How many times have you looked at that garage door panel so in need of being fixed but haven’t a clue how to go about it? It appears to have a big dent right in the center of the garage door panel but getting that panel out to fix it may be a bit problematic. Although it can be a bit labor-intensive, it can be done if you have the necessary tools. Unfortunately, a bent garage door may be the least of your worries if you don’t see to it right away. If the dent is big enough, it could lead to other issues which would require even greater repairs, so it’s good that you took the time to see if this really is something you are willing to tackle.
The most common type of damage to a garage door panel is a dent. However, some scrapes and gouges can be just as serious, if not more so. Let’s look at that dent for just a moment. How big and deep does it run? If it is perhaps the size of an errant baseball, then you may even be able to pull it out almost flat again without taking the whole door off. It’s unlikely, but it could be done if the dent isn’t very deep. There are dent tools on the market that work much like a plunger. If done right, the dent may be barely noticeable when you are done, but that can have consequences too. Sometimes the smallest dent can pierce the paint/coating just enough to let moisture in. Once that happens, you will almost always begin to see a change in color as corrosion leads to rust.
When a dent is long and deep, you might be noticing that the door doesn’t open and close as smoothly as it once did. This is usually because the garage door is bent to one side or the other, causing it to bounce and scrape. If the annoying sound it makes was all there was to worry about, it wouldn’t be that serious. Unfortunately, all that scraping will have an impact on the track and rail. This is because the dent is causing the door to bend just enough to put too much pressure on one side but the potential for further damage doesn’t even stop there! The longer the problem is allowed to persist, the more damage you will begin to experience. Next the springs will probably suffer because the dent has, again, forced too much weight on that side. With all that unequal distribution of weight, the motor will probably be next to fail because it is getting taxed pulling too much weight on that side. Nothing ever goes well when a motor is forced to work too hard.
There are several ways to go about fixing that garage door with a damaged panel. Each comes with varying levels of difficulty and obviously different costs associated with the method you choose when fixing that garage door panel. It all depends on how much effort you want to put into it. Let’s look at some of the choices at your disposal.
While this might seem like the obvious choice if you don’t have the skills or tools to take that door and panel apart, it may not be the wisest choice. If you have two doors on your garage, one may be slightly different in coloration. This is partly true because the remaining door is older. It shouldn’t be a problem if you have only one garage door though because there’s only one panel. This is where you will need to decide how much money you want to put into the effort. You will also have to decide whether or not a slight difference in coloration will matter.
If you have a rubber head mallet, you may be able to pound it out, but that would necessitate taking the door apart which can be a laborious effort. Then there is the fact that it will be extremely difficult to lay that panel up flatly even when hammering it out on a softer surface so that it doesn’t scratch and mar.
These are those little plunger-like tools you often find in “As Seen on TV” and if you have read the real reviews by real customers who had purchased the tool, you will see that very few were satisfied with the results. At this point, you may be wondering if spending an entire weekend trying to find all the parts and instructions to get the job done is worth giving up that little bit of free time you have. If the cost is comparable, and it will take the burden off you, why not hire a repair team? Let them tell you what needs to be done and, if that is something you can live with, just say the word and head off to the green.
