HOUSTON GUIDE

What to ask before a garage door crew works on the bay

The truck is in the driveway and the questions start late if they start at the shaft. Before anyone unwinds a spring or unbolts a track, you want a written scope, proof of insurance you can read, and a clear answer about permits. Inside Houston that conversation points at the Houston Permitting Center. In unincorporated Harris County it points at the county. Nearby cities do not share those counters. This page is the list. It is not a ranking of companies.

By Mike Maziarz · Sources checked October 6, 2026 · How we write these guides

A written scope before a tool comes out

Ask what they will replace and what they will leave. Springs, one or both, cables, rollers, photo eyes, track, panels, opener: each is a line or it is not in the job. Ask what they do if they open the work and find a drum that will not take the cable, or a panel that cracks at the hinge. A revision can be honest. A blank authorization to do whatever is needed is not a scope. You can read the page on what a repair includes before they arrive so the nouns match the bay you have.

Ask who is on site and whether a spring will be wound that day. Torsion springs are not a trainee exercise you should host by surprise. Ask how they keep people out of the bay while the shaft is under tension. Ask whether the door will be balanced and cycled before they leave, with the photo eyes connected. A visit that ends with the eyes taped so the door will close is not finished. Say that limit out loud. The crew can come back. The beam stays.

Insurance and the paper you keep

Ask for a certificate of insurance that names the company in the driveway, not a photocopy of another firm's wallet card. You are checking that they carry coverage for the work, not running a background service this site does not offer. License and permit rules are local. Confirm whatever the office for your address currently requires, and ask the company which credentials they claim and where you can verify them.

Get the price on their paper, after the scope is specific. This site does not publish figures. Compare two written lists that name the same parts, not two verbal estimates that used the word spring in different ways. Keep the proposal with the notes from the day: what failed, whether water had been in the bay, whether the door was crooked when they arrived. If a referral phone number appears on a page later, that call is not us choosing a favorite crew. You still use this list.

Which office matches the address

A house inside the City of Houston is a Houston Permitting Center question when the work needs a permit. A house in unincorporated Harris County is a county question. People mix those up because the neighborhood name feels like Houston. The mailing address and the city limits are the facts to read off the paperwork, not the high school. Ask the company who pulls the permit if one is required, and whose inspection they expect. Do not pay for a city permit on a county job, or skip a permit the office would have required, on a shrug.

Katy, Pearland, Sugar Land, and Pasadena are separate cities. A Houston permit does not automatically cover a door there. The Woodlands is a nearby community with its own rules, not a Harris County form you fill out by habit. When the house is in one of those places, say the city when you call. Ask that company which counter they use for that city. Bring the same skepticism to a new door that a brochure calls wind-rated. The rating still has to be compared with what that office currently asks. Nothing on this site invents the number.

Make them name the failed part

A company that diagnoses from the driveway in thirty seconds may be right, or may be selling the part on the truck. Ask them to say whether the spring balances the door, whether the cables are seated, and whether the opener still works once the door is balanced. The split in opener or door problem is the question to hand them. Replacing a motor that was only straining against a broken spring is a failed hire, even if the crew was polite.

If the decision is a new door rather than parts, slow down. The page on repair or replacement is the fork: straight panels and a bad spring versus a leaf that is done. Ask whether the track and opener are reused, who pulls the permit, and how a wind-rated product was matched to the current rule for the address. A replacement started the same hour, with the old door already in the truck, is a hard moment to change your mind. You can ask them to leave the old door up, if it is safe, until the paper matches.

Storm damage and safety limits you set

After wind or flood, say both clearly. An opener that was under water stays unplugged, and you should not hire someone whose plan is to energize it as a test. A door off its track is not a side job for a crew that only carries remote batteries. Ask if they will make the opening safe and return for parts, and what safe means: door down, bay clear, power off. If you smell gas at a water heater or garage heater, do not interview anyone in the bay. Leave, skip the switches, and call the emergency number on the CenterPoint Energy bill from outside.

Tell every bidder the same facts so the scopes match. Door width, alley or street approach, car trapped or not, bang from the header or not. An alley garage in the Heights and a front door in Garden Oaks are different arrivals. Mention that once. You are not decorating the story. You are preventing a truck that cannot reach the building. If the door is stuck open tonight, the page on a door stuck open is the holding plan while you choose a company in daylight.

After they leave

Watch one full cycle. The door should travel without a lean, reverse on the eyes, and sit fully closed without bouncing itself back open. Ask for the manual settings they changed. Ask what you should not oil, especially a spring they just installed, and when a maintenance look makes sense in this humidity. A warranty spoken in the driveway should be on the invoice: what parts, how long, and what voids it. A flood you cause later is different from a cable that frays next month.

If the work does not match the scope, stop using a door that still looks wrong and call them back before you call a second company to undo it. Two crews adjusting the same shaft is how set screws get confused. If the first company will not return, get their invoice in hand before someone else unwinds the new spring. You are allowed to be specific and slow. A garage door is a moving weight over a space people walk through. Speed is not the courtesy that matters.