Kustom Finds Why Your Door Won't Move and Fixes It
You press the button. Nothing. You press it again. The light on the opener blinks, or the motor hums, or nothing happens at all — but the door does not move. It is sitting right there in front of you, looking perfectly normal, but it will not go up. Or it went halfway up and stopped. Or it opened this morning and now it will not close. It looks fine. It is on its tracks. Nothing is visibly broken or hanging loose. But it will not move, and you have no idea why.
A stuck garage door is one of the most frustrating home problems because the cause is invisible to the homeowner. The door looks like it should work. It was working yesterday. Nothing has visibly changed. But somewhere in the system — in the springs, the cables, the rollers, the tracks, the opener, the sensors, the electronics, or the hardware — something has failed, seized, jammed, disconnected, or malfunctioned, and that invisible failure has rendered the largest moving object in your home completely immobile.
The frustration is compounded by urgency. Your vehicle may be trapped inside the garage. Your home may be unsecured with the door stuck open. Your morning schedule may be derailed with no alternative route out. A stuck garage door is not a future project — it is an immediate problem that needs an immediate solution.
Kustom is the team Mountain Home homeowners call when the garage door will not move. We diagnose the specific cause — whether mechanical, electrical, or electronic — and repair it the same day. We do not guess. We do not default to the most expensive fix. We find the actual failure, explain it clearly, price it honestly, and resolve it so your door moves again.
Your door is stuck. Call (888) 670-9331. Kustom unsticks it today.
The most urgent scenario. The door is down, and it will not rise. Your car may be inside. You cannot access your garage. The most common causes of a door stuck fully closed are a broken spring (the counterbalance is gone, and the opener cannot lift the dead weight), a snapped cable (the connection between spring energy and the door is broken), stripped opener gears (the motor runs but cannot transfer force to the drive), or the manual lock being engaged (the door is physically locked and cannot move).
The door went up and now refuses to close. Your garage is exposed — open to weather, pests, and security risk. The most common causes are safety sensor issues (the sensors detect an obstruction that is not there and refuse to allow closing), limit switch problems (the opener thinks the door is already in the closed position), or an electronic malfunction in the opener's control logic.
The door started moving and stopped somewhere in the middle of its travel — neither fully open nor fully closed. It may have encountered an obstruction, hit a binding point where a roller or track problem creates enough resistance to stop the door's momentum, or experienced a spring or cable failure during travel that shifted the load beyond the opener's capacity.
You can hear the opener motor running — the hum, the chain noise, the belt movement — but the door stays perfectly still. The mechanical connection between the opener and the door has been lost. Stripped drive gears are the most common cause. The motor spins, but the gear that transfers rotation to the drive mechanism is no longer engaging. A disconnected trolley carriage can also produce this symptom.
The door began its travel normally and then stopped before completing the full cycle. If it stopped and reversed, the opener's safety system detected resistance — a binding point, a sensor trigger, or a force setting that was exceeded. If it stopped and stayed in position, the opener may have hit its limit setting prematurely, lost power mid-cycle, or experienced a mechanical failure that developed during the travel.
When nothing works — no remote response, no wall button response, no keypad response, no opener lights, no sound — the opener has either lost power entirely or experienced a total electronic failure. The circuit board may have failed, the transformer may have burned out, or a power surge may have damaged the electronics. Check whether the outlet has power before assuming the opener is at fault.
A door that starts to move and immediately reverses — traveling less than a few inches before returning to its starting position — is encountering resistance that the opener's force settings will not override. The resistance may come from a broken spring (the opener detects the full weight of the unbalanced door and reverses), a binding point in the tracks, or force settings calibrated too sensitively for the current door condition.
Click here to Call (888) 670-9331Broken Spring — The Most Common Cause of a Door Stuck Closed: When a torsion spring breaks, the counterbalance force that offsets the door's weight vanishes. The door becomes dead weight — 150 to 300 pounds that the opener motor was never designed to lift alone. The motor strains, the overload protection triggers, and the door stays down. This is the single most common cause of a garage door stuck in the closed position.
