Garage Door Questions — Answered

For most of St. Louis City and inner St. Louis County we can usually be there the same day, and often within two to four hours for a broken spring or a car trapped in the garage. Outer county, St. Charles County and northern Jefferson County are typically same day, or next morning if you call late in the afternoon. We schedule in two-hour arrival windows and text you when the technician is en route.

Standard service hours are 7:00am to 9:00pm, seven days a week, and those calls are answered by a person here in St. Louis. Outside those hours we take genuine emergency calls around the clock — a door stuck open overnight, storm damage, a vehicle trapped. Overnight dispatch carries a surcharge, and we quote it on the phone before a truck rolls, never after.

Stop pressing the remote. If a spring is broken, running the opener strips the drive gear or bends the top section and turns a $260 repair into a much larger one. Do not try to lift the door alone either — a double door with a failed spring is 150 to 200 pounds of unbalanced dead weight that lifts crooked. Call us and tell the dispatcher a vehicle is trapped; that moves you up the board.

If the opener won’t close the door, first check the photo-eye sensors near the floor on both sides — a nudged bracket, a cobweb or low sun angle will stop the door every time. If the door is physically stuck open and you must leave, close the interior door between the garage and the house, lock it, and remove anything valuable and portable. Then call us. Even at night we can usually get the opening secured, with the permanent repair finished in daylight.

We document damage with photographs and an itemized written estimate in the format adjusters expect, and we’ll talk with your adjuster directly if you ask. We don’t file the claim for you and we won’t promise to make your deductible disappear — that’s insurance fraud and it’s a red flag when a contractor offers it. Missouri gets a real severe-weather season, and after hail or high wind a garage door is worth having inspected, because it’s the largest single opening in most houses.

No. An off-track door run under power bends the track, cracks sections and can pull the whole assembly down. Unplug the opener, leave the door alone, and call. Most off-track resets are $160 to $320 and take about an hour — but only if nobody has forced it first. See off-track repair.

Two likely causes. If the trolley travels down the rail and nothing happens, the door is disconnected from the opener or a spring is broken. If the motor hums but nothing moves at all, the drive gear or sprocket has stripped — a classic chain-drive failure, and a $150–$260 repair. Either way, stop cycling it.

Usually the photo-eye safety sensors: misaligned brackets, a dirty lens, a cobweb, or direct sun hitting the receiver. Check that both indicator lights are steady, not blinking. If the sensors are fine, the down-force or travel limit setting is off, or something in the door’s balance is making the opener think it hit an obstruction. A door that’s badly out of balance will do this consistently.

Start with the battery, then reprogram the remote to the opener — the learn button is on the motor head. If reprogramming fails, the receiver logic board may be the issue, or a nearby radio source is interfering. Remote and keypad programming runs $60–$140 on its own and is free when we’re there for another repair.

Repair it if it’s under about ten years old and the fault is a sensor, a logic board or a gear kit. Replace it if it’s fifteen-plus years old, the gear has already been replaced once, or it predates rolling-code security and photo-eye safety standards. We price both options and don’t earn more for recommending one over the other.

A belt drive, or a wall-mount jackshaft unit if you want the motor off the ceiling entirely. But most noise complaints in St. Louis mid-century ranches and split-levels aren’t the opener at all — they’re worn steel rollers with exposed bearings. Swapping to 13-ball nylon rollers ($140–$240 for ten) often solves it without touching the opener. See roller & track repair.

We recommend it. Storm season here knocks out power regularly, and a battery backup means you can still get the car out during an outage without pulling the emergency release and manually lifting a heavy door. It adds modestly to the cost and it’s the feature customers thank us for most often after a summer storm.

Most St. Louis homeowners pay $425–$625 for a chain drive, $475–$750 for a belt drive with battery backup, and $650–$1,050 for a wall-mount jackshaft. All include installation, programming, safety sensor setup and haul-away of the old unit. Details on the opener page.

The red cord hanging from the trolley disconnects the door from the opener so you can operate it by hand during a power outage. Only pull it with the door fully closed. Pulling it while the door is open lets the door drop if the springs are weak or broken — that’s how people get hurt. If you’re not sure of your spring condition, don’t experiment with it.

There’s a $59 diagnostic fee for a repair call, waived in full the moment you approve the repair. Estimates for a new garage door are free with no fee at all. No separate travel, fuel or mileage charges anywhere in our service area.

No. One flat-rate price book across all five counties. The same repair costs the same in Ladue, Florissant, Bevo Mill, Wentzville and Granite City. We’ll quote you a range on the phone before we even ask for your address.

Hourly billing puts you and the technician on opposite sides of the clock, and it gives you no way to know the bill before he arrives. Flat rate moves the risk of a job running long onto us. You approve a written number before anything is touched, and that number is what you pay — even if a rusted bracket adds forty minutes.

Cash, check, Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover. Payment is due when the work is complete and you’ve watched the door cycle. Standard repairs require no deposit; new door orders take a deposit because the door is built to your opening.

Yes on larger projects — a new door, a door-and-opener package, a two-door replacement — through a third-party lender and subject to credit approval. Ask when you book and we’ll send the application ahead of the appointment. No fee to apply.

We run coupons on repairs, installations and tune-ups (see our pricing page), and we offer 10% off up to $75 for seniors, active military, veterans, teachers and first responders. Mention it when you book — coupons can’t be applied after the work is finished. Discounts don’t stack; we apply whichever saves you more.

Parts and labor, both, with the term printed on your invoice before you pay. Manufacturer warranties on doors and openers are separate and are registered in your name at installation. If a part we installed fails inside the term, we come back and make it right at no charge.

St. Louis City, all of St. Louis County, St. Charles County, Jefferson County and the Illinois Metro East — Edwardsville, Belleville, Collinsville, O’Fallon IL, Granite City and neighbors. The full list with response-time zones and ZIP coverage is on our service areas page.

It depends entirely on your municipality, and this metro has more than 80 separate municipal governments in St. Louis County alone. Some require a permit for a door replacement, some only for structural changes to the opening, and some require the contractor to be registered with the city. We check per address, handle permitting where it applies, and pass the fee through at cost with no markup.

It can. Lafayette Square, Soulard, Compton Heights and Old Town St. Charles all have review processes for exterior changes visible from the street, and plenty of subdivisions add an HOA architectural committee on top. Approval is usually straightforward if you pick an appropriate style — the problem is getting a letter after installation. We help you choose something that clears review the first time.

No. Metro East addresses get the same crews, the same stocked trucks and the same flat rate. Illinois municipalities have their own permit rules for door replacement, which we check before ordering, same as we do in Missouri.

Yes — general liability and workers’ compensation, and we’re registered in the jurisdictions where we work. Ask and we’ll email the certificate before your appointment. Never let anyone work on a torsion spring system without it; if an uninsured worker is injured on your property, that can become your problem.

A True Lift technician — background-checked, uniformed, in a marked truck and covered by our insurance. We text you his name and photo before he arrives. Whoever is in your driveway works to our standards and is accountable to us for the job, and True Lift stands behind the warranty regardless. You’ll never get a stranger in an unmarked van we found on a lead app, and you’ll never be handed off to a company you didn’t call. More on how we’re structured on our about page.

Yes — rolling steel doors, sectional commercial doors, dock equipment, apartment and condo garages, and scheduled preventive maintenance agreements covering multiple locations across the metro under one contract. See commercial garage doors.