The Most Common Causes Of Garage Door Bending

The Importance Of Keeping Your Garage Door In Good Shape

Do you have a garage door that is always giving you trouble? Is it struggling to open or closing crookedly? If so, you may need to call a professional local garage door company to fix it. But before that, you can also get informed about the most common cause of garage door bending, especially if you want to keep yours in good condition.

In addition to serving as an important entrance to your home, garage doors also play an essential role in protecting your property. That’s why it’s important to keep them in good shape. With that in mind, read on to learn all about garage door bending.

Why Does A Garage Door Bend?

The last thing you want on a rushed morning is a malfunctioning garage door. Without basic care, a garage door may start to sag, warp, or bend. It won’t take long for the door to stop working after this happens, leaving you stuck with a possibly costly repair or replacement.

Understanding the root reasons for a sagging garage door may help you avoid it altogether. Here are seven of the most common causes of a bent garage door:

1. Playing Bumper Cars With Your Garage Door

The picture above is a worse-case scenario, but it does happen. Occasionally it is out of your control and it is someone else that hits your garage door with their car.

However, more homeowners bump their garage door with their own car more often than you think. It may not be an immediate repair, but that bump from the car can cause garage door bending more and more over time. Have a trained professional garage door company come out and inspect the damage and they will provide recommendations for the best ways to prevent the bending from happening.

2. Poor Quality

Garage doors can come in different gauges, or thickness, of steel. The thinner the metal, the more susceptible your garage door is to bending. A new garage door built of top-notch materials, installed by a professional garage door repair service, should guarantee years of trouble-free operation for your entrance. Fortunately, it’s not difficult to find a company that offers only the highest-quality garage doors from reliable manufacturers.

3. Extreme Weather

Arizona weather can be severe. A garage door may be under a lot of stress during monsoon seasons. High winds during a storm might cause damage to your door. According to DASMA (Door & Access Systems Manufacturers Association), wind loading is one of the primary structural stressors on residential garage doors, and doors in high-wind regions benefit from reinforced bracing and heavier-gauge steel panels.

If you notice one of the sections is damaged or bowed after a storm, you may not need to change the entire door. Contact a qualified garage door professional to check whether the section is able to be replaced. Same Day Garage Door Services provides emergency repair service across Mesa, Chandler, Tempe, Gilbert, and the greater Phoenix metro area.

4. Uneven Tracks

Garage door tracks control the rollers to open and close within the door frame. If the tracks aren’t exactly aligned, the door will be stressed and bent. When you use the door, it may also become trapped and buckle. If the tracks are misaligned, the door can entirely come off its tracks, therefore it’s essential to call a technician right away for garage door repair.

Even if you think the tracks are “easy” to repair, you should avoid doing the task yourself. Getting a professional and trusted garage repair service is not only beneficial for your garage door but also safe for yourself. 📖 Learn more about bent garage door tracks and how to fix them.

5. J-Arm Installed Incorrectly

The garage door opener J-Arm is usually made up of two flat metal bars bolted to each other. The J-Arm connects the garage door opener to the garage door and allows the opener to pull the door open, and push it shut. If the opener J-Arm is installed in the wrong direction or at an incorrect angle, the door or rail may flex, causing noticeable damage.

6. A Strut Is Missing

Reinforcement struts strengthen the garage door sections. They are long U-shaped steel bars that are bolted onto the back of the sections from edge to edge. Struts add more strength to the door to open and close more gently and with less buckling or bending.

If there is no strut on the top section of the door, the opening and closing of the opener will add stress to the section and cause it to crack and eventually fail. This is one of the reasons why having a professional assess your door’s hardware during a routine annual maintenance visit is so important — a missing or damaged strut is easy to miss but costly to ignore.

7. Gravity

Watch your garage door as it is opening. You might see a slight bounce or movement in the middle of each of the sections as the section turns horizontal while moving. That “bouncing” over the course of hundreds or thousands of times is going to cause the steel to weaken which will cause cracks, leading to the section bending. This is due to all of the weight and gravity of the door wanting to go to the center of the door where the pressure is the highest.

When Should You Replace a Bent Section vs. the Whole Door?

Not every bent panel means you need a brand-new door. In many cases, a single damaged section can be replaced without touching the rest of the door — saving you significant money. The decision depends on several factors: the age of the door, how many sections are affected, whether the tracks or hardware were also damaged, and whether the door is still in production so replacement sections are available.

According to Bob Vila, a garage door that is properly maintained and shows damage limited to one section is usually a good candidate for section replacement rather than full replacement. However, if the door is more than 15–20 years old or multiple sections have been compromised, full replacement often makes more long-term financial sense.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) also notes that a structurally compromised garage door can pose entrapment and injury risks — particularly if the door’s balance or auto-reverse mechanism is affected by the bending. If your door has bent or warped panels, have a professional inspect the full system before continuing to use it. 📖 See also: the dangers of a malfunctioning garage door.

DIY Garage Door Upkeep

Maintaining your garage door is essential to avoid jams, buckling, and bending. Here are some steps you can take to avoid constant repairs per year. If any component gets broken or damaged, contact a garage repair service as soon as possible. Avoid repairing your garage door yourself!

— Wipe everything down, taking extra care of moving parts. Remove any accumulated grease or debris.

— Lubricate the hinges, tracks, springs, rollers, and bearings with silicone-based garage door spray lube. You might also need to grease the chain or belt drive, depending on your model.

— Keep the hinges tight.

— Clean up the door’s outside. You can use diluted home detergent.

— Replace any cracked or broken weatherstripping.

Get A Garage Door Repair Service When Necessary

The best way to extend your garage door’s lifespan is to schedule regular maintenance. Same Day Garage Door Services is aware of your busy schedule, which is why we provide flexible schedules so you don’t have to worry about any garage door issues.

We are a licensed, bonded, and insured garage repair company, and our exceptional service has earned us five-star reviews on Google and Yelp. We offer free, no-obligation estimates on new garage doors and timely service throughout Mesa, Chandler, Tempe, Gilbert, and the entire East Valley.

If your garage door is bending, sagging, or showing signs of damage, don’t wait for it to get worse. Schedule a same-day service appointment online or contact us today — or call us at 480-750-7975.