Garage doors occasionally break down or are damaged and must be repaired. Here are three of the more common reasons why garage doors need to be fixed.

1. Someone Drives into a Garage Door

Garage doors sometimes need repair not because of any mechanical failure on their part but because a person drove into them. People may forget to put the garage door up before backing out of it, or people might put their car into the wrong gear when driving out of their driveway. In either case, a collision with a garage door can cause substantial damage.

When a garage door is damaged by a vehicle, the damaged sections of the door usually must be replaced. Extremely minor damage might be painted over, but the damage is often too extensive to cover up. Replacing the panels is the next-best option.

2. The Garage Door's Spring Breaks

Garage doors have a massive tension spring that's essential to the door's proper operation, and this spring can break after significant use. When a door's spring breaks, the spring must be replaced with a new one. If the spring isn't replaced, the door won't open and close properly.

Replacing a garage door's spring is one repair that homeowners should never try themselves. The broken spring is fairly easy to remove safely, but the new spring can seriously injure or even kill someone if a mistake is made. A lot of energy is stored in this spring, and it can fly toward a person if something slips during setup.

A professional garage door repair company will have the expertise and tools necessary to make sure that a new spring doesn't accidentally slip while it's being installed.

3. The Laser Becomes Misaligned

Automatic garage doors are equipped with a laser sight that spans the door's opening near the bottom of the door. If the laser's path is broken, the garage door won't close all the way. This is a safety precaution to make sure people and animals aren't squished by a garage door.

If the laser is knocked, it can become misaligned. When this happens, the garage door system might think the laser's pathway is broken even though the path is clear.

The fix for this issue is simple and one that homeowners can do themselves. The laser just has to be readjusted so that it points in the proper direction, which is parallel to the garage floor.

To learn more, contact a resource like On  Track Overhead Doors Inc.