If you have a large dent in your garage door, you will most likely have to replace it. This can cost you around $75 for a basic repair, but it can cost you anywhere from $150 to $400 total if you have to replace a panel. Steel and aluminum don’t require much maintainance, but they do dent easily. It could suffer a dent for any number of reasons, such as a bike bumps the door, or you have a basketball that bounces off the dented garage door.
Fix a Small Dent
You don’t always have to hire a professional to fix a small dent. How do you begin? First, you will wash the area surrounding the dent with warm water and soap. You let it dry. This ensures that you eliminate the dirt and grime in the region, which can present a problem as you go to get the door undented with sanding and other steps in the process. Next, you will place a wooden block over the dent and tap it with a mallet. This evens out the dent in the dented garage door.
Dented Garage Door
You will sand the area to even out the surface of the dent and make it less visible. After the putty dries, you will sand it down to give it an even appearance. Finally, you apply the primer and let it dry. Next, grab a paintbrush and add a fresh coat of paint.
When to Call in the Professionals
You have cases where you might dial the number of a professional garage doorcompany because you have too big of a dent in the door. With a bigger dent, you might try to first eliminate it with your own methods, but if it doesn’t disappear, call Star Solutions Garage Door in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania. With most dents in a garage door, you can repair them. However, you may need a professional to get rid of it.
Why Fix the Dent in a Garage Door
Think of what presents itself front and center with a home. When you go to look at a home, one of the first things that you will see is the dented garage door. Dents in a garage door can have a dramatic impact on the value of the home. Garage door springs replacement ranks as one of the highest returns on investment, according to Remodeling Magazine. With some dents, you can take them out, but you have others that you can’t take out, and this can lower the curb appeal and value of the home.
Steel vs. Aluminum
In general, you can repair aluminum far easier than what you can repair steel. In fact, you might approach getting rid of a dent differently, depending on whether you have a steel garage door or an aluminum garage door. You would use the method mentioned above to handle a steel garage door. How do you handle a dent in aluminum?
In general, these dents will usually be easier to fix. You begin the process in the same way as with the steel garage door. You will first wash the area with soap and water. However, you will use a heat lamp, a lighter, tinfoil and a can of compressed air. First, you scrub the dented area to clean the dirt and grime. This makes the rest of the process easier. You will wait 30 minutes to an hour for the water to dry. You will hold the heat lamp and the lighter flame over the tinfoil for around one minute.
How to Deal with a Dented Garage Door
This puts the heat over to the dented area. Next, you will remove the tin foil, and you will spray it with a can of condensed air evenly. Because of a sudden change of temperature, this causes the aluminum material to reverse the dent. Eventually, you will see it return to its original position to look like new.
Important to Note: Doing either methods to get rid of the dent in the dented garage door may not work if you have too large of a dent. In cases like that, you may have to call in a professional.
What Works
Whatever method you choose, you want it to eliminate the dent. This depends on the intensity of the dent, and in some cases, you may find it worth the cost to call in a professional because they can do this with ease. A professional can look over the garage door to determine if further repairs are needed. For example, you might call in a garage door professional to fix an annoying grinding noise and have the dent repaired at the same time. In some cases, you might have them assess the garage door to determine if any further action is required.
Garage Door Safety
One of the greatest safety measures that you can take for a garage door is to make sure that you have photo-eye sensors, and check periodically to make sure that they work. Many times, the injuries that come from garage door can be serious because people get crushed by them. Never let a child play games during an operating garage door, and don’t let them dash underneath an operating garage door. This poses a great danger to your child.
Garage Door Cable Snapped
Never postpone repairs after the garage door cable snaps. The longer you wait, the more the damages can add up. Garage doors have cables on each side to lift and lower the garage door. Over time, wear and tear can take their toll. If you see fraying cables, you may want to replace them before they snap. Having the cables snap always feels traumatic because it makes a loud noise. Dealing with them before they snap keeps you from having a scare.
Local Garage Doors Repair
Here at Star Solutions Garage Door, we can repair the dent that you may have gotten from a rogue baseball or a child’s baseball bat that struck the right place in the door. You don’t want this to have a negative impact on your home value because a garage door can add anywhere from $8,000 to $14,000 on a home. The better your garage door looks, the higher the value of the home. When you have dents in the door, it can also impact who comes in to see the home for the sale.