2026-04-26 6 min read
Garage doors are one of those things you don't think about until they stop working. and they always seem to stop working at the worst time. A door that won't open on a 10°F January morning in Exeter is a genuine emergency. A door that reverses before it closes fully is a security problem you can't ignore. This guide walks through the most common garage door repair issues we see on the Seacoast, what typically causes them, and whether a repair is something you can handle yourself or one that needs a professional.
Exeter has a humid continental climate. cold, snowy winters that run from November into April, and summers that bring their own share of humidity and rain. That combination is rough on garage doors. Metal contracts in the cold, causing springs to snap and tracks to tighten. Moisture gets into wood panels and causes swelling and warping. Road salt tracked in from Route 101 or 27 corrodes hinges and rollers from below. Homes here. especially the older colonials and Capes near the historic downtown. often have doors that have been doing heavy lifting in these conditions for 20 or 30 years.
Neighborhoods on the outskirts of town, closer to Brentwood or Epping, tend to have newer construction with more modern doors, but those doors face the same climate. Age and neglect accelerate problems; NH weather makes sure of that.
This is the most frequent call we get. The culprit is usually one of three things: the travel limit settings on the opener are off, the safety sensors are misaligned, or the door is out of balance.
Safety sensors. the small devices mounted a few inches off the floor on each side of the door. can get bumped, coated with dirt, or blocked by debris. If the LED on one sensor is blinking instead of solid, that's your signal. Clean the lenses with a dry cloth and check alignment. If one sensor has been physically knocked, you may need to gently reposition it until both lights are solid.
If the sensors look fine, check whether the door stays in place when you disconnect the opener and lift it manually to waist height. If it falls or shoots upward, the springs are out of balance. Do not attempt to adjust or replace torsion springs yourself. this is one of the few garage door tasks that genuinely warrants a professional. A spring under full tension stores enormous energy and can cause serious injury if mishandled. Learn more about what spring failure looks like and when it strikes in our post on Exeter winter garage door spring failures.
A grinding sound usually means metal-on-metal contact somewhere in the system. Most commonly it's worn rollers. the small wheels that guide the door along the track. Steel rollers wear down and develop flat spots over time; nylon rollers with sealed bearings are quieter and last longer. This is a repair most confident DIYers can handle with the right rollers and basic hand tools.
Scraping along the floor almost always points to a bent bottom section or a track that's shifted slightly out of plumb. A track that's only slightly off can sometimes be tapped back into alignment with a rubber mallet and a level. A seriously bent track needs replacement.
If your door starts closing and then reverses back up, the opener's close-force sensitivity setting may need adjustment, or one of the safety sensors is picking up interference. Bright sunlight directly hitting a sensor lens can cause false reversals. it's more common than people expect in south-facing garages during spring and fall afternoons.
Check the sensor lenses for sunlight interference or dirt first. If the problem persists, the opener's sensitivity setting may need fine-tuning. Consult your opener's manual for the adjustment procedure, as it varies by brand and model. If you're not comfortable with that, it's a quick professional fix.
Before assuming the worst, replace the battery. Seriously. this solves the problem more often than anything else. If a fresh battery doesn't help, try reprogramming the remote according to your opener's instructions. If neither works, the logic board in the opener may have a fault, which is typically a professional repair.
Cold weather can also temporarily reduce remote range. If your remote works fine in summer but struggles in January, that's a sign the battery is aging and loses performance in the cold. Keep a spare set of batteries in the car during winter.
Exeter's snowy winters mean snowplows and backing-out-too-fast accidents. Minor dents in steel panels are mostly cosmetic and can sometimes be pushed back from the inside with careful pressure. If a panel is severely dented or has cracked paint that's allowing rust to form, section replacement is usually more cost-effective than replacing the whole door. unless the door is already aging and multiple panels are involved. Check our feature checklist for homeowners if you're weighing whether a repair or full replacement makes more sense.
The honest answer: call a pro for anything involving springs, cables, or the opener's internal wiring. These components are under significant mechanical tension or carry electrical current, and a mistake doesn't just mean a broken door. it can mean a trip to the hospital.
For everything else. sensors, rollers, lubrication, minor track adjustments. a capable homeowner with patience can handle it. But if you've tried the obvious fixes and the problem keeps coming back, a professional diagnosis saves time and usually prevents a small issue from becoming a bigger one.
Garage Door Exeter serves Exeter and the surrounding seacoast towns. If you're not sure whether what you're seeing is a quick fix or a sign of something deeper, contact us and we'll give you a straight answer. Visit our FAQ page for answers to the most common questions we get from local homeowners.
Cold weather causes metal components to contract and lubricants to thicken, which increases friction throughout the system. Springs also lose some tension in extreme cold. A pre-winter maintenance check. including fresh lubrication on rollers, hinges, and the opener rail. makes a noticeable difference. New Hampshire's winters are hard on everything mechanical, and garage doors are no exception.
This usually indicates a broken or weakened spring on one side, or a cable that has slipped off its drum. Both require professional repair. Operating a door in this condition puts stress on the entire system and risks damaging the opener motor or panels.
A good rule of thumb: if the repair cost exceeds 50% of what a new door would cost, and the door is already 15,20 years old, replacement usually makes more financial sense. But if the door itself is structurally sound and only hardware is failing, repair is almost always the smarter call.