Garage Door Not Closing Evenly                                      

Do you have a garage door not closing evenly? There could be a few different reasons. First to solve this problem we must determine what you mean by not closing evenly. We will quickly review each possible situation and possible causes and fixes. Let’s get into it. 

First thing you could mean is that the door is “walking” itself down. This is where one side is going down then the other side, and it is not going down evenly and smoothly. This happens on single garage doors with extension spring systems. The cause is bad and worn out pulleys. An extension spring system has 4 pulleys. Changing just the front 2 will stop the shimmy and shake, however we recommend changing out the entire spring system. This would include both springs, all four pulleys and the cables. This will ensure a repair that will last 7-10 yrs with normal use. 

One Important note, garage door springs are under extreme tension and a job best left to professionals. If you do decide to try and change your pulleys this should only be done with the door up, the opener disconnected and the door clamped off so it cannot fall.By following all three of these steps you can best prevent injury. 

The second thing you could mean is that your door is not even on the ground when the door is in the closed position. This can be caused by a few different things and has a few different solutions. 

If this is the case for you the first thing you should do is check your cables. It is possible one of your cables has come off and is causing the door to sit unevenly. The side that is sitting on the ground would be the side with the cable off. The other side is up because all of the tension is on that side instead of being evenly distributed.

 Re-attaching the cable properly involves removing the tension from your torsion springs and is a job that requires knowledge of how the spring system works and having the proper training and tools. This is a jobe that should be left to a professional. Without a set of winding bars, which you cannot pick up at your local hardware store, injury is almost a given. One thing is for sure, a garage door repair is cheaper than a visit to the emergency room. 

After a visual inspection, if both cables are on then there are a few other things to check, most of them being pretty minor but will probably require experience to troubleshoot. The first thing to check is whether or not the door is level. A 4 ft level is the minimum length you should use to check. If your door is level, that is a good thing. It usually just means your concrete is off. 

The gap under the door should remain there, but a thicker (wider) bottom rubber should be installed on the door. This will most likely require a call to a garage door company, since it needs to be purchased from the garage door manufacturer. Garage door manufacturers do not sell to the general public and the bottom rubber is specific to the manufacturer which may or may not be labeled on the door. A professional will be able to discern, in most cases, which one to buy.

If your door is not level then it will need to be leveled and this could be because your cables are uneven and may need to be replaced. Again, we would recommend calling a company out to deal with this situation. Garage door parts are not easily purchased locally and garage door companies have them stocked on their trucks. However, most garage door companies are service only and do not sell parts because of the liability involved. 

Besides having a door that needs to be leveled the track system may also need to be inspected and leveled out by either raising one side up or cutting the other side down. Leveling the track is not difficult. It just requires that you pick a reference point on each side of the door ( ie, the top of the 3rd roller) and measure to the break in the horizontal track and vertical track, you just adjust the track to make the measurement the same on each side. Once again the best way to do this is to remove tension from the door which requires a professional.