Professional garage door repair companies hear this question frequently. It seems like it almost always happens to most people as they are about to leave for work, or when they arrive home from a long day. I suppose that being locked out of the garage would be the better of the two previous options. However if you are experiencing this problem, you do have options!
There are several things that you can check for that may be an immediate fix to the problem. First, you can confirm that the garage door opener is receiving power. If it is not, there are two simple things to check for.
Many garages have a GFCI plug system, and all the outlets in the garage are on the same circuit. Once you have located the GFCI plug, try pushing the reset button. If this doesn't work, try checking your circuit breakers. Since many people run freezers, refrigerators, tools, and exercise equipment in the garage, you may have overloaded the breaker.
If neither of these two options corrects the problem, and you have confirmed that the garage door opener is not working, try disengaging the garage door opener from the garage door. This is accomplished by pulling on the emergency release rope that is attached to the trolley on the garage door opener rail.
After disengaging the opener, you should be able to open the door freely. If you determine that the opener is not the problem, your options become a little less appealing.
After ruling out the opener as the problem, you will need to move on to the garage door itself. Take a couple of minutes and try to determine if there seems to be anything loose or broken on the garage door. Look for rollers out of track, cables off of their pulleys, and broken springs.
If you are able to locate one of these problems, you must determine if your do it yourself skills will allow you to quickly make the necessary repairs. Before you make any repairs, make sure that you take the necessary time to determine the safety of making the repair yourself.
Cables and springs are under tremendous amounts of pressure, in order to counterbalance the weight of the door and can cause serious injury if you do not have the proper tools and expertise required to manipulate them.
If you determine that the repair is beyond your abilities, you should know that there are many service companies that are able to help you with your problem rather quickly. Most garage repairs can be completed in less than thirty minutes by an experienced repair technician with the proper tools and parts.
Now is the time to be especially careful. Most areas have a large selection of garage door repair service companies to choose from. Some of these will take advantage of your need for immediate service, if you do not take the time to check them out.
