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Odd dent in garage door

thecooguy

New member
Joined
May 14, 2014
Messages
2
Hello all; first time poster, so forgive me if this type of issue has already been asked about 100 times; I tried to search for it but found no mention of my specific issue on this forum or any other.

Anyway, yesterday my roommate (who owns the condo that I live in) informed me that he found a dent in the garage door where my girlfriend parks her car when she visits.

I've seen dented garage doors from vehicle's bumping into them, and this one just doesn't seem the same. What I see is a small inward buckle, a couple inches wide and nearly perfectly vertical on the bottom panel.

Furthermore, she's very careful when parking in this spot. We couldn't find any front bumper scratches on her car nor any of her car's paint on the garage door. I don't think she hit it.

Since this is a condo and there are many units like it, I walked up and down the road and looked at similar garage doors, and sure enough, I found a couple other doors with similar characteristics within a couple blocks. On the 2nd garage door, the inwards buckle was diagonal but still straight, and also on the bottom panel. On the 3rd door, the buckle was vertical, straight, and on the bottom 2 panels, perfectly lined up on both panels.

Can anyone shed light on what may have caused this issue? I want to say that maybe it's a defect in the garage door panel but I have no clue. My roommate is accusing my girlfriend of doing this and I don't want her to have to bear responsibility if she did not cause the problem.

If it matters, I live in Daly City, California, on a small mountain (or hill, depending who you ask) near San Francisco. Sometimes there are heavy winds, heavy fog, occasional rain... not sure what environmental impacts could be relevant here.

Here's a link to download the pictures since they are too big to attach to this forum: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B25URhaLZL4ROG5YcFA2aGxoX1E/edit?usp=sharing

Thanks for any feedback.
 
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softailgarage

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 20, 2011
Messages
5,153
Location
Bullhead City, Az.
Are you sure your roommate didn't do it and is blaming your girlfriend? Do they get along or is your roomy playin games? As far as structural integrity, I would go to the manufacturer website, see if they posted any kind of recall. Oh and welcome to The Garage!
 

JakeKohl

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Joined
Feb 23, 2012
Messages
1,365
Location
Greenville, SC
All of these doors look like they have a lot of weight on them with improperly balanced springs. How heavy are they to open? The one with the dent in the corner of it looks like it's got enough weight on it to blow the gasket out of shape. All of these look like they might have been closed hard and hit the ground with a lot of force. The buckling could be a result of that.
 

Blk88GT

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Joined
Mar 16, 2009
Messages
1,079
Location
Manitoba
Lay a straight edge/level across the opening of the door. I bet one side is higher than the other and it'll be the one with the buckle in it. The dent is from the door being pushed into the ground by the opener, or by coming down too fast manually and bumping off the ground into an uneven surface. I highly doubt it's from anyone hitting it.
 

cdestuck

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 13, 2013
Messages
1,462
Location
Altoona, Pa
Just for craps ands giggles, while opening the door, stand on a ladder to check out the clearance between the door and rafters above.
 

G_P

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Joined
Jul 11, 2010
Messages
7,135
Location
Central CT
That does not at all look like a car hit it. I agree with what has been posted above. The door is hitting the ground too hard or it was closed with something laying on the ground that caused the door to strike the object and force its way down causing the buckling.
 
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thecooguy

New member
Joined
May 14, 2014
Messages
2
Thanks for the suggestions everyone. After reading all of your responses, here's what I found out:

* First of all, there is no bad blood between my girlfriend and roommate. :)

* I'm not sure how to find out the garage door manufacturer or model number as there is no apparent indication on the door itself (unless I missed it??); I'll have to wait for the roommate to come home to see if he knows.

* Unless a rogue bicyclist slammed into the garage, there wasn't a bike that hit it. I do have a motorcycle but I am 100% certain that I've never hit the garage. Also there's no tire rubber on the garage.

* The door is not very heavy to open manually. How would I even go about telling if a spring is improperly imbalanced? I don't know the first thing about that.

* I opened and closed the garage several times and the door seems to be closing like every other garage door I've encountered; that is to say when it hits the ground it does make a somewhat loud noise but I wouldn't say it's necessarily louder than any other garage door that I've used. Again, I'm no expert on this subject so I'm not sure what to look/listen for.

* I don't have the best level in the world since I don't do any of my own construction, but I do have a tiny little freebie level and it does appear that ground is level... if anything, the other side of the garage (the side further from the dent) is a hair higher, but not enough to make the bubble wander outside of the lines.

* There's adequate clearance between the door and rafters.

So as far as I can tell, based on all of your feedback, most likely the garage door is hitting the ground too hard when it closes. Would that be a fair assumption? Would it be worthwhile to have the garage door's installer give his opinion (not sure if this will cost $$)?
 

Daniel Dudley

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 4, 2009
Messages
3,546
A small vertical buckle like a crease can indeed be caused by banging a door with a smooth bumper. The door bends inward, and then it folds in one spot.
 

jstroede

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 28, 2010
Messages
1,082
Location
Kansas City
Pics of inside of door?

Look on the end of the door (on the side of the section) to look for a manufacturer label.

John
 

buildmyown

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 3, 2010
Messages
783
Location
Franklin Ma
Easy solution have said girlfriend pull up to the door and see if any part of her car lines up with the damage on the door.
 

MJB24

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 20, 2013
Messages
662
Location
Minnesota
UPS truck

Those guys get in big trouble for going in most driveways. Only the rural routes are allowed to.

I haven't loaded the pictures but if it is all over the condo units perhaps a property managers truck backing a trailer hitch into them?

Maybe he is around lawn cutting, changing light bulbs or some other purpose and they have hit a few?
 

LB-1911

ALLIANCE MEMBER
Joined
Sep 24, 2011
Messages
5,746
Location
Northwestern Il.
Thanks for the suggestions everyone. After reading all of your responses, here's what I found out:

* First of all, there is no bad blood between my girlfriend and roommate. :)

* I'm not sure how to find out the garage door manufacturer or model number as there is no apparent indication on the door itself (unless I missed it??); I'll have to wait for the roommate to come home to see if he knows.

* Unless a rogue bicyclist slammed into the garage, there wasn't a bike that hit it. I do have a motorcycle but I am 100% certain that I've never hit the garage. Also there's no tire rubber on the garage.

* The door is not very heavy to open manually. How would I even go about telling if a spring is improperly imbalanced? I don't know the first thing about that.

* I opened and closed the garage several times and the door seems to be closing like every other garage door I've encountered; that is to say when it hits the ground it does make a somewhat loud noise but I wouldn't say it's necessarily louder than any other garage door that I've used. Again, I'm no expert on this subject so I'm not sure what to look/listen for.

* I don't have the best level in the world since I don't do any of my own construction, but I do have a tiny little freebie level and it does appear that ground is level... if anything, the other side of the garage (the side further from the dent) is a hair higher, but not enough to make the bubble wander outside of the lines.

* There's adequate clearance between the door and rafters.

So as far as I can tell, based on all of your feedback, most likely the garage door is hitting the ground too hard when it closes. Would that be a fair assumption? Would it be worthwhile to have the garage door's installer give his opinion (not sure if this will cost $$)?


Balance test @ 1:30
Garage Door Maintenance Checklist, Tips and Tests - GarageDoorCare.com


http://www.garagedoorcare.com/index.html
 
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