Damaged Garage Door Panels

A garage door and your garage in general probably sees a fair bit of traffic. Be it cars, bikes or sports balls, there are a lot of things that go in and out of your garage door everyday. And just like the roads that see a lot of traffic there are bound to be some accidents. Accidents like your oldest child learning to park and bumping into your closed garage door, or accidents like a rogue fly ball hitting your garage door's tracks during a game of baseball on the driveway. Either way it is pretty much inevitable that your garage or garage door are going to take some heat from you or your family. One of the great things about garage doors is that if you catch something like that early you can really save yourself a lot of trouble and money by getting one part replaced before needing to replace your whole garage door and garage door opening system.

One thing that often gets damaged in a garage door is the door itself. Garage door panels, depending on the material, can be very flimsy and get dented extremely easily. That's not to say that a rolling tennis ball will mean certain destruction for your garage door, but that does mean that things like an out of control bike or high powered softball throw can wreak havoc. The great thing about garage doors with panels that are easily dented though is, that they are panels. Panels are cheap and easy to replace and often are just sitting around in warehouses or on trucks ready to do just that. Your paneled door is built to withstand a certain amount of force, but when it can't do that it'll buckle and bend in order to save the rest of your garage door from a huge impact which could otherwise hurt the other parts of your garage door. You could even think of your garage door panels like the "crumple zone" in many cars nowadays. It is relatively quick to be damaged, but by taking the brunt of the force the rest of the garage and some of the even more expensive parts will actually be saved. The classic paneled garage door or sectioned garage door is perfectly suited for a rowdy home and in some cases can even been reformed to where the dent is no longer visible without the need for replacement. This of course requires the dent to be relatively shallow and is not always the best course of action as another dent could become more likely, but it can happen!

If your garage door gets damaged in this way and you are dealing with a dented panel or garage door section then you want to try to use your garage door as little as possible until you can get it looked at. A bent or dented panel can easily be a sign that something else has been damaged and is pretty easy to spot. This means that you will most likely want to close your garage door if you won't be able to get it looked at anytime soon and then simply call up your local garage door repair service or get the person who installed your garage door on the phone to come around and check to make sure that your door is the only thing damaged. Oftentimes the garage door panel or section of the garage door that is visibly damaged is the only thing that will be damaged, in which case the repair should be easy and quick. However, garage door systems can be extremely dangerous if they are not working correctly and because they are under a lot of stress constantly, many of the parts can break with no notice at all when something is wrong. Using your garage door after there has already been an incident with the door can put you at a much greater risk for this sort of thing, and so while it is not the most likely thing that you would be in any danger, it should really be investigated by a professional who can sign off on everything being in working order despite your dented or otherwise damaged door.

A dented garage door isn't just a safety hazard though. A dented garage door panel or section will quickly start to deteriorate and will suffer from a lot more problems a lot more often than a working garage door, but it also simply doesn't look good. Your garage door is just such a large part of your home's exterior that having a dented garage door panel, even disregarding safety, just isn't a good idea. A dented garage door is like a lawn full of dead grass while every other house in the neighborhood has a full lush lawn. A dented or broken garage door looks bad when it's closed and will probably make a racket when it opens and closes. Your garage will look just like that dented car that you see in the parking lot every so often. If you see a car with a dent you can assume that something recently happened and so repairs are on their way. However, if you see that car then for the next 8 months and you start to see the dent begin to rust then your thoughts about the car and the owner change quite a bit. A dented garage door panel is much the same, having one for a few days or short weeks is not the most terribly affront to the neighborhood, but if time continues to go by then people truly begin to get ideas about your home's maintenance. The best way to combat all that talking behind your back is to get your garage door fixed as soon as possible, or simply move out to where you won't have neighbors anymore, your choice.

A garage door getting dented happens, and it is probably going to happen to you or someone you know at least once in your life, more often if you are unlucky or simply accident prone. The great thing about a garage door though is that this doesn't mean that you need an entirely new garage door and garage door opener, isn't that nice? In some cases you'll be able to get away with doing little more than having somebody check to make sure that your garage door was the only thing damaged and push out your dent. Your garage door will be looking as good as new in no time. Another possibility is that you will need to get one of your garage door's panels replaced which is another easy and simple fix. These type of superficial problems are some of the best problems that could really happen to a garage. Of course no garage door related problems is the dream, however we can't always be so lucky. In this case the problem will be easy to spot if it happens when you are away from your garage and should be relatively simple and inexpensive for you to get fixed.