Why Has My Garage Door Come Off Its Track?

Make it safe and call, rather than fixing it yourself. If a broom or a stone caused it and the roller is only just off the edge of the channel, clearing the object is as far as we suggest going; getting the roller back in still means taking the load off the door, and that load is spring and cable tension you cannot see. A bent track, a door hanging crooked, a cable off its drum or a roller out at the top curve is a technician's job with a second pair of hands and the right tools. We repair off-track garage doors across Perth, same day, and we check the track, rollers and cables together rather than just pushing the roller back in.

Six things account for nearly every off-track door we see. An object or a build-up of sand in the rail stops a roller and the opener drags it out. A car, a bike or a ladder hits the door and bends a panel or the track. A lift cable snaps or slips its drum and one side drops. A roller wears flat or loses its bearing and rides the lip of the track. A bracket loosens and the track drifts out of line. Or a gust catches a wide door mid-cycle and skews it. The first two are one-off events; the other four build up over time and usually show up as a noisy or jerky door before the roller finally leaves the rail.

No. Once a roller is out, that corner of the door has nothing holding it to the track, and every cycle asks the opener to drag an unguided door through the opening. The usual results are a track bent further, a panel folded or split, a cable jumping its drum, or the door dropping. If it is stuck open and the house is exposed, or stuck down with the car inside, treat it as an emergency garage door call-out and leave the opener off until someone arrives. If the door is down and resting on the floor, it can wait for a booked visit; just keep everyone clear of it in the meantime.

It depends on what actually failed, and we can only tell you that once we have seen the door. A roller re-seated and the track re-aligned is the small end of the job. Worn rollers replaced as a set, a bent section of track straightened or replaced, or a snapped cable and its partner fitted new sit further up, and a door that has dropped hard enough to crease a panel may need that panel replaced as well. The door type and size and whether it is an after-hours call also count. The quote is free, there is no call-out fee, and we give you the price for the whole job before we start on it.

There is no single figure, because the door, the opener and the springs each age at their own pace. A steel roller or sectional door that is serviced and kept out of the worst of the weather can stay in use for a couple of decades or more; the springs, cables, rollers and opener that move it are usually replaced at least once within that time. Doors on the coast from Scarborough to Fremantle age faster because salt in the sea breeze attacks springs, cables and fixings, and a west-facing door cops the afternoon sun year after year. Rollers and track brackets are the parts that put a door off its track, and both are checked on a routine visit, so our guide to how often a garage door should be serviced is the best way to stretch the door's life and catch a worn roller before it jumps the rail.