What we fix on both sides of the river, what to expect when the truck pulls up, and the promises behind it, for doors that have to work through deep freezes.
Tell us what the door is doing. The estimate is free and precedes everything else.
Broken springs are the call we take most in the cold months. A spring that has run through most of its cycles often gives out on the first below-zero morning, when the steel is least forgiving, and the door that went up fine the night before won't budge.
The spring replacement page walks through the process, and why springs on a two-spring door are always swapped as a set.
When one corner is iced to the concrete and the opener pulls, the other side lifts alone. The cable on the frozen side goes slack, jumps its drum, and the door hangs crooked in the opening.
If a door starts up unevenly on a cold morning, stop it, and don't try to force the frozen side free. A door in that state is an off-track repair, and forcing it bends track.
Detached garages on the alleys of the older neighborhoods get no heat at all. Rollers stiffen, grease turns to wax, and the opener labors to move a door that feels twice as heavy as it did in July.
Sealed nylon rollers and a low-temperature lubricant help a great deal, and the cable and roller repair page has the details. A lighter door also suits those garages well; a new door there doesn't need to be heavy to last.
Summer storms throw branches and hail at doors. A dent near a hinge or along the bottom can pull a section out of line, and the cable on that side rubs and frays through the fall before it lets go in the first cold spell.
A door that runs lopsided after a storm deserves a look while it's warm out, when the fix is small.
Split-levels with a room over the garage are warmer and quieter with an insulated door. But an insulated door weighs more, and it needs springs sized to that weight and, often, new cables. Hanging a heavier door on the old hardware is how cables and springs fail early.
The installation page covers the doors we put in, from light single doors for alley garages to insulated doors for the rooms above.
Tell us what the door is doing and whether anything is frozen or hanging crooked, and you'll get a time. The technician phones from the road, then starts with a full inspection: both springs, both cables and drums, every roller and hinge, the track, and the opener.
The estimate that follows is free, lists each repair separately, and leaves the decision with you. Before the truck leaves, the door must hold halfway by hand, the opener's force is set for cold-weather use, and the safety reverse is proven.
A visit in the fall heads off most winter calls: rollers and hinges lubricated with grease that stays soft in the cold, the bottom seal checked for gaps, springs and cables looked over for wear, and the opener set to stop rather than tear a frozen seal.
It is also the moment when a spring with little life left can be replaced when it suits you, rather than on a January morning.
Springs for the doors common around here, torsion and extension alike, plus safety cables, lift cables, drums, sealed rollers, hinges, bottom seals rated for the cold, and opener parts, from gears and circuit boards to sensors and remotes.
Machine shops, warehouses and loading docks across the area keep sectional and roll-up doors that can't sit open in January. Those doors are inspected and estimated just like a home's, and one that quits after hours becomes an emergency call.
No repair named before the door is seen. Springs replaced in pairs. No work outside the approved estimate. No insulated door hung on hardware that can't carry it. And no new door suggested when the old one can be fixed.
Call (815) 446-3251 or use the form. Mention whether the door is frozen, crooked or simply won't lift, since each one sends different parts along.
Cold makes spring steel less forgiving, and a worn spring is already close to its limit. The first deep freeze is often the last straw.
Stop using it and keep clear. The cable is put back on its drum or replaced and the door leveled on the visit.
Add-on kits exist, but they add weight the springs weren't sized for. A factory-insulated door with matching springs holds up far better.
Yes. Dock doors, roll-ups and shop doors are all part of the work, including the operators that run them.
It is. Written, free, and yours to approve before any work.
We need three things: a name, a number, and what the door is doing. Everything before you agree to it asks nothing of you, across the whole of Winnebago County.
Easier to explain by phone? Call (815) 446-3251.
Tell us what the door is doing. The estimate is free and precedes everything else.