Attempting to fix the garage door yourself is tempting. No doubt. The problem is right there, in front of you, starring at you, screaming for your care. Will you fall for it or will you call the troops?
If you are a proud do-it-yourselfer, you may even find it insulting to leave the garage door repair to a tech. After all, you have fixed the old table, the broken chair, the sagging bathroom door. That’s one more door, right? Wrong.
As you surely know your garage door is heavy, big, and dangerous. And so, it’s not one more door. There are risks. There are complications. And there’s a price to pay – literally or not, if something goes wrong. And trust me, more often than not, DIY garage door repairs lead to no good. Care to walk with me for a minute?
DIY garage door repairs may lead to accidents, mind you
Since safety comes first, let’s start with that. Fixing problems is not safe, especially if this is an electric garage door. Why? Because the safety features – those components that protect you and prevent accidents, are parts of the opener. But the motors are not the same. The new technology is complicated. The models vary a lot. Will you know how to solve the garage door opener problem? Because if you don’t or if you are not sure if the problem is fixed correctly, you fall into a trap. Which trap is that? You are under the impression that the problem is fixed, while it’s not. And so, you may put your safety at stake.
And how about if the problem is related to the garage door springs, the cables, or the tracks? You most likely know that the garage door cables are as dangerous as the springs – not easy to fix either. Such tense parts may snap and seriously (if not fatally) injure you. As for the garage door tracks, they are tremendously important parts. They are the rails the garage door glides on with the help of the rollers. To give you an example. If the tracks are not aligned correctly, the garage door may bind. Risky – to say the least.
What does garage door dangers have to do with the hidden DIY costs?
Let me explain. Accidents that may happen during a garage door opener repair or due to the snapping springs – apart from the dangers involved, also cost money. They cost in hospital expenses and medical treatments.
Naturally, most hidden costs of DIY garage door repairs relate to the way you handle a problem. Ask yourself. How much do you really know about all garage door parts – how they are installed, interconnected, etc. And then, how much do you know about the relation of the garage door and its parts.
Yes, there are online instructions telling you how to do this or that, which garage door rollers to order, which tracks will fit best. But it’s one thing reading and understanding what you read and quite different trying to install new cables or tracks, hinges or rollers. And so, if we’d want to make a list of unnecessary costs as a result of DIY garage door repairs, this would be the following.
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Costs for extra garage door repair
What would you do if you try but you cannot fix the tracks? Or if you cannot figure out what went wrong and the garage door stopped moving? At one point, you will need to call a garage door company. And so, if you have already spent money on buying parts – even tools, you will now have to pay again for a professional garage door repair service – let alone the cost of your personal time.
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Paying twice for garage door replacement parts
Speaking of spare parts, would you know which garage door spring replacement or cable replacement to buy? Buying parts is an expense. In fact, bigger and heavy garage doors need really durable and large parts and they don’t come cheap. No matter how many instructions you read (are you sure that the person who wrote the instructions had expert knowledge???), there’s still a chance you order the wrong parts. If you can return them, you just waste time (that’s a cost too) but what if you can’t?
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Having to replace the garage door sooner than later
One wrong move and the garage door may collapse or get damaged, somehow. Apart from the fear of an accident (which is always the greatest concern), there’s also a fear about a sudden damage that cannot be fixed – one that will urge you to suddenly spend money on a new garage door. And while this might end up to be a good thing down the road, especially if your garage door is old, it’d be an abrupt expense – one that you didn’t include in your family budget and won’t make you happy. So, better think twice before you get those tools and start messing with the garage door. Don’t you think?
