Before you call about a garage door

The number on this site schedules a visit. It connects you to an independent garage door provider in your area, or to a company that books appointments for providers, and the point of the call is to set a time for someone to come and look at the door.

Who the line is for

It takes calls about repairing, replacing and installing garage doors and openers, from owners and from renters, at homes and at commercial buildings such as shops and offices.

It is not for buying parts or for a price over the phone without a visit. A garage door price depends on what the technician finds: the type of spring, whether one or both are replaced, the weight of the door, the state of the cables and rollers, the opener. A number given before anyone has seen the door is a guess.

What you will be asked

Have these ready and the call is short:

• What stopped working, in a sentence: a bang and then the door would not lift, a crooked door, a door that goes back up.
• The door: panels or one solid piece, one car wide or two, and roughly how old.
• The springs: a coil on a bar above the door, or springs along the tracks, and whether one has a gap.
• The opener: the name on the motor housing and roughly its age.
• Right now: whether the door is open or closed, and whether a car is inside.

What to check before work starts

The Federal Trade Commission's advice for any home repair applies to garage doors:

Consider only contractors who are licensed and insured. Check with your state or county government to confirm a contractor's license, and ask the contractor for proof of insurance.

— FTC, How To Avoid a Home Improvement Scam

Licensing differs by state, and in several states garage door work has no state license of its own. Each state's page on this site says what we found and links to the registry where there is one. The same FTC page warns: "Scammers ask you to pay for everything up front or only accept cash."

If you are sold more than the repair

A repair visit you asked for is excluded from the FTC's Cooling-Off Rule. A new door or a new opener sold in your home on that visit is not: "Things you buy beyond that repair or maintenance request are covered." For purchases for household use, that can mean three business days to cancel, and the seller has to tell you in writing; a handwritten statement that the work is an emergency waives it.

When the work is done

The federal text in every residential opener's manual asks owners to test the opener monthly, with a 2-by-4 laid flat under the door, and says the door "MUST reverse on contact" (16 CFR 1211.16(b)(2)). Run that test with the technician before they leave. See the reverse test.

About the call itself

Calls may be recorded by the parties that carry and answer them. Describing the problem commits you to nothing; nothing is scheduled until you agree to a time. How this site is paid is explained on its own page.

Updated 2026-09-30.