Repair or Replace Your Garage Door? How to Decide

Most garage doors that stop working are not worn out. Something on them broke. A spring snapped, a cable frayed, a roller cracked or the door came off its track, and the sections themselves are still straight and sound. Those are repairs, and they cost a fraction of a new door.

Sometimes the door really is finished. Here is how to tell, what a new door typically costs, and who does which job.

Is the problem the door or the hardware?

A sectional garage door has two halves. There are the sections you see from the street, and there is the hardware that moves them: springs, lift cables and drums, rollers and hinges, tracks and the opener. Nearly all of the hardware can be replaced part by part.

The sections are the door. When they are bent, rotted or rusted through, new hardware will not make the door right.

When does repair make sense?

Repair is almost always the right call when:

• A spring broke. A torsion spring that snaps leaves a gap of about two inches in the coil, and the door suddenly feels far too heavy to lift. New springs sized to your door fix it. See spring replacement.
• A cable frayed or came off the drum. One side drops and the door hangs crooked. New cables, and new drums if the grooves are worn, put it right. See cable and drum replacement.
• Rollers or hinges wore out. Grinding, wobbling and cracked hinges are normal wear on doors with original steel rollers. See rollers and hinges.
• The door came off its track. If the sections are not creased, an off-track repair usually saves the door.
• One section is dented. If the maker still produces your panel design, size and color, one section can be measured, ordered and swapped. See panel and section replacement.
• The opener failed. A dead opener is its own decision, covered in the opener repair or replace guide.

When replacement makes more sense

A new door is usually the better use of money when:

• Several sections are creased or buckled. A car that backs into a closed door often bends two or three sections at once. Once more than one section needs replacing, the cost climbs toward a new door, and a door of mixed old and new sections rarely matches.
• The wood is rotted. Wood doors that sit in sprinkler spray or sea air soften at the bottom rail and around the hardware. Screws stop holding, and new hinges or brackets have nothing solid to bite into.
• The bottom section has rusted through. On steel doors near the coast, the inside face of the bottom section can rust from the lower edge up. When the steel is perforated where the bottom bracket mounts, the bracket has nothing safe to hold.
• You are retiring a one-piece tilt-up. Many homes built from the 1950s to the 1970s still have a one-piece tilt-up door on pivot hardware. Parts are still available for most, and we repair them. But if the jamb is rotted, or you want a sectional door with insulation and a standard opener, that conversion is a new door project.
• Your panel design is discontinued. If no matching section exists, a single dent becomes a choice between living with it and replacing the door.

Repair or replace: a quick comparison

A useful rule of thumb: if a repair quote nears half the price of a new door, and more repairs are likely to follow, get a replacement quote too.

What does a new garage door typically cost?

National cost guides give a starting point. This Old House puts a one-car door at about $1,093 to $1,674 and a two-car door at about $2,186 to $3,348. Homewyse estimates a basic installed door at about $1,000 to $1,600 per door, and Bob Vila reports a wider range of $1,500 to $6,000 with an average around $2,500.

Size, insulation, style and local labor all move the price, so a new door here is priced from a measured quote by a licensed contractor. Custom wood, carriage-style and full-view glass doors cost more than standard steel.

Compare that with a typical San Diego price for a pair of torsion springs, about $300 to $600 including parts and labor, and you can see why a sound door is worth repairing. Our own repair prices are on our pricing page.

Plan for one more cost. Since July 1, 2019, California law does not allow a replacement garage door to be connected to an existing opener that lacks battery backup. If your opener has no backup battery, budget for a new opener as well. The battery backup law guide explains the rule.

Who does which job

We repair doors. We do not sell or install new ones, and that is deliberate.

We are not a licensed contractor. Garage door repairs under $1,000 in labor and materials do not require a California contractor license (Business and Professions Code section 7048), and we stay inside that line. A new garage door is a job for a licensed contractor, and we say so.

If your door is past repair, we tell you plainly and refer the replacement. If it is worth saving, we fix the hardware.

Before you decide: what you can safely check

A safety warning first. Never unwind, adjust or remove a torsion or extension spring, a lift cable, a cable drum or a bottom bracket. They hold enough tension to cause serious injury. Never run the opener with a broken spring or a snapped cable, and keep everyone out from under a door that is crooked or jammed. The safe checks are the power, the lock and manual release, the remote battery, the sensor lights and a visual look at the springs and cables.

These checks are safe and tell you a lot:

1. Look at the springs from the floor. A torsion spring above the door with a gap of about two inches in the coil is broken. That is a repair.
2. Look at the cables. Frayed strands near the bottom brackets, or a slack cable on one side, is a repair.
3. Look at the sections from inside. Creases running across a section, cracks at the hinge screws, or rust holes along the bottom edge are door problems.
4. Press the wood. On a wood door, press the bottom rail with your thumb, well away from the bottom brackets. Soft, spongy wood means rot.
5. Read the opener label. The model on the motor head tells you whether it has battery backup, which matters for any replacement quote.

Across San Diego

The question looks different across the county. In Clairemont, built mostly in the 1950s and 1960s, you still find one-piece tilt-up doors, and owners weigh keeping a working original against a conversion. Near the water in Oceanside, rust at the bottom section and bottom brackets is usually what decides it. Inland, in places like Santee, a sun-faded but straight steel sectional with worn hardware is a repair, not a replacement.

Next step

If your door is straight and the trouble is a spring, a cable or the track, book a garage door repair and we will fix the hardware. Not sure which side of the line you are on? Send photos of the door from inside and outside through the quote form, and we will tell you whether it is a repair or a referral before we come out.