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 Des Moines
Garage door repair · Des Moines, IA
Cold mornings and straight-line wind account for most Des Moines door failures.
Cold mornings and straight-line wind account for most Des Moines door failures. Say what yours is doing and see the price before work starts.
12 repairs coveredFree to askPrice before work
Do you cover Des Moines?Yes — right across it
Beaverdale, Sherman Hill, Waveland Park, 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
When the seal freezes down, your opener has no idea.
An opener can't tell the difference between a heavy door and a door that's stuck to the slab. It applies force until either the ice lets go or something else does, and the something else is usually a gear, a cable, or the top section pulling out of shape. One press is all it takes.
If a door groans and doesn't move on a cold morning, stop there. Tell us what it did and how cold it was, and measure the opening before anyone talks about a new door. What it needs and what it costs is agreed with you first.
Get my door fixedWhere we work
How does the garage sit?
Sherman Hill and Drake garages sit back off the alley; Beaverdale and Waveland Park face the drive. Say which and how wide the opening is.
- BeaverdaleBrick one-and-a-half story houses set back from the street, most served by a long single-width drive to a narrow garage opening built for a smaller car.
- Sherman HillOlder Victorian housing on tight lots close to downtown, where garages sit behind the houses and a work vehicle often cannot get near the door.
- Waveland ParkComparable older stock on modest lots, with detached garages at the rear and drives running the full length of the house.
- DrakeDense older housing around the university with small lots, shared drives and limited clearance at the sides of a garage opening.
- Merle HayLater suburban housing on the north side with attached garages facing the street and open exposure to wind off flat ground.
- Lower BeaverNewer suburban streets on the northern edge, mostly attached double garages with long open driveways and little shelter.
Just outside Des Moines?
Plenty of the work we take isn't in Des Moines proper. These are the towns around it and what tends to be different about a door there.
- West Des MoinesWest, older tract housing near the middle and newer subdivisions further out with wide attached doubles.
- AnkenyNorth, fast newer building where a whole street can reach the same spring failure in the same winter.
- UrbandaleNorthwest, post-war housing with attached garages and openers that have run a long time without service.
- JohnstonNorthwest, newer subdivisions on open ground where blowing snow packs into the bottom track.
- AltoonaNortheast, small-town housing giving way to newer streets, so openings vary more than the address suggests.
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 Des Moines and the wider Iowa area, and the address you send is what actually gets checked.Check my address
Repairs in Des Moines
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 includedDes Moines guide
What tends to go wrong here.
Measure the opening before anyone talks about a new door
The brick houses through Beaverdale were mostly built with one narrow garage opening at the end of a long drive, and a great many still have it. Much of Waveland Park runs the same way. A single opening sized for a compact car is not the same job as a double, and a stock door doesn't simply drop into it.
Sherman Hill is harder again: the garages sit behind the houses on tight lots and a van often can't get within reach. In Drake the drives are frequently shared, so there's a neighbor to consider. None of this changes what failed, only how long the visit runs and what has to be carried in. Tell us the rough width of the opening and how close a vehicle can park.
When the seal freezes down, the opener has no idea
Thaw and refreeze does most of the winter damage in this city. Snow melts against the bottom rubber during a bright afternoon, locks to the slab overnight, and the first press in the morning has a motor pulling a door that isn't going anywhere. What breaks is usually a plastic gear, a cable off its drum, or the top section.
So stop after that first press. Let the slab warm, or break the seal by hand if you can reach it standing upright. Then tell us how cold it was, what the opener sounded like, and whether the door moved at all. That's what separates a frozen seal from a spring already close to done.
Check the door after the wind, not only the shingles
Storms cross central Iowa as a straight line of wind far more often than as anything you'd call a tornado, and a garage door is the widest unsupported surface on most houses. The newer streets past Merle Hay and up through Lower Beaver put wide double doors in front of open ground.
Wind bends a door inside its opening rather than pushing it in, and the sign is a rub, a bind, or a door sitting crooked in the track. Hail is separate: a mark in the skin is cosmetic, a crease across a section isn't. Tell us which direction the door faces and when the weather came through.
What we need from you, and what comes back
Cross streets, single or double, attached or a garage out back, and what the door did. How far it moved, the noise it made, and whether a car is shut in. You don't need to work out which part broke, and a diagnosis made over text is how people buy openers they didn't need.
Photos from where you're standing help. Leave the ladder alone. Send it before 5 p.m. on a weekday and a person replies the same business day, otherwise the next business morning. A technician then confirms the scope and the cost, and nothing happens until you've agreed to it.
Most common around Des Moines
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 itDes Moines questions
Asked before anyone books anything.
My door will not open and the car is stuck inside. What can I do right now?
Say so when you contact us, because a trapped car changes how urgent this is. Do not keep hammering the button; if the door is jammed, every attempt adds damage. Most Des Moines garages have a service door or an interior door to the house you can use in the meantime. Tell us how far the door moved and what you heard.
The door will not close unless I hold the wall button down.
That is the safety system working, not failing. Holding the button forces a closure that the sensors were refusing, which is exactly why you should not rely on it. Look at the two lights near the floor and tell us if they are steady, blinking or dead, and whether a bracket has been knocked. Never tape a sensor or wire around it.
There is a gap in the coiled spring above my door. Is it safe to use?
No. A gap means the spring has snapped, and the door is now dead weight on cables and brackets that were not built to hold it. Leave the door alone, keep people and pets away from underneath, and do not try to lift it or wind anything. Tell us whether the door is up, down or partway, because that affects how a technician approaches it.
One sensor light keeps blinking after I swept the garage. Did I knock it?
Very likely. The brackets sit at ankle height and a broom, a bike or a snow shovel moves them easily. A blinking light generally means the pair are no longer aimed at each other, or a lens has picked up dust. Wipe them gently, look at whether either bracket is bent, and tell us what the lights do. Do not bypass them to get the door shut.
Nothing happens when I press the button. No noise at all.
Silence points somewhere different from a hum. Check the opener is still plugged in and that the breaker for the garage has not tripped, which happens more than you would think after an Iowa storm. If the wall button does nothing but the remote does, or the other way round, tell us that. It narrows things down before anyone travels.
How do I avoid being talked into a whole new door?
Ask for the scope in writing before work starts, and you will get it. The technician explains what failed, what the repair involves and what it costs, and you can decline. If a full replacement is being suggested, ask what specifically cannot be repaired. We do not take payment through this site and asking costs nothing.
Des Moines, IA
Stop the Des Moines door before it breaks itself.
What the door did on that first press, the temperature, and your cross streets. Price and scope agreed before anyone starts.