As garage doors age, it is not uncommon for the door to go off track. When this happens, you will need to have it repaired immediately. When a door goes off track, it could be the result of problems with the rollers, bad bearings near the top of the track, broken springs, or actual damage to the door itself. The tracking problem may be the result of hitting the door with your vehicle, hardware coming loose, a lift cable breaking, any sort of obstruction to the track, or the tracks becoming misaligned.
If you notice that your garage door is coming off track for any reason, you will need to stop operating it immediately. Continuing to attempt to operate an off-track door can cause severe and permanent damage to the door itself.
How is an off-track garage door repaired?
It all depends on the manner in which your door has come off its track. It could be as simple as replacing the cable or the springs. If there are bad bearings, those bearings can be replaced. Loosened hardware can be tightened and repaired. Obstructions can be removed. Tracks that are misaligned can be either straightened or replaced depending on the damage. In many cases, the garage door itself will need to be straightened or, in a worst-case scenario, replaced. These are all repairs that should only be conducted by a garage door professional.
The before and after photos of this Lakeland project shows that the door not only came off the track, but the panels sustained damage. In this case, the tracks needed to be replaced, the door repaired, and placed on the new tracking. The result looks like it is a whole new door.