Garage Door Off Track? Our DIY Home Repair Guide

If your garage door gets stuck, we bet dollars to donuts the garage door has come off track. If this is the case, it’s important to stop using the garage door immediately. If you try to force it, you can cause expensive damage to both the garage door as well as the track. Then this otherwise fairly easy and inexpensive repair can suddenly cost you hundreds of dollars. Bite the bullet and call a professional garage door service.

The good news is you might be able to repair the door yourself, if you are fairly handy with tools. It depends on how off track the door has gotten and whether or not the door or track have been severely damaged. The general rule is if you feel overwhelmed, call in a professional that does garage door repair.

So, call yourself an Uber and get to work. If you don’t think you can repair the garage door yourself, call us. We offer 24/7 emergency garage door repair for the Roseville area.

Reasons Why Doors Go Off Track

If you’re going to fix your own door off track, it might be helpful to understand why you’ve found yourself doing this overhead garage door repair. No one likes to admit it but when we’re rushing out of the garage in the morning, we might be going faster than needed. If you’re backing out of your garage and find yourself hitting the door in a hurry, you’re not the only one. If your car accidently hit the garage door’s tracks, there’s a chance that’s why they’ve gone off track. 

Once your door is back on track, take note of how your garage door opens and closes. Does it shake, jitter, or stutter? There’s a strong chance that the less than smooth operation and movement of your door forced it to go off track. To ensure your garage door doesn’t go on track in the future, you should spend time and tighten down and loose garage door parts. This should help your door open in a less anxious manner. While you’re tightening things down, be sure to lubricate all the moving parts of the garage doors, including the tracks. Doing so will prevent rust from building up. 

Now that you know why your garage door has gone off track, you can start this simple DIY repair. 

Disengage the Chain

To fix a garage door off track, start by separating the automatic garage door opener from the door by pulling on the rope dangling from the chain that connects the door to the opener. Partially raise the door until one set of rollers aligns with the area that’s off track. Use a pair of locking pliers just below the bottom of the door to secure the door in that location.

Get Down to Business

Use a pair of pliers to open up the area of the track that disengaged from the garage door. Guide the rollers back into the track and squeeze the track back into place. Place a block of wood in the track to work as a buffer as you use either pliers or a nail to bend the track back into shape.

Remove the locking pliers and lower the door back to the ground. Work the door’s remote control to close the door. The release chain should automatically catch.

Work the door up and down to see if it is working properly. This way you can know if the garage door repair was done correctly. Pay attention to any rollers that are catching and straighten that area of the track. Once the door opens smoothly, congratulate yourself on a DIY repair job well done.

As you can tell, the repair can be complicated and cumbersome. If this is the case, do yourself a favor and call a garage door repair professional. The best garage door repair companies will be able to fix a door off track with relative ease, freeing up the afternoon you otherwise had planned fixing it yourself. By working with overhead door professionals, you’ll be able to rest easy knowing that the job will be done and the repair won’t arise in the future. Be sure to ask your repair company why your door went off track in the first place and if they have any DIY repairs or maintenance tips for the future. 

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