Like anything else in life eventually garage doors fail to work as you would want them to. The usual culprit is your garage door's spring which has broken.

1. Much like most man made devices, garage doors sometimes fail to function. When this
happens your door will need repairing. There are a number of symptoms of failure however
perhaps the primary downside you will encounter is that your garage door will not go up. A
broken spring is probably the problem
There are two main types of springs, torsion and extension. Extension springs run along the
tracks parallel to your ceiling. Torsion springs are would around a bar that is above your garage
door opening
It will likely be very hard or totally impossible to open your garage door if one of your springs is
broken. This may be really inconvenient in case you are trying to open your garage door to get
your car out. It may be even more trying if you are going someplace vital, like work
If you have extension springs and one of them is broken, you may be able to find a replacement
and change it yourself. However torsion springs are another matter. If you have a broken
torsion spring you should call a garage door company to do the repair unless you've been
specifically trained on replacing torsion springs
But here's an item you can and should repair for yourself. When you have an opener, you also
have some sort of interrupter gadget that keeps the door from closing if its path is blocked
At the bottom of the tracks on either side of your garage door opening, you will most likely find a
set of stop/reverse lights. These lights are actually a transmitter and a receiver of infrared
beams. If the beam is interrupted your door will stop going down, reverse and go all the way
back up. Usually your garage door light will flash when this happens
Sometimes your garage door eyes will stop and reverse your door when there's no apparent
reason. One cause may be that your stop/reverse units have been bumped and are no longer
pointing at each other. If you suspect that is the problem, use the set screws or wing nuts to
adjust the lights, not a hammer
The main reason that your door will stop and reverse is that your "eyes" are working exactly as
they are supposed to. There is something blocking your garage door. Sometimes whatever is
blocking the door is not obvious, so carefully look around your garage door opening. Eventually
you'll figure out what it is
It is also possible that the lenses of your stop/reverse lights are soiled or have condensation on
them. That means that the lights can't see one another and your door will not work
Your garage door opener unit can fail. They're usually very dependable however they do have
elements in them that may fail. Normally the failure of the opener is caused either by a worn
gear sprocket or the logic board
Both of these items might be corrected by the enterprising property owner if he so choses.
However for each of them you may require the parts. You could have the ability to buy a gear
sprocket replacement set at one of many massive box stores. For the logic board, you will must
speak to the producer of your opener
Since garage doors don't fail to work very often, most people are caught unaware of what to do
to get it fixed. Most people make some attempt to trouble shoot their problem before they give

2. up and call a garage door company. Hopefully this article has given you some insight into what
items you can fix yourself and what items should best be left to a professional