Garage Door Repair in St. Louis, MO
Springs, cables, rollers, openers, track, panels — this page walks you through what your door is actually doing, what part is behind it, and what the fix typically costs in the St. Louis metro. If you already know you need someone out today, skip the reading and call.
Start with the symptom, not the part
Most people calling us can describe exactly what the door is doing but have no idea what it means. That’s fine — the symptoms map to causes pretty reliably, and a good technician can narrow it to one or two possibilities over the phone before he ever loads the truck. Use the table below to figure out roughly where you stand. It won’t replace an inspection, but it will tell you whether you’re looking at a ninety-dollar afternoon or a conversation about a new door.
| What the door is doing | Most likely cause | The fix | Typical St. Louis range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Door won’t open, opener runs and the trolley travels the rail | Broken torsion spring — look for a two-inch gap in the coil on the shaft above the door | Replace the spring pair, re-wind, re-balance | $220–$450 |
| Loud bang like a gunshot from the garage, then nothing works | Torsion spring let go under load | Matched spring pair, new bearings if worn | $220–$450 |
| Door opens a few inches then stops and reverses | Photo-eye safety sensors out of alignment, dirty lens, or an obstruction | Re-align and re-aim sensors, check wiring, reset limits | $120–$220 |
| Door closes fully then immediately re-opens | Close travel limit set too far, or down-force too low for a stiff door | Limit and force adjustment, balance check | $120–$220 |
| Door hangs crooked, one corner higher than the other | Broken lift cable or a cable that unwound off the drum | Cable pair, drum re-seat, re-level and re-balance | $150–$260 |
| Opener motor hums but nothing moves | Stripped nylon drive gear, or a spring failure the opener can’t overcome | Gear-and-sprocket kit, or spring repair first | $120–$320 |
| Grinding, rattling, metal-on-metal screech | Worn steel rollers with exposed bearings, loose lag bolts and hinges | 13-ball nylon rollers, hardware torque, lubrication | $140–$240 |
| Door jumped the track, rollers hanging out of the rail | Cable failure, an obstruction under the door, or an impact | Reset sections in track, straighten rail, replace damaged rollers | $160–$320 |
| Remote works but the wall button doesn’t (or the reverse) | Logic board damage after a storm surge, or a broken low-voltage wire | Board replacement, re-terminate wiring, re-learn remotes | $120–$320 |
| Door is very heavy to lift by hand, opener strains | Springs fatigued and losing torque — failure is close | Spring replacement and full re-balance | $220–$450 |
| One section cracked, dented or buckled | Backed into, hail strike, or an off-track event that folded a panel | Single section replacement if the model is still produced | $350–$800 |
Prices are typical St. Louis-area ranges as of 2026 and vary by door size, spring cycle rating, hardware condition and access. Your exact price is quoted in writing before any work begins.
The repairs that make up most of our St. Louis calls
Broken springs
Torsion springs do essentially all the lifting. The opener is a guidance device — it moves a door the springs have already made nearly weightless. When a spring breaks, a 160-pound double door becomes 160 pounds of dead weight and the opener has no chance. This is the single most common repair in the metro, and in St. Charles County subdivisions it tends to arrive in waves, because whole streets were built the same year on the same builder-grade 10,000-cycle springs. Full detail on garage door spring repair, including why we replace them in pairs and why you should not do this one yourself.
Cables and drums
The lift cables run from the bottom bracket up to grooved drums on the torsion shaft. They live in a damp, unconditioned garage and they corrode from the inside of the strand out. When one fails, the door drops on that side and racks in the track. If you notice the door sitting at an angle, stop operating it — see cable and drum repair for why running it makes the job several times more expensive.
Rollers, track and hardware
If your garage sits under a bedroom — which describes an enormous share of the mid-century ranches and split-levels in Kirkwood, Webster Groves, Crestwood, Oakville and Florissant — noise is the complaint that finally makes people call. Nine times out of ten it’s original steel rollers with open bearings plus twenty years of loose hardware. See roller and track repair.
Openers
Openers fail in a small number of predictable ways: safety sensors drift out of alignment, the nylon drive gear strips, or the logic board takes a hit during a Missouri thunderstorm. Two of those three are inexpensive. Our opener repair and installation page covers diagnosis, when a repair stops making financial sense, and what a quiet belt-drive upgrade actually changes.
Off-track doors and damaged panels
Backing into the door is a St. Louis rite of passage. Sometimes it’s a simple off-track reset; sometimes a section is folded and you need panel replacement. We price both options honestly, including the case where the door is old enough that a replacement section costs more than it’s worth.
Preventive service
The cheapest repair is the one that never escalates. A 25-point tune-up catches the frayed cable before it snaps, the loose bearing plate before it seizes, and the auto-reverse that stopped working two years ago. And when something breaks at 11pm with a car locked inside, we run 24/7 emergency repair. We also service commercial overhead doors for shops and warehouses.
Why garage doors in St. Louis wear out early
Manufacturers rate parts in cycles, and their estimates assume a stable climate. The St. Louis metro isn’t one. We get 12°F mornings and 98°F afternoons in the same calendar year, summer dew points in the seventies, and repeated freeze-thaw swings inside a single February week. Steel expands and contracts, lag bolts back out of the header, hinge pins and roller stems oxidize, and the bottom weatherseal goes brittle and stops sealing. None of it is dramatic. It just quietly moves the whole system out of tolerance until the weakest component gives.