Snapped or Loose Cable: A cable that has broken or jumped off its drum removes the mechanical link between the spring system and one side of the door. The door may be physically unable to move, or it may tilt and bind in the tracks when the opener attempts to lift it unevenly.
Roller Binding or Failure: A seized roller — bearing locked, wheel jammed — creates a friction point that the opener cannot push through. Multiple seized rollers can create enough combined resistance to stop the door completely. A broken roller can allow a panel to shift out of alignment, creating a mechanical bind.
Track Obstruction or Misalignment: A dent in the track, a piece of debris in the track channel, or a track section that has shifted out of alignment creates a restriction that blocks roller travel. The door moves until it hits the restriction, then stops.
Stripped Opener Gears — Motor Runs, Door Stays: The gear assembly inside the opener transfers motor rotation to the drive mechanism. When nylon drive gears strip — a common failure, particularly on openers working harder than they should due to spring or balance problems — the motor runs freely but generates no force at the drive chain, belt, or screw. The door does not move.
Disconnected Trolley or Carriage: The trolley carriage connects the opener's drive system to the door arm. If the trolley has disengaged — which can happen if the emergency release was pulled and not re-engaged, or if the trolley's engagement tabs have broken — the drive system operates normally but has no connection to the door.
Manual Lock Engaged — The Overlooked Culprit: Many garage doors have a manual lock on the inside — a handle that slides a locking bar into the track, physically preventing the door from moving. If the lock was inadvertently engaged — by a child, a bump, or a family member who does not normally lock it — the door is physically anchored and the opener cannot move it. This is the simplest cause of a stuck door and the one most often overlooked.
Safety Sensor Misalignment or Malfunction: The photo-eye sensors at the base of the door opening must maintain an unbroken beam to allow the door to close. Misaligned sensors, dirty lenses, damaged wires, or direct sunlight interfering with the beam can prevent the door from closing — creating a door that is stuck in the open position.
Limit Switch Misadjustment: The opener's limit switches tell it where the door's travel should start and stop. If limits have been bumped, reset by a power outage, or drifted from their settings, the opener may stop the door before it reaches the fully open or fully closed position, or refuse to start travel because it believes the door is already at its destination.
Power Loss or Electrical Failure: No power means no opener operation. A tripped breaker, a blown fuse, a disconnected plug, or a power outage renders the opener non-functional. This is the first thing to check and the easiest to rule out.
Circuit Board or Receiver Failure: A failed circuit board prevents the opener from processing any input — remotes, wall buttons, and keypads all fail to produce a response. Board failures can result from age, heat degradation, power surges, or component failure.
Frozen or Seized Components from Corrosion: In Mountain Home's humid environment, components that have not been lubricated can corrode to the point of seizing. Roller bearings corrode and lock. Spring coils corrode and bind. Hardware corrodes and freezes. A door with multiple seized components may have enough cumulative friction to stop the opener from moving it.
Debris or Object Jamming the System: A tool, a piece of equipment, a ball, or any object that has fallen into the track, lodged behind a panel, or wedged into the hardware can physically prevent the door from moving.
Foundation Settling Shifting Tracks Out of Alignment: As Mountain Home homes settle, the garage structure moves, and tracks move with it. Gradual track misalignment can reach the point where the tracks are no longer parallel or plumb, creating a binding condition that was not present when the door was installed.
Hurricane Damage or Storm Debris: Storm damage can bend tracks, displace hardware, introduce debris into the system, and create misalignment severe enough to prevent door operation.
Safe: Checking the Power Source
Verify the opener is plugged in and the outlet has power. Check your home's breaker panel for a tripped breaker. This is the simplest check and requires no interaction with the door system.
Safe: Checking Whether the Manual Lock Is Engaged
Look at the interior of the door for a lock handle. If the handle is in the locked position — typically rotated or slid to extend a bar into the track — return it to the unlocked position. This is accessible from the interior and involves no high-tension components.
Safe: Checking for Visible Obstructions at Floor Level
Look at the bottom of the door and the track at floor level for objects that may be blocking the door's path. Remove any visible obstructions that are clearly not part of the door system.
