General repair
Garage Door Repair
Tell us what the door is doing and we'll get it in front of someone who can fix it — with the price agreed before the work starts.
See what's includedRepairs across Chicago
Garage door repair · Chicago, IL
Nearly every Chicago garage stands on its own at the alley, and winter finds it.
Nearly every Chicago garage stands on its own at the alley, and winter finds it. Say what yours is doing and see the price before work starts.
12 repairs coveredFree to askPrice before work
Do you cover Chicago?Yes — right across it
Portage Park, Norwood Park, Beverly, and the streets either side of them.
What can I get done?12 residential repairs
Springs, cables, openers, sensors, tracks, panels, seals, and full replacements.
What will it cost?Agreed before anything is touched
You hear what failed and what it costs first. Saying no at that point costs you nothing.
How fast?A person replies the same day
Ask before 5 p.m. on a weekday and you hear back that business day.
Why us for this door
A detached Chicago garage sits at alley temperature all winter.
There's no heat leaking into a garage that touches nothing, so by January the springs, the grease and the opener are all running at whatever the alley is running at. Cold steel is less forgiving, cold grease is thicker, and a spring that was borderline in October goes on the first genuinely brutal morning.
The alley matters just as much for getting the work done, because in February it narrows to one lane between snow piles. Say which block and what is built above the garage. What it takes and what it costs are put to you before starting.
Get my door fixedWhere we work
Which alley, and what is on top of the garage?
Portage Park and Norwood Park run standard detached garages; Logan Square and Bridgeport often have a deck or a coach house above. Say which.
- Portage ParkBrick bungalow blocks on the northwest side where nearly every house has a detached single-width garage entered from the alley behind the yard.
- Norwood ParkOlder commuter-era houses mixed with bungalows on the far northwest side, again with detached garages served by alleys rather than driveways.
- BeverlyWell-kept bungalow blocks alongside larger Tudor-style houses on the far south side, giving a wide range of opening sizes on the same street.
- Logan SquareTwo-flats and three-flats on narrow lots, often with a coach house or shared rear structure, so ownership of the garage is not always obvious.
- BridgeportCompact older houses and flats on small lots with tight alleys and rear structures that frequently carry something built on the roof.
- Garfield RidgeNineteen-fifties and sixties ranches and Cape Cods on narrow platted lots with alleys, with detached garages that sit at outdoor temperature all winter.
Just outside Chicago?
Plenty of the work we take isn't in Chicago proper. These are the towns around it and what tends to be different about a door there.
- CiceroJust west, dense older housing where garages sit off the alley behind the house and a van cannot get anywhere near the door.
- EvanstonNorth along the lake, older homes with detached garages at the back of deep lots and openings too narrow for a modern car.
- SkokieNorth, post-war brick housing with detached garages off shared alleys, and road salt working on the bottom of the door all winter.
- NapervilleWest, largely newer subdivisions where attached doubles were hung close enough together to reach the same failures together.
- Arlington HeightsNorthwest, mid-century tract housing with attached garages and openers running years past what they were built for.
Don't see your street or your town? These are the places where the housing changes enough to change the job — not the edge of where we go, and not a promise about your exact address either. We take work across Chicago and the wider Illinois area, and the address you send is what actually gets checked.Check my address
Repairs in Chicago
Pick by what the door is doing.
Springs and balance
Garage Door Spring Repair
If your door suddenly weighs a couple hundred pounds, a spring has almost certainly let go. Leave it down, keep everyone clear, and let someone with the right winding bars deal with it.
See what's included
Cables and drums
Garage Door Cable & Drum Repair
One corner sitting lower, or a cable hanging off its drum, means the lift system is out of balance. It wants looking at before the next cycle, not after.
See what's included
Tracks, rollers, hardware
Track, Roller & Hardware Repair
Grinding in the same spot, a door that shakes the whole wall, a roller creeping out of its track — all cheap to sort now, all expensive once the door comes off.
See what's included
Off-track and stuck
Off-Track & Stuck Door Repair
Every extra cycle bends another panel and drags more cable out of line. Leave it where it is, keep the opening clear, and get it stabilized properly.
See what's included
Openers
Garage Door Opener Repair
Motors take the blame for dead springs constantly. Worth knowing which one you've got before you buy an opener you didn't need.
See what's includedChicago guide
What tends to go wrong here.
In February a Chicago alley narrows to a single lane
Most of the city parks at the back and the way in is the alley. That is fine in June. By February the plows and the neighbors have pushed snow to both sides, the drivable width shrinks to one car, and the apron in front of your door collects a ridge of ice that nothing short of a spade will shift.
