Who to hire for a garage door that won't open

Short answer

A garage door technician. Check the simple things first — power at the outlet, the safety sensors aligned and clean, and whether the door has been left in manual release mode — but if a spring has broken, stop: garage door torsion springs store enough energy to cause serious injury and they are not a home repair under any circumstances.

Soon, not tonightIt will not usually get cheaper by waiting, and it is rarely worth an after-hours rate.

When it is someone else

Calling the wrong trade costs an attendance fee to be told so. These are the cases where this problem belongs to someone other than a Garage Door Specialist.

  • an electrician

    the outlet the opener is plugged into has no power, or the opener is hardwired.

What to do before anyone arrives

  1. Check the power outlet with something else, and check the circuit at the switchboard.
  2. Look at the photoelectric safety sensors near the floor on each side. A misaligned or dirty sensor stops the door closing and is a very common cause; most openers flash a code when it happens.
  3. Check whether the emergency release cord has been pulled, which disconnects the door from the opener.
  4. Look at the springs above the door. A broken torsion spring shows as a visible gap in the coil. If you see one, do not operate the door, including by hand.
  5. Note whether the opener motor runs without the door moving — that is a different fault from nothing happening at all.

What to ask when you book

  • Is this the opener, the springs, the tracks or the door itself?
  • Do you replace springs in pairs? Replacing one leaves you doing it again shortly.
  • Are the safety sensors and the auto-reverse being tested before you leave?
  • Is the part available for this opener, or is it a replacement unit?

What changes the price

No dollar figures here: this directory holds no price data and an invented range is worse than none. What follows is what makes one of these jobs cost more than the same job next door, which is the part you can actually use when comparing quotes.

  • Opener repair versus replacement.
  • Spring replacement — and whether one or both.
  • Panel or track damage, usually from a car.
  • Whether the door is a tilt, sectional or roller type.

What you can do yourself

Is this licensed work?

Garage door installation and repair is not separately licensed in most states; the electrical connection of an opener is licensed electrical work. Working on torsion springs requires specific tools and training rather than a licence, which is exactly why the competence question matters.

There is no national register. Search the licence number with the regulator for the state the work is happening in.

Licensing thresholds and certificate requirements differ by state and change with amending regulation, so this page describes the mechanism rather than quoting a figure. The regulator’s own page is the current answer.

Common questions

Who should I hire for a garage door that won't open
A garage door technician. Check the simple things first — power at the outlet, the safety sensors aligned and clean, and whether the door has been left in manual release mode — but if a spring has broken, stop: garage door torsion springs store enough energy to cause serious injury and they are not a home repair under any circumstances.
Why does my garage door go down and come straight back up?
Almost always the safety sensors: blocked, dirty, knocked out of alignment, or with a loose wire. The auto-reverse is doing exactly what it is designed to do, and the fix is usually cleaning and realigning two small lenses.
Can I replace a garage door spring myself?
No. Torsion springs are wound under very high tension and releasing that tension without the correct winding bars and technique causes severe injuries every year. It is the clearest example on this site of a job where the tools and training, not the licence, are what stands between a routine repair and a hospital visit.

Find a Garage Door Specialist near you

584 garage door specialists in this directory, ranked on published evidence rather than on advertising.

Who to hire for

General information about who does what, not advice about your specific job. Licensing, consumer law and council rules differ by state and change; the regulator for your state is the current source. More guides to hiring a tradesperson.