Whenever something breaks around the house, most of us go through a series of rationalizations about how easy it would be to fix it ourselves. It’s really no secret why this is—dealing with repairmen can be a fairly ridiculous strain on our wallets, our time, and our sanity. Between whatever the bill winds up being, having to take a day off of work so we can be home when they come, and the unease of having anyone in our home to touch our expensive appliances and possibly muck them up further, it’s no wonder that we need a running start to convince ourselves to call them. Sometimes we’re only willing to call a repairman after we irreparably screw up the repair ourselves, making the process even more costly; that being said, there’s a number of projects a methodical handyman can work out with minimal chance of wrecking anything too badly. Garage door opener repair is one such field.

This seems somewhat counterintuitive; between receivers, safety lasers, transmitters, and other such intangibles, this seems like one of the last things an un-experienced do-it-yourselfer would want to tackle. It’s not like fixing a doorknob where you can see how all the pieces fit together and work out the mechanics of it by yourself. Lots of facets of garage door opener repair are invisible to the naked eye; despite this, all of these mechanisms, however complex they may seem, work on fairly simple principles that can be trouble shot to help make that all important decision of whether or not to call in a professional. By way of example, one common ailment faced by garage door owners is that their door will not close. It will move as though it’s closing, but about halfway down the door will simply halt and start rising again. Some "handymen" will reach right for the toolbox and start amateurishly trying to test spring tension and the ilk. This is the wrong move. A quiet minute of thinking will help here—what causes the door to go back up when it’s trying to close? The infra-red sensors that keep the door from closing on things and people of course. Sometimes all that is required is a quick dusting of these sensors to get them back in proper working order, and there are many guides to trouble shooting this simple problem on the internet.

The best advice I can proffer to those thinking of trying garage door opener repair themselves is the same advice I have for people thinking of doing any home repairs—properly assess your skills. Figure out what working knowledge you really have of the apparatus in question, and don’t get in too deep until you know that you’ll be able to rectify any slip-ups you might make. Either way you might wind up calling the repair man anyways, but this way at least you can’t blame yourself for the bill.