Garage Door Adjustments

It still works, but badly: stops an inch shy of the floor, reverses off phantom obstructions, slams the last foot, drifts open from halfway, or the opener audibly labors on the way up. Those are calibration symptoms. Repair symptoms are different — grinding, snapping sounds, visible damage. Adjustment problems are cheaper and faster to fix, which is a good reason not to sit on them.

Spring steel gradually relaxes over thousands of cycles, delivering a little less lift each year. The opener masks it by working harder — until the strain strips its gear or burns the motor. Re-tensioning restores correct balance so the opener is only guiding the door, not hauling it. It requires winding bars and belongs in the never-DIY category alongside spring replacement.

Directly — close force determines how hard the door pushes before deciding it's hit something and reversing. Set too high (often done to force a maladjusted door shut), the door can strike a person or pet with real force before stopping. Part of every adjustment visit is setting force to the minimum that operates the door reliably, then verifying the reverse actually trips.

Usually, yes. Doors on San Francisco's steep-lot garages often carry limit and force settings that fight the geometry — the last foot of travel behaves differently when the approach slopes hard. Recalibrated limits and correct spring balance cure most slammers. If the slam persists after tuning, the springs themselves are undersized or worn, and we'll show you the balance test that proves it.