Most calls we get for a new install start the same way: the old door is original to the house or close to it, and parts for it stopped being made years ago. We come out, measure the opening, check the framing, and tell you straight whether you need a full replacement or just new hardware on the existing door. Because so much of the housing here dates to 1938-1988 with a median build year around 1962, openings often run non-standard widths compared to what a big-box store stocks off the shelf, so we bring options sized for what's actually on the wall, not a generic size.
We'll also walk the driveway and garage approach with you, since San Francisco's narrow lots and street-level garages mean track and header clearance vary block to block even within the same decade of construction. If your opening is tight or the header height is unusual, we say so before we quote, not after we've ordered the door. No exclamation, no upsell pitch on-site - just a number and a timeline you can plan around.
An install day starts with pulling the old door, springs, and track, then checking whether the jamb and header are still square - on houses from the 1960s-70s stock that make up most of this city's 52 named areas, they often aren't, after decades of settling. We shim and reset framing before anything new goes up, because a door hung on an out-of-square opening fails at the rollers and hinges within a year or two no matter how good the door is.
New torsion spring sizing depends on the door's actual weight once it's built, not a catalog guess, so we set spring tension on site and test the balance by hand before the opener ever touches it. If you're keeping your existing opener, we check the gear and drive belt against the new door's weight; a heavier insulated door on an old chain-drive opener is a common mismatch we catch here and would rather flag than let you find out the hard way six months in.
One limit to be honest about: if your framing has real rot or the header needs structural work, that's carpentry, not a garage door job, and we'll tell you to get that handled first.
San Francisco's mild temperate climate means we're not fighting freeze-thaw cracking or extreme heat warping panels the way garages inland do, so doors here don't fail from weather stress the way they do elsewhere. What does wear out is hardware - rollers, cables, torsion springs - simply from age, because a door installed when a house was built in the 1960s or earlier has usually gone 50-plus years without anyone touching the springs.
With median household income in the service area at $152,131 and 167,337 owner-occupied houses among 449,915 households, a lot of these installs are upgrades: swapping a single-panel wood door that's been patched for decades for an insulated steel or composite door with a modern opener, rather than a repair on a door that's simply past the point of parts being available. That's a different job than a repair call, and it's usually the more cost-effective move once a door's hardware is original.
If your door is loud, sags on one side, or the opener strains and stalls partway up, that's usually a spring or track carrying more than it was built for - common on original doors from the 1938-1988 building era we see across this area. Cables fraying at the drum, or a door that's visibly heavier on one side than the other, both point to a door that's due for full replacement rather than another patch repair.
A door that looks fine but takes noticeably more muscle to lift by hand than it used to is telling you the springs have lost tension gradually - normal after decades, not a sign anything's broken outright. If you're seeing daylight gaps at the bottom corners on a wood door from that era, that's often warping from age rather than weather, since the mild climate here isn't the driver most people assume it is.
If the door, springs, and track are all original to a house built in the 1938-1988 era, replacement is usually the better value than patching hardware that's already at the end of its life. We check the door on site and give you a straight answer on which makes more sense before quoting anything.
Less than people assume. The mild temperate climate here doesn't put doors through freeze-thaw stress or heat warping the way other regions do, so insulation choice matters more for noise and temperature comfort than for weather survival.
Often yes, but older houses in this area sometimes have non-standard openings, so we measure on site rather than quote off a phone call. If your framing needs adjustment, we'll flag that as a separate carpentry cost.
Sometimes. We check whether your opener's drive and gearing can handle the new door's actual weight. A heavier insulated door on an old chain-drive opener is a mismatch we see often enough to check before we install.
Call now or request a free quote - same-day service on most repairs, upfront written pricing.
