Garage Door Installation

What We Measure Before Ordering Your Door

The width and height of the opening set the door size, but a good install depends on more than that. Headroom, the space between the top of the opening and the ceiling, decides whether a standard torsion spring setup fits. Sideroom on each side has to clear the vertical track and spring hardware, and backroom has to fit the full horizontal track and the opener.

We also check that the jambs are plumb and solid enough to hold the track fasteners, and where the power outlet is relative to the opener. Getting this right before anything is ordered is what keeps installation day smooth, with no surprises.

How to Choose the Right Garage Door

Most homes in Southern California get a steel door, either a classic raised-panel design or a flush or grooved modern style. The choices that matter most are steel thickness, insulation and finish, and we'll walk you through each one.

What changes how your door looks, sounds and lasts:

• Steel gauge: thinner steel dents more easily. If the door faces a basketball hoop or a busy street, heavier steel is worth it.
• Insulation: polystyrene or polyurethane between the steel skins. It matters most on attached garages, converted garages and west-facing doors that bake all afternoon.
• Construction: a single-layer door is a steel skin only. Two-layer adds insulation, and three-layer sandwiches it between two steel skins for a quieter, stiffer door.
• Finish: factory-baked finishes hold up far better than paint. That counts here, where darker colors on a south or west-facing garage take a beating from the sun.
• Windows: more natural light in the garage, weighed against privacy.
• Style: raised panel, carriage house, or a clean flush modern look.

Our Garage Door Installation Process

We remove the old door and hardware, check the opening and prep the jambs. The new sections go in from the bottom up, with hinges and rollers set as each one stacks. We plumb the vertical tracks, then hang and level the horizontal tracks from the ceiling framing.

Next come the springs, sized to the finished weight of your door, along with the cable drums and bearings. We set both cables to equal tension so the door lifts evenly, and we balance the door by hand before the opener is ever connected. The opener should never be what holds the door up.

Last, we install or reconnect the opener, align the safety sensors, set the force and travel limits, and run a reversal test so the door backs up if anything is underneath it. Then we clean up. Adriana Virgen, who chose us over four other bids, summed it up in a Google review: "Very clean and careful with my property."

New Garage Door Openers and California's Battery Backup Law

Since July 1, 2019, California law (SB-969) has required every residential garage door opener sold or installed in the state to have a battery backup. Every new opener we install includes one, so your door still opens during a power outage without wrestling the manual release in the dark.

If your current opener works and was installed before the law, you don't have to replace it. If you're replacing the opener along with the door, the new one will have battery backup built in. Call us for a free estimate and we'll price the door and opener together.

Garage door opener installation →