Have you ever found yourself thinking ‘gee, I wonder if my garage door is in need of repair?’ Of course you haven’t, and neither has anyone else. Garage doors are one of life’s little conveniences that you never think about…until it stops working, but picture this: its pouring rain and you have 20 bags worth of groceries, (all paper of course). You pull into your driveway, hit the button to open the garage door and…nothing. The damn thing is as dead as Josh Duggar’s political career (or soul, whatever works for you). Looks like ‘fix garage door’ just got added to your to-do list, but how?
Well, the first thing is to figure out if your garage door needs to be fixed, or replaced all together. Once you know what you’re dealing with, you’ll know exactly how to proceed. For example, if it’s a small fix, such as a noisy garage door, there’s a good chance you can handle that yourself. If, on the other hand, your garage door has a major malfunction, it might be time to call in the professionals.
Examples of common garage door issues you can most likely handle yourself are:
 
Noisy garage doors or doors that stick:
Instead of replacing your whole garage door (yikes!), you can probably solve the stuck or noisy garage door problem by just replacing its rollers.
Drafty garage?
Screw in vintage-look sash locks for a tight seal between double-hinges to prevent drafts. (This will also make the garage door gorgeous and trendy!
Can’t get the door closed?
Check the sensors. 
This is one of the sensors.  There are two.  One sends a beam of infra-red light to the other.  If anything interrupts this beam of light, the garage door will not close and the ceiling light on the opener mechanism will flash. This is, of course, a safety feature to prevent the heavy garage door crushing anyone or anything that might be in the pathway of the door when it comes down.  Check to be sure no child’s toy or anything else blocks the path for the infra-red light beam. Simple!
If you’re having garage door problems similar to these, head to Pinterest (or check out the links above) and channel your inner Bob Vila!
However, it’s time to call in reinforcements if:
Door won’t go up:
Garage doors can be very heavy and despite what most people think, it is not the garage door opener that does the heavy lifting, but rather the springs of the door. Doors come with one or two torsion springs. If either spring is broken, the garage door opener may struggle to lift the weight of the door or fail to open the door at all. If the spring is broken, call a professional for service as these can be very dangerous to work with.
Garage door throws a tantrum:
And slams itself! There may be two possibilities for this; the first is a broken tension spring that should be countering the weight of the door and the second is broken cables connecting the tension spring on some doors. In either case, you should have a garage door profession service your door as these can be dangerous components to work with.
If you do find yourself in need of a garage door repair, Whitaker Garage Doors, located in Putnam County, would be more than happy to assist you! We provide our clients with top quality garage door improvement projects at an exceptional value.
We are experts in Garage Door Installation, Garage Door Repairs, Custom Garage Doors, and a variety of other garage door services. We’ve been providing exemplary customer services to homeowners in Westchester, NY, Fairfield and Putnam Counties since 1949.
Beautiful garage doors — both custom and stock — provided by Whitaker may be seen throughout our web site.
If you are looking for something specific or if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at: 914-292-7974 and we will be glad to create the garage door of your dreams!