Our service standards

Every garage door company in Houston says it does quality work. Almost none of them define what that means, which makes the claim impossible to check and easy to say.

This page is the definition. These are the standards we hold to on every job, and they are written as commitments you can hold us to rather than adjectives. If we fail one, say so.

Pricing

A written price before any work starts. The document states what failed, what is being replaced or adjusted, the total including labour and disposal, and what the warranty covers. Not a verbal estimate that drifts, and not a figure that changes once the door is apart.

One flat rate, at any hour. Nights, weekends and holidays cost the same as a Tuesday afternoon. Emergency work is not a premium product — it is the same work at a worse time for you, and pricing it higher is charging you for the inconvenience of your door failing at 2am.

The visit fee is stated up front and credited to the repair. You know what the diagnostic costs before anyone travels, and if you proceed it comes off the bill rather than sitting on top of it.

If the diagnosis changes, we stop and re-quote. A door that looks like a spring on the phone can turn out to be a bent track and a twisted panel. When that happens, the number changes because the work changed — and you get asked before we continue, not after.

Workmanship

The cycle rating goes in writing on every spring. A 10,000-cycle spring and a 50,000-cycle spring look the same on the wall and are not the same product; the rating is the whole reason one costs more. Any quote that omits it is not comparable to one that includes it, which is usually why it is omitted.

The door is tested by hand before the opener is touched. Every time. A functioning opener masks a door that is out of balance, and imbalance is what kills springs early and openers eventually. Checking the opener first is how a service call becomes a parts guess.

The failed part is shown to you, not described. You should see the snapped spring, the frayed cable, the stripped gear. If a technician cannot produce the part they replaced, ask why.

The work area is left as we found it, with the old hardware taken away unless you want to keep it for a warranty claim.

Safety, without exception

The safety reverse is tested on every visit. A five-centimetre block under the closing door must send it back up. This is done regardless of what we were called for, because it is the device that stops a door closing on a child.

The photo-eye sensors are tested and aligned on every visit. Both lights steady, both lenses clean, both aimed correctly.

We will not bypass a safety device to make a door close. If a sensor has been disconnected because the door would not shut, the fault is the sensor or the alignment — not the safety feature. We will tell you if we find one that someone else bypassed, and we will not leave it that way.

We will not wind up the force setting to move a heavy door. A door that needs maximum force has a spring problem, and forcing it through the opener is how openers burn out and doors come down on things.

Honesty, including when it costs us

We will tell you when a repair is the answer, even when a replacement pays better. A stripped plastic gear is a gear. A door with a failed spring does not need a new door.

We will tell you when the work is not worth doing, and give you both numbers. If a repair costs more than half the price of a replacement door, replacement is usually the better buy, and you should hear that from us rather than work it out later.

We will not sell you an opener for a flat remote battery. Or a new door for a door that needs adjusting.

We will say "that can wait." Some faults are urgent and some are not, and saying which is which is more useful than treating everything as an emergency.

We will decline work we cannot do well — a job needing a licensed engineer, a door outside our range, or an address we cannot reach on time. Telling you to find someone closer costs us a job and saves you a wasted afternoon.

What you should expect from any company

These standards are not proprietary. Any competent garage door company should meet them, and you should expect them from whoever you hire — including us, and including whoever else quotes you.

The three questions that separate a serious operation from a sales operation:

1. What is the cycle rating of the spring you are quoting? If they cannot answer, they are not quoting a specification.
2. Can I have that in writing before you start? If the answer is vague, the price will be too.
3. Can I see the part you replaced? If not, ask what exactly was wrong.

What to expect on a service call covers the same ground from the other direction — what should happen while a technician is in your garage. And the credentials page has the insurance, warranty and certification details.