None of that changes what is wrong with the door, but it changes the visit. A technician needs somewhere to stand and a clear strip of slab to see how the door sits. Clear the apron if you can, and tell us whether the alley behind you is paved, whether it is blocked, and whether a truck can pull in.
Tell us what is built on top of the garage
Chicago garages carry more than cars. Roof decks, stair towers, pergolas and solar panels all end up on a structure that started life as a plain frame box, and each changes what a technician can do overhead and how the building takes load.
Ownership is the other question. On the two-flat and coach-house lots through Logan Square and Bridgeport the garage may be shared, or may belong to the building rather than to you, and whoever approves a repair isn’t always the one standing in the alley. Settle that first. And if a bungalow opening in Portage Park, Norwood Park or Beverly has been widened, say so, because a widened opening rarely ends up square.
A detached garage sits at alley temperature all winter
An attached garage borrows a little warmth from the house. A garage across the yard borrows nothing, so the springs, the rollers and the opener spend January at whatever it is outside. Grease stiffens, the door gets heavier, and a motor that learned this door in summer starts hitting its limit and reversing.
Salt is the other half of it. Brine off the streets drips from the car onto the slab and goes after the bottom brackets and the lower cable ends, which are exactly the parts carrying the door’s weight. Look along the bottom foot for rust before you decide the motor is at fault. The Garfield Ridge blocks see plenty of this.
Give us the block, the alley, and what the door did
Nearest cross streets, whether the garage is attached or out on the alley, single or double, and what happened — where the door stopped, the noise it made, and whether a car is stuck inside. You don’t need to name the broken part. That is the technician’s job, and a guess from a description is how people buy openers they didn’t need.
Photos from ground level are useful; don’t climb for them. Send it before 5 p.m. on a weekday and you will hear back from a person the same business day, otherwise the next business morning. A technician confirms the scope and the price before starting.
Most common around Chicago
Know when to stop using the door.
Don't wait
Door will not close
The door stays open, stops, or will not begin closing.
What to do about itStop using the door
Broken torsion spring
A gap appears in the spring above the door or a loud bang precedes a heavy door.
What to do about itDon't wait
Blocked or misaligned safety sensors
Sensor lights blink or the door will not close from a remote.
What to do about itDon't wait
Opener does not operate
The opener is silent, hums, or runs without moving the door.
What to do about itBook it in
Pricing and written quote clarity
The customer wants scope, parts, labor, fees, and alternatives in writing.
What to do about itChicago questions
Asked before anyone books anything.
The door froze to the slab and now it will only open a few inches.
Stop using the opener. When ice holds the seal down, the motor keeps pulling and the damage moves up into the gears, the cables or the top section. Break the bond by hand if you can do it safely from a standing position, or wait for a thaw. Then tell us how far it moves now and what noise it makes doing it — that describes the damage better than a guess would.
It closes halfway then goes back up. The alley is full of snow.
Start with the slab. Packed snow or an ice ridge under the door will stop it seating and send it straight back up, and a snow shovel leaned against a safety eye will do the same. Clear the bottom track, check both lights near the floor are steady, and tell us whether it reverses at the same height every time.
I heard a bang in the garage and the door will not lift at all now.
That is a spring, and it is the repair to leave alone. With the spring gone, the whole weight of the door is sitting on cables and brackets that were never meant to carry it. Leave the door where it is, keep people and pets out of the garage, and don’t try to force it up to get the car out onto the alley.
My detached garage has no power to the opener. Who fixes that?
Depends where the fault is. If the opener is dead and the light does not come on, check the outlet with something else and check the breaker in the house, because many older garages run off a single circuit from the building. A technician will sort the door and the opener, but a genuine wiring fault out to the structure is an electrician’s job. Tell us what the outlet does and we will point you the right way.
Do I need a permit to have my garage door replaced?
That is a question for the city rather than for us, and the answer can differ for a door swap against structural work on the garage itself. Ask before you commit, and ask the technician to put in writing what they are doing and what they are not. Do not take a verbal assurance about permits from anyone.
Will the price be agreed before anyone starts?
Yes. The technician looks at the door, explains what failed, and gives you the scope and the price before any work happens. You can say no. Using this site costs nothing and no payment is taken through it.
Chicago, IL
Get the Chicago garage sorted before the freeze.
Block, alley access, and what the door did on that last press. Scope and price are agreed with you before anyone starts.