Have you hit your garage door with your car and want to know how to fix it? Luckily, you have come to the right blog! You are not the first person to do this, and there are lots of straightforward solutions that can help you get your garage door working again.
Simply, follow Blue’s guidelines for what to do when you have a damaged garage door.
Evaluate the Damage
Your first step is to take a deep breath and evaluate the damage. After making sure everyone is safe, you should then check out the damage from when the car hit the garage door.
An important tip: just look, don’t touch! You could perhaps hurt yourself or cause even more damage to your garage door if you try moving or fixing it yourself. Though your door may look okay, using your automatic garage opener or forcing your door open manually could cause long-lasting harm to the internal system and could cause the door to lose control and come down on you.
Take plenty of notes and photos of the damage to make a recording of what happened. Then, we strongly suggest you call a professional to assess the damage before doing anything else. Sometimes it can be less costly than you think to fix just a dent or minor damage.
While you are waiting for the professionals to arrive, evaluate the damage to your car. You should also notate and photograph any vehicle damage. Think about the next steps you might need to take in terms of car repair and insurance.
What’s Wrong With My Door?
You may be interested in what damage occurred when you hit your garage door with your car. Here are a few common situations our garage professionals regularly find and fix:
- Your garage door is trapped open: If you hit the garage door while it was being opened or tried to open it after the accident, it could be stuck. Having a stuck garage door can present security issues if you have valuables in your garage. One of the best things you can do is contact a garage door professional to get the problem fixed. Even if it’s after hours, most companies have an on-call crew ready to help. Be sure to abstain from manually or automatically trying to open your door, which could cause more damage.
- The garage door is off track: If you think your garage door got off track, try not to touch it or do anything else until a professional arrives. It could be unsafe to try to fix a garage door that fell off its track.
- The bottom of your garage door is dented or bent. While it may seem like a good DIY project, it’s much more complex than it looks to fix a dent in a garage door. You could cause more damage by trying to fix the dent yourself. In this situation, assess the damage and call a professional. Attempting to fix it yourself could end up requiring you to purchase a new door.
- Your garage door opener isn’t working: If your garage door was hit but looks completely normal, first disengage your opener from your garage door and then test your opener and manually lift your garage door separately. If either is not working, contact a professional. There could be something wrong with the entire system in this scenario and attempting to fix it yourself could cause more damage.
Do I Have to Replace a Dented Garage Door or Can I Leave It?
Depending on the damage, your garage door may be safe to use, even with a dent. And in some instances, you could even unbend a garage door. If the door is only bent or dented a small amount (and you don’t mind the appearance), you might not have to replace it — if the tongue and groove are still lining up correctly.
If this is the case, you should strengthen the damaged panel with a strut to guarantee that it doesn’t entirely split. If you are unsure about doing this, please call a professional.
If multiple panels are damaged, you might want to replace your garage door. You could also choose to replace each panel separately, which could end up costing the same as a door replacement. If your door is more than five years old and has damage to more than one panel, you are better off — both economically and in terms of safety — replacing the door.
Will Insurance Cover Garage Door Repairs?
So, how much does it cost to fix a dented garage door, and will your insurance cover it? If the damage was caused by you backing your car into the garage door, you should immediately document the damage and call your auto insurance company.
Also, if your garage door was heavily damaged, you should consider contacting your home insurance company. Some policies cover dented garage doors and other garage door incidents. You’ll want to ensure you understand what both your homeowner’s and car insurance policies cover for instances like these.
Ultimately, it is up to you to decide to involve your insurance company.