Came home today to the news that our up and over garage door was stuck open with one of the roller guides(?) out of the runner. Long story short, I managed to make it much worse to the point where the whole door came off. It’s all secure now but the mechanism is all out of place and we can’t open the door.

It is about 15 years old, I’ve never really liked it because it has slammed shut a few times when the wind gets up. So – question is, should I get someone in to repair it or is it time to get something different that is also a bit safer with young kids around? I did look up old threads and it looked like the Hormann sectional door might be an alternative so just looking for any new opinions before I speak to a garage door man in the morning.

What do you use the garage for? A car, up & over or roller all the way. Just wandering in & out? Then a folding door system was the way I went. I think it can be more secure, & you can a tailor the system to only open the panel (door) that more convenient to you. That way your not showing your entire contents to the world every time it’s opened

Hinged doors, one each side.

What do you use the garage for?

In and out. Bikes, kids pedal tractor etc….. Essentially full of the sort of junk that you wouldn’t or couldn’t take through the house. Even though we probably have room in the driveway I don’t really fancy hinged doors. The door is 7ft by 8ft.

I’ve got to replace mine shortly as part of a reroof, I’m not having another crashy up and over.
Looking at electric rollers but I’m really fancying one of those posh sectioned doors. Roll up for full access but has a door built into it. That or an old fashioned hinged door. I like the idea of being able to wheel a bike out of one side but not actually showing the world the full contents.

If you dismantle the door, be careful of the balance springs.

I knew they were powerful as a friend of mine severed the tendons on the back of his hand as he released them.

When I did mine, I held the end and carefully cut the connecting wires.

I held the wrong end.

Judging from the pain and blood I thought I had broken my nose and the look on my neighbour’s visiting FIL’s face seemed to confirm this.

But my nose just hurt, the blood was coming from my head.

At least I can genuinely say that I have seen a reflection of part of my skull.

I had a headache for a couple of weeks, looking back I should have gone to hospital and still have a scar.

I suppose that is why we stupid males have skulls with brows ridges,

@fozzie is reminding me of why I don’t do DIY 😳

OP sadly these days its often cheaper to replace than repair, 15 years old is probably the design life of something installed in 2002. I’d look at some replacement options (up and over) and then when you have those prices you can decide whether to ask for any repair quotes.

I would like to add that I was sober and that I replaced the door with a pair of side hung doors externally, which increased the opening width by twice the width of the 3 inch timbers that supported the original mechanism and increased the opening height by about 450mm.

We’re just replacing a 30 year old up and over door, but we’re going with 2/3 1/3 side hung insulated doors from Cartek. Our garage is only half the depth it used to be though and it’s more of a utility room.
Not cheap at £1500 delivered – fitting it myself as it shouldn’t be too tricky.

Fozzie – what I missed out of my ‘long story short’ OP was that when I did try and fix it the whole thing nearly fell on top of me and my wife had to shout on the neighbour to come round and masculinely lift the door off me. Just as well or I’d still be there now.

I had a similar problem with an old garage door when I moved house (ending up with it falling out of the guides and collapsing about 1 a.m. one morning…)

I managed to retension the springs and fix it with the aid of a very good Youtube video, and it has been working OK for several years now. If you decide replacement is too expensive, don’t give up on it, it might be repairable.

I replaced the springs in mine a little while ago. Its straightforward and you can get kits quite cheaply.
Mine was difficult to get too so I removed the whole things and fitted the kit on the garage floor then reassembled. Took two people to retension the springs but other than pretty easy. As others have said be careful1

I replaced the springs on mine by myself.

It only went ‘SPOOIIINGGG’ once but it was loud enough to bring mrsww out to see what the problem was and I normally have to wander in the house with a limb missing to attract her attention when I’m doing DIY.

I’d do it again but probably with some else to stand between me and the spring.

I recently had a 30 year old up and over door repaired. New cables and runners, bit of a clean up, retension. Working as new now. Cost about £100.

Going to look into getting a repair done. Spoke to a few people at work who had a couple of names of who not to use. Which is good, but now need to find someone that is recommended. I’m in the Scottish Borders is anyone has any suggestions.

any tips on repairing a wooden garage door?

An update for the hordes of people who will be interested – Just had Paul from the Border Canopy Company round. He did the repair, retensioned everything and all looks good. Just realised that for the last 10 years the door has been rubbish. Now it is probably working as it should have been. Very relieved to side-step the cost of a new door for now anyway.

Recently had my garage done up by AllStyle Garage Doors (allstylegaragedoors.com.au) and it looks great. I use my garage to keep the kids’ toys, cars and some of the yard deco. To me, its really important I keep everything tidy in the house… Hahaha. Good luck to you!

If anyone is considering a roller type door for their garage, a word of advice.

Do not leave the keys in the lock when you roll the door up.  It won’t end well.

Even if you’ve opened the same door pretty much every day for 20 years with no incidents it can still happen.

You will feel very, very, silly indeed.