I live in a 25 year old house. I just happened to look at the (probably original) garage door lift cables one day as I was walking by. Those are the steel wires that run from the bottom of the garage door on each side, to a pulley or a drum above the door, and actually lift it up. They are made up of multiple strands of steel wire. As I looked at the cables closely, I discovered that one of them was badly frayed. A majority of the steel wires were broken and the heavy (close to 200 lbs.) double-wide door was being lifted on one side by less than half of the original cable. An accident waiting to happen!
Note to others…check your own garage door lift cables once in a while. It is a lot cheaper to replace the cables than to repair damage to your car if the cable breaks while your car is under the garage door. Or if a person or pet happens to be under the door when the lift cable breaks and is injured…I don’t even want to think about it.
I checked Angie’s List and saw a lot of good comments about Tim Hale at Able Garage Door Service. So I called him and set up an appointment for the next afternoon.
Tim arrived the next afternoon, a pair of lift cables in hand (you always replace them as a pair) and quickly set to work. In about 30 minutes he had replaced both lift cables, adjusted the torsion springs, checked the tracks for proper alignment, readjusted the down and up forces, and adjusted the safety reverse pressure sensing. He also lubed the rollers and hinges and suggested that I do so annually.
We gave him a check and he was on his way in about 35 minutes.
Tim Hale has over 15 years of experience in garage door installation and repair work
