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 Portland
Garage door repair · Portland, OR
A long wet winter is hard on a Portland garage door.
A long wet winter is hard on a Portland garage door. Tell us what yours is doing and see the fault and the price before work.
12 repairs coveredFree to askPrice before work
Do you cover Portland?Yes — right across it
Laurelhurst, Eastmoreland, Sellwood, 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
Damp gets into the bottom of a Portland wood door first.
Months of wet leave the lowest section heavier and softer than the rest of the door, and the balance shifts with it. The opener compensates until it can't, and the failure looks like a motor problem when it's a weight problem. Around Sellwood and Laurelhurst that's most of the winter work.
Measure the opening before anyone sells you a new door, because these garages aren't standard sizes. Say how close a truck can get, what the door is made of, and what it's doing. Price agreed with you before work starts.
Get my door fixedWhere we work
How close can a truck get?
Alberta Arts and St. Johns run tight streets and narrow drives; Eastmoreland has more room. Say which, and what the door is made of.
- LaurelhurstCraftsman and Foursquare houses from the early 1900s, many still hanging their original wood garage doors that swell through the wet season.
- EastmorelandLarge pre-war houses on generous lots with detached garages set well back; wood doors and original hardware are common here.
- SellwoodNarrow lots with a single detached garage at the rear, reached down a strip driveway barely wider than a car.
- Alberta Arts DistrictBungalows and Foursquares on a tight grid where a good number of blocks still take garage access from the alley behind the houses.
- St. JohnsOlder, smaller houses with narrow single-car garages, low headers and very little clear space above the door for track and hardware.
Just outside Portland?
Plenty of the work we take isn't in Portland proper. These are the towns around it and what tends to be different about a door there.
- BeavertonWest over the hills, post-war and later subdivisions where damp keeps rollers and hinges from ever drying out.
- GreshamEast, older housing with detached garages alongside newer streets, and wind straight out of the gorge.
- HillsboroWest on the flat. Newer streets where damp gets into everything, and rollers seize long before a spring gives out.
- TigardSouthwest, mid-century tract housing with attached garages and openers well past their design life.
- Lake OswegoSouth, older homes on steep wooded lots where the drive drops sharply and debris finds the track.
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 Portland and the wider Oregon area, and the address you send is what actually gets checked.Check my address
Repairs in Portland
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 includedPortland guide
What tends to go wrong here.
Damp gets into the bottom of a wood door first
Portland's wet season runs long enough that a wood garage door never fully dries out. Water wicks up the bottom rail, the panel swells, and the door starts dragging in the tracks or sitting unevenly on the slab. Laurelhurst and Eastmoreland still have plenty of original wood doors on Craftsman and Foursquare houses, and those turn heavy by February.
A swollen door pulls harder than the opener was ever set for, so the part that gives out is often the opener rather than the door. If yours is groaning, reversing partway down, or leaving a strip of daylight at one corner, say so, and tell us whether the door is wood or steel. That's the difference between adjusting hardware and a real conversation about the panel.
Tell us how close a truck can get to your garage
Much of Portland's older housing sits on a narrow lot with the garage pushed to the back. In Sellwood you'll often find a single detached garage at the end of a strip driveway barely wider than a car, and around the Alberta Arts District a fair number of blocks still take access from the alley.
That doesn't change what's wrong with your door. It does change the job, because sections, springs and track get carried in by hand when the truck has to stay out on the street. Tell us whether there's a driveway, an alley, or neither, and whether a car is sitting in front of the door right now.
Measure the opening before anyone sells you a new door
Garages in the older parts of the city were sized for much smaller cars, and the opening never grew to match. St. Johns still has plenty of narrow single-car garages where the header sits low and there is barely any room above the door for track and hardware.
Headroom decides which track and which opener will physically fit, and a stock door won't always drop into an old opening without work on the jambs first. If you're weighing a repair against a replacement, measure the width of the opening and the space above it, and send both numbers with your note.
What to put in your first message about a Portland door
Give us the nearest cross streets, whether the garage is attached or out the back, whether it's a single or a double, and what the door actually did: where it stopped, what you heard, and whether a car is shut in behind it. You don't have to work out which part failed. Guessing that from the driveway is how people end up buying an opener they never needed.
A photo taken from where you're standing helps, and nobody needs you on a ladder. Requests that arrive before 5 p.m. local on a weekday get an answer from a person the same business day, and the technician who takes it confirms the scope and the cost with you before starting.
Most common around Portland
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 itPortland questions
Asked before anyone books anything.
My garage door lifts a few inches and stops. What now?
Stop trying it. A door that moves and then quits is being held by something, usually a broken spring taking the weight, a cable off its drum, or a roller out of the track, and every extra press adds damage. Leave it where it is, keep everyone out from under it, and don't touch the springs, cables or the brackets at the bottom corners. Tell us how far it got and what you heard.
The door goes down a foot and comes straight back up.
The opener is reversing because something told it to. Most of the time that's the safety beams across the floor or an obstruction in the track, and in a Portland garage it's often wet leaves and grit packed into the bottom track over winter. Look along the floor first. Don't hold the button down to force it shut.
Something snapped in the garage and now I can't lift the door by hand.
That's almost certainly a spring, and it's the one job to leave completely alone. The whole weight of the door is now sitting on parts that were never meant to hold it. Park outside, keep children and pets away from the opening, and don't try to lift, prop or wedge it.
One of the little lights down by the floor is out. Is that the problem?
Probably. Those two eyes have to see each other before the door will close on its own, and a knocked bracket, a spider web or condensation on the lens will break the beam. Wipe them gently, check nothing is leaning against either one, and tell us which light is dark and whether the other is steady or blinking. Never tape over them or bypass them.
The opener hums but the door doesn't move at all.
That hum means the motor has power and something between it and the door has let go, commonly a stripped drive gear, a detached trolley, or a door gone too heavy because a spring failed. Pull the release cord only while the door is already closed, because if a spring is broken the door will drop. Then tell us whether it moves freely by hand.
Will I get a price before someone starts pulling things apart?
Yes. The technician looks at the door, tells you what failed and what it takes to fix, and puts the scope and the price in front of you before any work begins. You're free to say no. There's no charge for asking and no payment is taken through this site.
Portland, OR
What to put in your first Portland message.
The material, the access, and what the door does when wet. Scope and price are agreed with you before anyone starts.