Safe: Checking Sensor Indicator Lights
Look at the photo-eye sensors at the base of the door opening. Both should show steady indicator lights. If one or both lights are off or blinking, the sensors may be misaligned or obstructed. You can gently wipe the lenses with a soft cloth and check whether an object is blocking the beam between them.
NOT Safe: Attempting to Force the Door Open or Closed
Do not push, pull, or pry the door. If it is stuck due to a mechanical failure, forcing it can cause sudden movement, panel damage, cable failure, or personal injury.
NOT Safe: Touching Springs, Cables, or Tension Components
Springs and cables are under extreme tension. Do not touch, adjust, or attempt to manipulate any component above the door opening or along the sides of the door where cables run.
NOT Safe: Climbing a Ladder to Access the Opener or Springs
Working on a ladder with high-tension components overhead is dangerous. Leave overhead work to professionals with proper tools and training.
When in Doubt — Call (888) 670-9331
If the four safe checks do not reveal an obvious, easily correctable cause, the problem is inside the system and requires professional diagnosis. Call Kustom at (888) 670-9331 and let us handle it safely.
Click here to Call (888) 670-9331Your account of the event provides essential diagnostic context. When did the door stop? What sounds did you hear? What position is it in? Has anything changed recently — a storm, a repair, a new vehicle in the garage? These details narrow the diagnostic field before we open a tool.
Our technician inspects the complete system — springs, cables, rollers, tracks, panels, hardware, opener, sensors, and controls. We look for the visual evidence of specific failures: a gap in the spring coils, a loose cable, a seized roller, a track obstruction, indicator light patterns on the opener, and hardware condition.
We systematically isolate the failure to its category. Is the door physically blocked by a mechanical failure? Is the opener failing to deliver power to the drive? Is the electronic control system preventing operation? Category isolation leads to specific component identification.
We explain what we found — what failed, why it failed, and what it takes to fix it. If options exist — repair vs. replace, standard vs. upgrade — we present them with cost and performance context. The price is presented and approved before work begins.
With your approval, we repair the identified failure. A spring replacement if the spring broke. A gear replacement if gears stripped. A sensor realignment if sensors were the issue. A cable replacement if cables snapped. Whatever the specific cause, we address it directly.
After the repair, we cycle the door multiple times from every control — remote, wall button, keypad. We verify smooth travel in both directions, proper opening and closing positions, balance, auto-reverse function, and sensor operation. The door must work perfectly from every control before we leave.
Stuck Closed — Vehicle Trapped, Access Lost: A door stuck closed traps vehicles and blocks access to the garage and everything stored in it. The urgency is highest when a vehicle is needed immediately. The most common causes — broken springs, snapped cables, stripped gears, engaged locks — are all correctable during a same-day service visit.
Stuck Open — Security Compromised, Weather Exposure: A door stuck open leaves the garage and its contents exposed to weather, pests, and potential intruders. Most garages connect directly to the home interior, making a stuck-open door a security vulnerability for the entire house. Sensor issues, limit problems, and electronic failures are the most common causes and are typically resolved quickly.
Stuck Halfway — Maximum Inconvenience, Potential Safety Risk: A door stuck in a partially open position is simultaneously inaccessible for vehicle passage and unsecured for protection. It may also present a safety risk if it is being held in position by forces that could shift. Halfway stuck doors are caused by mid-travel component failures, binding points, and opener malfunctions.
We prioritize dispatch based on the urgency of your specific situation. Trapped vehicles, security concerns, and safety risks receive same-day priority.
A Door Stuck by a Broken Spring Is Under Extreme Load: A door that won't open because the spring broke looks benign — it is just sitting on the floor. But the door's full weight is now unsupported by any counterbalance, and the remaining components — cables, brackets, the opener — are bearing loads they were not designed for. Attempting to force this door open risks sudden cable failure, bracket failure, or the door rising unpredictably if any residual spring tension remains.
A Door Stuck by a Cable Failure May Drop Without Warning: A door stuck partway with a broken cable may be held in position by the remaining cable and the opener trolley. These are not designed to be the sole support system. The door can drop without warning if the remaining cable fails or the trolley disengages.
