How Much Garage Door Tune-Ups Cost, and What’s Included

All but the most simple tune-ups will require a professional. While it may look simple, you don’t want to risk compromising the enormous springs and cables that work together to lift the door. Tightening some loose bolts? That’s a reasonable DIY job. But is your door sliding on the track? If so, you’d better hire a garage pro. You can use your best judgment here but if you think “I can probably do that” you probably shouldn’t.  

Signs Your Garage Door Needs a Tune-Up

From your garage door opener to the rollers and hinges, here’s how to know if your garage door should get a tune-up.

• Unusual noises: If you hear grinding or scraping as you open or close your garage door, you could have loose hardware or debris stuck in the door’s tracks.

• Slow or jerky movement: If your garage door moves more slowly than usual or jerks instead of rolling smoothly, it’s likely you have loose bolts, inadequate open and closing forces, or not enough lubrication. 

• Bent or damaged parts: If you notice the rollers have cracks, your tracks seem bent, or any other damaged part, it’s time for an inspection and most likely a garage door repair before the problem gets worse.  

• Door doesn’t open or close all the way: If your garage door doesn’t come all the way down or go all the way up, the door could be off-balance, or there could be an issue with the track or garage door opener.

If you feel your garage door is experiencing any of these issues or you sense there’s another problem, contact a garage repair professional in your area to check it out. By catching issues early, you can avoid injuries and larger expenses and repairs down the road.

What a Garage Door Tune-Up Includes

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When you schedule a garage door tune-up, a professional comes to your home and completes a thorough inspection. 

Here’s what a garage door technician does at a tune-up:

• Tests the door for smooth opening and closing.

• Inspects each component, including rollers, cables, springs, shafts, bearing plates, and tracks.

• Ensures tracks are level and adjusts if needed.

• Checks lubrication levels and adds lubricant to rollers, gears, bearings, chains, belts, hinges, and springs.

• Adjusts and tightens bolts, nuts, lags, and other hardware.

• Looks at and makes adjustments to spring tension, chain and belt tension, and limits and force.

• Checks function and safety of garage door opener and photo eye sensors.

• Inspects safety settings and counterbalance system.

• Removes debris buildup on tracks or from sensors.

• Checks for peeling paint and rust spots.

• Note any wear and tear or weather stripping.

• Adjusts drive gears, chains, belts, and other moving parts.

• Provides full report and recommended repairs, replacements, or maintenance.

Typical Cost of a Garage Door Tune-Up

A garage door tune-up costs between $100 and $240, on average. Minor repairs and maintenance are usually included, such as tightening bolts or adding lubrication. Larger repairs and replacement parts are an extra cost and depend on what needs fixing. 

A large part of how much a garage door tune-up costs is determined by labor. While certain aspects of the work seem simple, who you hire to fix a garage door matters in the extreme—a skilled pro can tune the garage door quickly and while the price might seem initially high, you’re avoiding a second visit due to poor workmanship. Like many things in life, you get what you pay for. Considering the generally low cost of this project, it’s wise to hire the best.   

How Often Should You Tune Up Your Garage Door?

You should tune up your garage door any time you notice an issue, like strange sounds, jerky movements, or if the door isn’t opening or closing properly. But if all is operating well, you should schedule a garage door tune-up every other year to avoid larger repairs, prevent injury, and prolong the lifetime of your garage door and opener. 

How to Tune Up Your Garage Door

Depending on the garage door part that requires tuning, you can see a wide range of price variance. Simply lubing a chain is much less expensive than replacing a lift cable. Remember that the cost of tuning is not only the cost of the part but the cost of the professional's time as well. 

1. Lubricate the Springs, Rollers, and Chain

Unless you want your garage door to freeze up like the Tin Man, you’ll need to apply some extra lubrication once or twice a year. Apply a silicone lubricant to your springs, rollers, and chains. While your springs and chains will almost always be metal, there’s a possibility that your rollers aren’t steel and are actually nylon or rubber. You should never use oil lubricants on nylon or rubber because it can help them deteriorate faster.

When using lubricants, always use the little straw that comes with the can and make sure you apply thin coats.

2. Tighten the Garage Door’s Nuts and Bolts

Every time your garage door opens and closes, the hardware moves with it. That causes them to loosen over time. Check your nuts, bolts, and screws. With the appropriate tools—screwdriver and wrench—tighten any that seem loose. 

This is a great chance to check if any other mechanisms are lax, for example, if you have a loose garage door chain.

3. Inspect the Lift Cable and Springs for Signs of Wear and Tear

There is one guaranteed way you can figure out if your lift cable and springs are going through tough times. Is your garage door opener working but your door won’t open? It’s likely that either your cable or spring is broken. You can usually tell if there’s slack in the lifting cable. 

Replacing a lift cable can be an appropriate DIY project for the experienced homeowner, but beware the garage door spring. In fact, you should avoid it completely. There’s a lot of tension packed into your garage door spring that makes changing it precarious and dangerous. Unless you’re an experienced professional, you should hire one.

4. Inspect the Weather Stripping

Your garage door weatherstrip is a rubber seal between your garage door and your concrete floor that helps your garage insulation. In the warmer months, it helps keep cool air in. During the rest of the year, it’ll keep water and rain out of your garage, protecting it from flooding.

Because your weatherstrip constantly presses into the ground, it can become worn or crack and need replacing.

5. Test Your Garage Door to Ensure It Opens and Closes Smoothly

The true test of whether your garage door tune-up was successful isn’t what it’s like when it’s open or closed. To test your door, you need to inspect it while it’s halfway open. First, if you have a garage door opener, disengage it from the door. Then, open the door halfway, leaving it in this position. If the door holds, your tune-up was successful. This means that its mechanisms—lift cable, springs, rollers, etc.—are in working order.

DIY Garage Tune-Up vs. Hiring a Garage Pro  

While you can save money by doing some parts of a garage tune-up and maintenance yourself, you should always contact a professional for a full inspection and larger repairs and adjustments. Replacing garage door springs, in particular, can be very dangerous, as they hold a lot of pressure. You should definitely let a garage pro handle that task, because a malfunctioning spring can cause the door to slam shut suddenly, causing severe injury. 

If you have an electronic garage door opener, have a professional handle any fixes. Injuries can happen from incorrectly adjusting the doors up and down or misaligned safety sensors.

Jouviane Alexandre contributed to this piece.