what has caused you to ask yourself, do I need a new garage door? Several issues are common for garage door owners, and that is repairable if a professional is consulted. Let’s explore a few of them.

Door Suddenly Stops Working:

First and foremost, always check the remote batteries before you call anyone. Sometimes in the stress of an early morning commute with a non-functioning garage door, even the most mindful homeowner will forget to check the batteries and then feel the embarrassment of knowing that the only thing wrong was a couple of dead AAs.

If you are confident that you don’t just need new batteries, make sure to call a professional. A service person with a lot of experience will be able to look at the problem and quickly diagnose the issue, saving you precious time.

Heavy-Door-Issue:

If your door feels heavy, it is likely that your springs have started to wear down and are no longer capable of bearing the weight that they once did. Luckily, a worn spring is generally a quick and affordable fix.

A repair person will come and replace your springs — always making sure to replace both simultaneously to maintain balance in your door — and soon be on their way.

A Single Panel is Damaged:

If you do have physical damage to your door, regardless of the cause, you want to get it repaired quickly and cost-effective.

The key is to repair a damaged panel when the damage is limited to just that single panel. Most factories manufactured doors also supply individual panels to service dealers, so swapping out a panel is a pretty painless fix.

However, if you need to replace a couple of panels, it isn’t any cheaper than replacing the whole door.

The Garage Door is Sagging:

When your door is closed only halfway, does it look like one side is lower than the other? That’s the tell-tale sign of an imbalanced garage door. While it might just look funny, it is also a sign that your door is putting increased wear and tear on the lifting mechanism.

It is likely that only one spring has begun to wear. That means that one side of your door is heavier than the other, putting uneven stress on your lift motor. Luckily, rebalancing your door is a simple fix and requires a similar procedure to replacing your springs. By replacing both springs and then rehanging your door, a service person will restore the important balance of your door and ensure that it will wear evenly moving forward.