A Door Stuck by a Mechanical Jam May Release Suddenly: A door held in place by a jam — a roller wedged in a track dent, a panel caught on hardware — is held by friction and mechanical interference. If the interference point releases — from vibration, temperature change, or any disturbance — the door can move suddenly under the force of the springs.
A stuck door often appears safe because it is not moving. But the forces acting on it — spring tension, door weight, cable loads — are still present and active. A door that is not moving is not necessarily a door that is stable. Professional assessment determines what forces are at play and whether the door can be safely corrected.
Every Door Size and Configuration: We diagnose and repair stuck doors on every residential configuration — single-car to three-car, insulated and non-insulated, sectional and roll-up, standard and custom.
Every Opener Brand and Type: Stuck door causes frequently involve the opener — gears, boards, sensors, controls. We diagnose every opener brand and type found in Mountain Home homes.
Older Systems with Aging Components: Older doors with worn springs, corroded hardware, and aging openers are more susceptible to the cumulative failures that cause stuck conditions. We work with aging systems using appropriate diagnostic techniques and component knowledge.
Condos, Townhomes, and Shared Garages: Multi-unit properties may have shared garage systems, community-standard doors, and access requirements. We work within community guidelines while delivering diagnostic and repair quality.
Warehouse and Loading Dock Doors: A stuck commercial door halts operations, disrupts logistics, and costs revenue with every hour of downtime. Kustom provides rapid-response commercial service.
Retail and Restaurant Doors: Customer-facing businesses need functional doors for operations and appearance. We restore stuck commercial doors efficiently.
Storage Facility Doors: Storage facility doors that won't operate prevent tenant access and create customer service issues. We resolve stuck conditions across multiple units efficiently.
What Determines the Cost: Cost depends entirely on the cause. A stuck door caused by a simple issue costs a fraction of one caused by a major component failure. Diagnosis determines the cause, and the cause determines the price.
| Complexity | Repair Examples | Cost Range |
|---|---|---|
| Simple Fixes | Lock, Sensor, Limit, Power | $75 to $175 |
| Moderate Fixes | Gears, Rollers, Track Adjustment | $150 to $400 |
| Major Fixes | Springs, Cables, Opener Replacement | $200 to $800 |
Same-Day Service — No Premium Pricing at Kustom: A stuck garage door is urgent by nature. Kustom does not add a premium for same-day response. The repair costs the same whether you call at 7 AM or 5 PM.
Click here to Call (888) 670-9331Diagnostic Accuracy — Finding the Real Cause: A stuck door has many possible causes, and the correct repair depends on identifying the specific one. Kustom's systematic diagnostic process eliminates guesswork and ensures the repair addresses the actual failure.
Same-Day Response for Urgent Situations: Trapped vehicles, unsecured garages, and disrupted schedules cannot wait. Kustom dispatches for stuck door calls with same-day priority.
Full-System Evaluation — Not Just the Obvious Part: We evaluate the entire system during every stuck door call. The component that caused the door to stick may have also damaged secondary components that need attention.
Upfront Pricing Before Any Work: After diagnosis, we present the findings and price clearly. You approve before we start. No hidden charges.
Stocked Trucks for Same-Visit Resolution: Our trucks carry springs, cables, rollers, gears, sensors, remotes, and common opener components. The majority of stuck door causes can be resolved during the initial visit.
Warranty-Backed Repairs: Our stuck door repairs are backed by a warranty on parts and labor. If the repair does not hold, we return and make it right.
Every Neighborhood in Mountain Home: Kustom provides stuck garage door repair throughout every neighborhood in Mountain Home. Greater Mountain Home Metro: Our service area extends to surrounding communities. Call (888) 670-9331 to confirm coverage and get same-day help.
Your garage door is stuck. Your car might be trapped. Your schedule is disrupted. Your garage might be unsecured. And the cause is invisible — hidden somewhere in a system of springs, cables, rollers, gears, and electronics that you cannot safely diagnose yourself.
Kustom makes it simple. One call. Same-day response. Accurate diagnosis. Honest pricing. Targeted repair. Full system verification. Your door moves again today.
Stop pressing the button. Stop wondering what is wrong. Call (888) 670-9331 and let Kustom find the problem and fix it.
Click here to Call (888) 670-9331