Your garage door ought to slide up and down easily. It has rollers on the sides that go up and down tracks. If the door comes off a track, stop using it immediately to avoid causing damage to the door or tracks.

Causes

Before repairing, see if you notice anything that may have caused the door to come off its tracks.  Potential problems include:

• Broken springs or cables
• Broken roller
• Loose, dented, or misaligned tracks
• Debris in the tracks

Repairs

With any major concerns either repaired or eliminated, follow these steps to get your garage back on its track:

• Pull the overhead rope to disconnect the garage door opener system.
• Find a friend to help (for safety) and manually open the door partially. Observe which rollers are not in the tracks.
• When rollers are near the problem area in the track, stop the door in place by placing locking pliers on the track beneath the door.
• Use pliers to widen the track and reposition the misaligned roller back into position. Do this for each roller that has come off the track. (If you’re repositioning a top roller, you may be able to twist the horizontal track to simply slide the roller back into place.)
• Use a rubber mallet to return the track to its original position. A small block of wood inside the track can prevent closing the track too tightly.
• Remove the locking pliers and lower then raise the door manually several times.
• If the door is working smoothly, now test the garage opener up and back down several times. This test will also re-engage the garage door opener system.

A garage door not secured to its tracks can be dangerous and so can working on garage doors, so contact us with any questions or to schedule a repair. Missouri Door and Dock is here to help with all your garage door needs.