Same-day emergency garage door repair
A door stuck open is a hole in the side of your house. A door stuck closed with a car behind it is a morning ruined. Both go to the front of the queue. Call (905) 536-5369, say which one you have, and say if a vehicle is trapped.
Stuck closed, and the car is inside
Nearly every automatic opener has a manual release, the red cord hanging from the trolley. Used correctly it lets you lift the door by hand. Used at the wrong moment it drops the door.
- Only pull the release with the door fully closed. Pulling it while the door is part way up removes the opener's hold on a door that may not be counterbalanced, and the door can come down hard.
- Check the spring first. Look at the spring on the bar above the door. If there is a gap in the coil, the counterbalance is gone and the door will be extremely heavy. Do not try to lift it. Call and wait.
- If the spring is intact, lift the door by hand, evenly, using the handles or gripping points. Never grip the joint between two sections: that gap closes as the door moves and it is how people lose fingertips.
- Prop or hold the door while the car comes out. A door released from the opener will not stay up on its own if the balance is off.
- Leave the opener disconnected until it has been looked at, and unplug it if anyone might press a button.
The section-to-section joint is not a handhold. DASMA states it directly: "The section-to-section joint is not a suitable gripping point. Gripping the door in this area could result in serious injury."
Residential sectional doors are required by ANSI/DASMA 116 to have four handles or suitable gripping points, two inside and two outside, placed within eight inches of the bottom edge of the bottom section and on the second or third section, lined up vertically. Use those.
Stuck open
This is a security problem, and it is the one we prioritise hardest. What to do in the meantime depends on why it is open:
- Power cut, door open. Pull the release and lower the door by hand, slowly, keeping hands off the section joints. Then re-secure or lock it if your door has a manual lock.
- Broken spring, door open. Do not lower it by hand. Without counterbalance the door will come down at its full weight. Leave it and call.
- Door off track, jammed part way. Do not run the opener and do not force it. Unplug the opener and call.
- Opener runs but the door does not move. Usually a stripped gear or a failed trolley. The door can normally be released and closed by hand.
What counts as an emergency here
Door stuck open
The house is open. First priority, day or evening.
Car trapped and needed
Say this on the phone and it changes the order of the day.
Broken spring
The door is unusable and unsafe to move. Parts come on the truck.
Snapped cable, door crooked
The door is being held by one side. It should not be operated at all.
Door off the track
Every attempt to run it makes the repair bigger.
Impact damage
Backed into, or hit by something. The door may look fine and be structurally compromised.
What we can usually do the same day
Springs, cables, rollers, hinges, brackets and most opener repairs are stock parts carried on the truck, which is why same-day is realistic on those. A new door, or a replacement section in a specific colour and panel design, is an order, not a same-day fix; in that case the job becomes making the opening secure now and fitting the door when it arrives.
Distance is the honest limit
We dispatch from 6 Chestnut Dr in Grimsby. Grimsby, Beamsville and Stoney Creek are minutes away. Hamilton, Burlington, Ancaster, Dundas, Waterdown, Binbrook and St. Catharines are a QEW or escarpment run, and the window depends on the time of day as much as anything. If we cannot get there when you need us, we will say so on the phone rather than leaving you waiting.