Using this site
How to use what you read here
Everything published here is general information about how garage doors work and what the code requires in this corner of Florida. It is written carefully and sourced, and it is still not an inspection of your door — nobody can diagnose an assembly under spring tension from a web page.
General
information, never a diagnosis of your door
Market rates
observed and dated, not our quotes
Florida law
governs the use of this site
More detail if you want it
Information, not advice about your door
Reading these pages does not create a contractor relationship, and no page here is a substitute for someone looking at the assembly in front of them. Two doors that make the same sound can need different work, and the difference is usually something a photograph does not show.
Where a guide says to stop using a door, treat that as the cautious reading and act on it. Where it explains how a part fails, that is written so you can follow a conversation with a technician — not so you can take the part off. Spring, cable, drum and bottom-bracket work is done by licensed technicians because those components hold hundreds of pounds of stored energy whether the door is open or closed.
Prices, code and what applies to your address
The figures in the cost tables are market rates observed in this county on a stated date, with the source named beside them. They are not our quotes and they are not an offer: a real number comes from measuring your opening and reading the approval that fits it.
Building code changes, and it changes by county line. Wind speeds, approval routes and permitting differ between Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach, and what governs your project is what your building department applies to your address on the day of the permit. Where these pages and your building department disagree, your building department is right.
The site itself
The text, drawings, photographs and page structures here are ours and are not free to republish. Quoting a passage with attribution is welcome; copying pages into another contractor's site is not, and it is the sort of thing that is easy to demonstrate.
Some illustrations on this site are generated rather than photographed. They are used to show how a mechanism works and are never presented as a job we carried out — work we have done is shown only in the sections that say so, using real photographs.
These pages are provided as they are. We keep them accurate and dated, and we correct what is wrong when it is pointed out, but we do not accept liability for a decision taken on a guide instead of on an inspection. This site is operated from Florida and Florida law governs its use.
Using these garage door pages: the limits
Is a price shown on this garage door site a quote?
A price on this site is not a quote: the cost tables show market rates observed in this county, dated, with the source named.
- Your number depends on your opening
- And on the approval that fits it
- And on what is found when the old door comes off
Can a guide here be followed to repair a garage door without a technician?
Lubrication, cleaning sensor lenses and changing a remote battery are written for exactly that, and springs are not.
- Springs, cables, drums and the bottom bracket
- Those hold stored energy at all times
- Florida licenses the trade that handles them
A guide here and my city inspector disagree about a garage door. Who is right?
Your inspector is right: the authority that issues your permit decides what applies at your address.
- These pages describe the code as it reads
- They are updated when it changes
- Tell us the finding and we work to it
Which law governs the use of this garage door site?
Florida law governs the use of this site, and nothing published here creates a contract on its own.
- A contract begins with a signed written scope
- General information, never a diagnosis
- Nobody can diagnose a loaded door from a page
Sources
- Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation
- Florida Senate — Statutes
Edited by Avidan Benichay · Updated
General information about garage doors in South Florida — not a diagnosis of your door, and not a quote. Code and prices vary by address and change over time. Terms of use
More about us
- PrivacyThis site asks for four things — a service, a preferred time, a name and a phone number — and uses them to answer you about that request.Four fieldsservice, time, name, phone — nothing more
- Reading a licenseFlorida issues contractor licenses in two forms that look alike on a business card and are not equivalent.2license forms that look alike and are not
Can a handyman do it?For anything structural — springs, cables, panels, tracks, or installing a door — no.1dedicated Florida specialty license for garage doors
Next step
Not sure which part failed?
Most garage door faults are identifiable from the noise and the way the door moves. Start there — it usually costs less than you expect.
You describe what the door is doing
The noise it makes, how far it travels, whether the opener runs.
We test it on site
Springs, cables, balance, tracks, opener force and the safety reverse.
You get the price before any work starts
Itemized in writing, including the permit when the job needs one.
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