Housing stock matters too. Detached, unheated garages in South City, Lemay and Overland often still run the original extension springs — a system that works fine but needs safety containment cables that a lot of these doors simply don’t have. Newer construction out in Wentzville, Cottleville and O’Fallon has the opposite profile: big 16'x7' and 18'x8' doubles, modern hardware, but the thinnest springs the builder could specify.
What a True Lift service call actually looks like
- You get a two-hour arrival window, not “sometime Tuesday.” We text you the technician’s name and photo when he leaves the previous job.
- He inspects the whole system — springs, cables, drums, bearings, rollers, hinges, track alignment, opener travel and force, and the auto-reverse safety — not just the part you called about.
- He shows you the failed component and explains what he’s looking at. If a part is worn but not urgent, he tells you it’s worn but not urgent.
- You get a written flat-rate price, usually with two or three options, before anything is touched. Our technicians aren’t paid commission, so there’s no financial reason for anyone to push a door replacement.
- About 90% of the time the parts are already on the truck and it’s finished on that visit.
- Before he leaves, he re-balances the door by hand and re-tests the reverse. A properly balanced door should hold its position at waist height with the opener disconnected.
When repair stops making sense
We’d rather fix your door than sell you one, but there is a line. If the door has multiple cracked sections, if the top section is torn where the opener bracket mounts, if the model is discontinued and no matching panel exists, or if the door is a 30-year-old uninsulated single-skin unit whose hardware is failing in three places at once, you’re better off putting the money toward a new garage door. We’ll give you the repair number and the replacement number side by side and let you decide with real figures instead of pressure. See the full breakdown on our pricing page.
Where we work
We cover the metro on both sides of the river and charge the same flat rate in every ZIP code — no premium for an affluent address. Common calls come from Kirkwood and Webster Groves for noise and roller work, St. Charles and Wentzville for spring failures on newer doubles, and Florissant, Chesterfield, Ballwin and Arnold for everything else. The full list is on our service areas page.
Garage Door Repair FAQs
How do I know if it’s the spring or the opener?
Pull the red emergency release cord to disconnect the opener, then try to lift the door by hand. If it comes up smoothly and stays where you leave it, the door is balanced and your problem is the opener. If it’s brutally heavy or won’t budge, it’s a spring. You can also look at the torsion spring on the shaft above the door — a broken one has an obvious two-inch gap in the coil.
Can you really fix it the same day?
Usually, yes. Our trucks stock the springs, cables, drums, rollers, bearings, gear kits and common logic boards that cover roughly 90% of St. Louis repairs, so we’re not scheduling a second visit to install a $22 part. The exceptions are matched replacement panels and non-stock door hardware, which have to be ordered.
What does a garage door repair cost in St. Louis?
Most single-issue repairs land between $120 and $450 installed. Spring pairs run $220–$450 depending on door size and cycle rating, cables $150–$260, nylon rollers $140–$240, opener repairs $120–$320, and an off-track reset $160–$320. Prices are typical St. Louis-area ranges as of 2026 and vary by door size, spring cycle rating, hardware condition and access. Your exact price is quoted in writing before any work begins.
Do you charge extra for evenings or weekends?
We’re open 7am–9pm seven days a week at standard rates — Saturday is a normal workday for us, not an after-hours premium. Genuine overnight emergency dispatch does carry an additional fee, and we quote that on the phone before we roll a truck.
Is it worth repairing a door that’s 25 years old?
Often yes. The door itself — the steel sections — commonly lasts 20 to 30 years in Missouri. Springs, cables, rollers and openers are the wear items, and replacing them on a structurally sound door is far cheaper than a new install. The point where replacement wins is when multiple sections are damaged, the top section is torn at the opener bracket, or the panel style is discontinued.
My door works but it’s incredibly loud. Is that a repair or is it just old?
It’s a repair, and usually an inexpensive one. Grinding and rattling almost always trace to worn steel rollers with exposed bearings, loose lag bolts on the track brackets, and dry hinge pins. A set of 13-ball nylon rollers plus a hardware torque and proper lubrication typically cuts the noise dramatically. It is the most requested fix we get from homeowners with a bedroom over the garage.
Should I use the opener if the door is stuck or crooked?
No. Running the opener against a broken spring, a snapped cable or a door that has already racked in the track is how a $250 repair turns into an $1,800 door. You risk stripping the opener gear, bending the top section, and folding the track. Disconnect the opener with the release cord, leave the door where it is, and call us.
Do you work on all brands?
Yes. On doors we regularly service Clopay, Amarr, Wayne Dalton, Overhead Door, C.H.I., Raynor and Haas. On openers we service LiftMaster, Chamberlain, Genie, Craftsman, Sommer, Linear and Marantec, including chain, belt, screw drive and wall-mount jackshaft units.
Do I need a permit for a garage door repair?
For a repair, essentially never — replacing springs, cables, rollers or an opener is maintenance, not a structural change. Full door replacement is a different question, and the answer depends on which of the 80-plus municipalities in St. Louis County you live in. We tell you upfront if your address requires one.
Get a Real Diagnosis and a Real Price Today
Tell us what the door is doing and we’ll tell you what it likely is and what it costs — before we ever pull into your driveway.