Full 25-point door and opener safety check with every visit - springs, cables, rollers, tracks, and your LiftMaster or Chamberlain opener included
You get a price before we start. It does not change when the truck arrives.
Before
After
Before
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Before
AfterGarage Door Won’t Close All the Way
A garage door that stops partway down and reverses, or just stalls and won’t budge past a certain point, almost always means one of four things: a sensor is blocked or misaligned, a spring has lost tension, a cable has slipped or snapped, or the opener’s force settings are out of adjustment. The good news is that a trained technician can diagnose the exact cause in minutes and have most doors closing correctly the same day.
None of these causes fix themselves, and running the door repeatedly against a problem tends to make the repair more involved, not less. If your door is stopping mid-travel, reversing for no obvious reason, or grinding and shuddering on its way down, the right call is to stop cycling it and find out what’s actually wrong before something gives out completely.
Why It Happens
1. Safety Sensor Misalignment or Obstruction
Every modern garage door opener has a pair of photo-eye sensors mounted a few inches off the floor on each side of the door track. When the invisible beam between them is broken or the sensors aren’t aimed at each other, the opener reads it as something in the path and reverses the door. You can usually spot this one quickly: look at both sensors and check whether one has a blinking or dim indicator light. Most units show a steady green on one side and a steady amber on the other when they’re aligned properly. A blinking light, a dirty lens, or a sensor that’s been bumped out of position is often all that’s going on.
2. Broken or Weakened Torsion Spring
The torsion spring above your door does most of the heavy lifting – literally. It stores mechanical energy when the door closes and releases it to help the opener raise the door. When a spring breaks or loses enough tension, the opener can’t generate enough force to pull the door fully down against the proper resistance, so it stalls or reverses. A broken spring is usually obvious: you may have heard a loud bang (often described as a gunshot inside the garage), and you’ll likely see a visible gap in the coil when you look at the spring above the door. Do not attempt to operate or service torsion springs yourself. They are under extreme tension and can cause serious injury. Stop using the door and call your local Brock Garage Door Repair team.
3. Cable Slack, Fraying, or Separation
Steel lift cables run from the bottom corners of your door up and around drums at the top of the track. If a cable slips off its drum, frays, or snaps, one side of the door loses its guided path and the panel binds in the track before it reaches the floor. Look at the lower corners of the door and trace the cable upward – a cable that has piled up on the floor of the garage, gone slack on one side, or is visibly frayed or kinked is a clear sign. Like springs, cables carry significant tension and should not be handled by anyone who isn’t trained on them. Stop using the door.
4. Opener Force or Travel Settings Out of Adjustment
Garage door openers have adjustable force limits that tell the motor how hard to push and how far to travel before stopping. If these settings drift – often after a power surge, a firmware reset, or simply years of use – the opener can interpret normal door resistance as an obstruction and reverse before the door reaches the floor. This one is quieter and more gradual: no bang, no visible damage, just a door that stops at the same spot every time. The limit and force dials or electronic settings are inside the opener head, and adjusting them incorrectly can actually defeat the safety reversal system. It’s a short job for a technician and not worth experimenting with on your own.
What to Do Right Now
- Stop cycling the door. Running it up and down repeatedly while something is wrong puts extra stress on the opener motor, the cables, and whatever component is already under strain. One more cycle won’t diagnose the problem – it may just create a second one.
- Check the photo-eye sensors. Look at both small sensor units near the floor on each side of the track. Wipe the lenses with a dry cloth and check the indicator lights. If both lights are steady, the sensors are fine. If one is blinking, something is blocking the beam or the sensor has been knocked out of alignment. You can gently pivot the sensor in its bracket until the light goes steady – that’s a safe, no-tool adjustment.
- Look, don’t touch, the spring and cables. Scan the spring above the door for a visible gap or separation in the coil. Check both cable runs for slack, fraying, or a cable sitting on the floor. If you see either, note it and step back. Do not pull on cables or attempt to reattach them. Call your local Brock Garage Door Repair team.
- Check the track for debris or a visible bend. A rock, a tool, or a bent section of track can stop a door at the same point every time. If you see something in the track, remove it carefully. If the track itself is bent or warped, leave it for a technician.
- Photograph what you see. A quick photo of the spring, the cables, or the point where the door stops is genuinely useful when you call. It helps the technician arrive with the right parts and shortens the job.
How We Fix It
When a Brock technician arrives, the first thing they do is a full visual inspection of the door system: springs, cables, drums, sensors, tracks, and the opener unit. That inspection takes roughly ten to fifteen minutes and produces a clear diagnosis – not a guess.
Once the cause is confirmed, you receive a written price for the repair before any work starts. That’s not optional and it’s not a formality; it’s how every Brock job runs under The Garrison Standard. The number on the invoice will match the number you approved.
Most sensor, cable, and spring repairs fall under our Garage Door Repair service. If the opener’s internal settings or components are the culprit, that falls under Garage Door Opener Repair. Either way, a technician carries the parts most commonly needed for these repairs, and the majority of jobs are completed in a single visit. The work is covered by the 365-Day Done Right Promise: if the repair fails within a full year, we come back and make it right at no charge. That guarantee is in writing on every job – not a verbal assurance that disappears after the truck leaves.
Frequently Asked Questions
If the door is stuck partway down and you can’t get it to close, secure the garage as well as you can and don’t leave the space unattended. A door that stops mid-travel because of a broken spring or a failed cable is mechanically unstable – it can drop without warning if the remaining components give out. Don’t stand under it or prop it open with anything. Call your local Brock team and let them know the door is stuck in an open or intermediate position; they’ll treat it accordingly. You can reach a live person any time of day or night at (254) 602-5116.
It depends on what’s causing it. A sensor that just needs wiping is low urgency. A broken spring or a frayed cable is not – those are active structural failures, and the door can come down unexpectedly or jam in a way that locks your car inside. Either way, a door that won’t close fully is also a security gap. If you see any sign of spring or cable damage, treat it as urgent and call (254) 602-5116 now. A live person will answer.
Your local Brock Garage Door Repair team handles repair calls, and a live person answers around the clock – nights, weekends, and holidays included. Call (254) 602-5116 and tell us what you’re seeing. We’ll let you know the earliest available window and give you a specific arrival time, not a vague estimate.
No. The written price covers the repair that was diagnosed and agreed to before any work starts. If the technician opens something up and finds additional damage that wasn’t visible during the inspection, they’ll stop, tell you what they found, and give you a new written price for the added scope before touching anything else. You never approve a price you haven’t seen first. That’s part of The Garrison Standard on every job.
Get It Fixed
A door that won’t close all the way isn’t going to sort itself out. Call (254) 602-5116 – a live person answers around the clock – or book online. Your local Brock Garage Door Repair team will diagnose the problem, hand you a written price, and get it done right.
Written by Wade Mercer, Owner and Technician at Brock Garage Door Repair, operating under the Garrison Partners network since 2001.
What Our Customers Say
"Disciplined and polite. He did a full checklist on the door before leaving, even things I hadn't called about."
- Melody B."My husband served and he loved talking with the tech. The man did a careful, honest job on our springs."
- Doris P."Door stuck open with a snapped cable. Tech was squared away, explained what happened, and fixed it in under an hour. Price was what he said it would be."
- Cynthia M.