Garage door repair near you
Yes, we repair garage doors throughout Lents, and the work that sets it apart starts at floor level: seals, bottom panels, rollers and track ends worn by standing water, especially on the low blocks near Johnson Creek.
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Lents runs from 1890s to 1910s homes on the old Town of Lent blocks to modest postwar houses on the land that filled in later, plus newer apartment buildings, and the garages change along with the houses.
Some of the oldest houses have a small detached garage and some have none. Among the later houses you will find attached single-car garages and carports, and a carport has no door to fix. Interstate 205 runs through the middle of it all, splitting the neighborhood into east and west sides that we reach by different streets.
Then there is the water. Low-lying homes near Johnson Creek have flooded repeatedly: the creek swamped East Lents in December 2007, and it set its record crest at the Sycamore gauge in December 2015. A garage that took on water can show it years later as swollen bottom panels, rusted track ends and a seal that no longer meets the floor.
Where a postwar house has an attached garage, only one wall stands between it and the rooms people live in, so the door matters to how warm and dry the house stays. A gap at the bottom lets rain, leaves and cold air in.
Where water has reached a garage, the wear begins at floor level. Steel bottom sections rust along the lower edge, wood ones swell and soften, the lowest rollers seize in their brackets, and each vertical track corrodes where its lower end sits against wet concrete. A door can keep opening for months while that damage spreads, so a look after any high-water winter is worth the trouble.
Standing water drives these Lents calls: hardened seals, rusted or swollen bottom sections, pitted track ends, seized rollers and frayed lift cables.
A bottom seal that has hardened or torn lets runoff and wind-driven rain under the door, and a slab that slopes toward the garage makes it worse. We put a new seal in the retainer, or swap the whole retainer when the aluminum has corroded, and add a raised threshold if water still gets past.
When only the bottom section has rusted through or swollen, replacing that one panel can make more sense than a whole new door, provided the maker still offers a match in model and color. A new panel often cures a draft too, since a swollen section throws off the seal line, and we price a new door alongside when no match exists.
The lowest few feet of each vertical track take the worst of the water, and pitted, rusted track makes rollers bind and the door judder as it rises. New lengths of track anchored to sound framing put an end to it, and we check the jamb behind each track for rot while it is exposed.
Bottom rollers that sat in water seize or rust thin at the stem, and nylon rollers with sealed bearings hold up better in a damp garage. The bottom bracket beside them is under spring tension, so we unwind the springs before that bracket is ever loosened.
Lift cables run down to the bottom brackets, so on a door that stood in water the cable ends rust first, and a frayed end can let one side drop without warning. Stop running a cable that has started to unravel; we replace both cables, check the drums for corrosion and rebalance the door before we leave.
I-205 cuts straight through Lents, and Foster Rd, Powell Blvd and SE 82nd and 92nd Aves carry us from the freeway into the neighborhood, with Holgate and Woodstock Blvds reaching the blocks in between.
Because the freeway splits Lents in two, tell us which side of I-205 you are on when you book. A note about a carport, a locked side gate or a car parked in the driveway helps us bring the truck close to the door. If water is still standing in the garage when you call, say so, and keep the opener unplugged until it drains.
Oliver P. Lent platted the Town of Lent in 1892, and Portland annexed it in 1912, when it already had nearly 10,000 residents.
The MAX Green Line stops at Lents Town Center, and Ed Benedict Park holds the Portland Memory Garden.
Woody Guthrie lived in Lents for less than a month in 1941, and an apartment complex carries his name today.
The East Lents Floodplain Project, finished in late 2012, restored 70 acres of natural floodplain along Johnson Creek.
Lents Park dates to 1914, and the Springwater Corridor trail runs through the neighborhood.
Yes, both sides. We cover Lents west and east of the freeway, from the old Town of Lent blocks near Foster Rd to the streets past SE 92nd Ave. Whatever ZIP code your address carries, every Lents block is on our routes at the same posted prices, whichever side of the freeway your driveway sits on. Homes along the Springwater Corridor and around Lents Park are included.
Usually, yes. Flood damage on a garage door tends to stay low: a rusted or swollen bottom panel, seized rollers, a torn seal and pitted track ends. We replace those parts and test the springs and cables, which may have rusted too. If several panels are ruined or the door can no longer be matched, we quote a replacement next to the repair so you can compare the two.
Keep fixing it as long as the sections stay solid and parts are still made for it. Replace it when the bottom is rusted through, several panels are dented or swollen, or you want an insulated door for a garage built onto the house. We price both paths on one visit, so you can weigh the repair against the new door side by side before committing.
In most cases, yes, and Lents is an easy stop because I-205 runs right through it. Tell us the door is stuck open when you call. Until we arrive, leave the emergency release alone on a door that is up or partway up, because a door hanging on a failed spring or cable can fall hard the moment it is freed from the opener.
No, the price is identical. Lents is charged exactly what the posted price board lists for any address in the city, and a repair finished during the visit carries no trip fee. When we only inspect the door and you hold off on the work, the diagnostic fee on our price list covers that visit, and you keep the written quote for whenever you are ready.
Yes. The houses on the old Town of Lent blocks date from the 1890s to the 1910s, and where one has a garage, it may be a small detached building with an older door. We check the bottom edge of the door, the jambs the track is fastened to and the springs, which on an older, lighter door may be extension springs that need safety cables.
No, as long as the replacement matches the existing opening, since Portland exempts same-size door swaps from building permits. Changing the width or height of the opening does need one, as does a conversion to living space, and a garage in a mapped flood hazard area may not qualify for conversion at all. The basics are in the permits guide on this site.
Lents borders the neighborhoods below, and I-205 also carries us south into Happy Valley and Clackamas, so calls from either side of the county line share our routes.
Call with the symptom, or text a photo of the door and the opener, and we will name the part and the posted price before anyone drives out.