A door off its track is jammed, heavy and unpredictable. This is the one repair where running the opener again reliably turns a small job into a large one.
Symptoms
A door leaves its track for a reason, and the reason has to be fixed as well as the door put back. Here is what is usually behind it.
One corner drops, the door racks in the opening, and a roller pops out of the track. Far and away the most common cause.
The bottom section takes the hit, the track is pushed off the jamb, and the door is left leaning. A vehicle strike often bends the track as well as the panel, and running the opener afterwards is what usually does the rest.
The door lands on a bin, a bike or a tailgate, the cables go slack on that side, and the door lifts unevenly the next time it is run.
A wheel that has come apart leaves a bare stem riding in the track. In the curve it climbs out of the track under load.
Brackets work loose over years of use. A track that is no longer parallel to its partner pinches the rollers and eventually spits one out.
A broken spring drops the full weight of the door onto the cables and rollers at once. When a spring failure takes the door off the track, both jobs happen in the same visit.
Understanding
The vertical tracks either side of the opening hold the rollers, and the curved section at the top hands the door over to the horizontal tracks that run back into the garage. As long as both sides move together, the rollers stay captive. The moment one side lifts faster or further than the other, the door goes out of square and a roller can climb out of the track at the curve.
Almost every off-track door starts with something making the two sides unequal: a cable letting go, a drum slipping, an obstruction under one corner, or a spring failing. The door itself is usually undamaged at that instant. The damage happens next, when the opener is used again and drags a door that is now out of square through an opening it no longer fits.
That is the whole reason for the warning at the top of this page. A re-rail on an undamaged door is one of the cheapest jobs we do. The same door after three attempts with the opener commonly needs a new track section, a new set of cables, and sometimes a new bottom panel, because the opener has enough force to bend steel and no way of knowing that it should not.
There is one more reason to leave it alone. A door hanging out of its track is not held by anything designed to hold it. If the springs are still loaded it can swing sideways when it is levered, and if they are not, it can simply come down.
Before We Arrive
Two minutes of care here is the difference between a re-rail and a new section.
Pricing
Real 2026 ranges for the London area. A row naming one job is the all-in price for it before HST: the parts, the labour, the visit and the balance check afterwards, on a typical residential door. What you pay depends almost entirely on what else broke on the way out of the track.
| Off track job | Typical cost |
|---|---|
| Simple re-rail, rollers hopped out, nothing else damaged | $150 to $280 |
| Re-rail with a snapped lift cable replaced, done as a pair | $220 to $400 |
| Re-rail with one or two new rollers or a hinge | $180 to $340 |
| Re-rail with a bent track section straightened or replaced | $250 to $500 |
| Off track from a broken spring, springs plus re-rail | $350 to $650 |
| Single panel supplied and fitted | $350 to $850 |
| Service call on its own | $85 |
Your garage may sit outside these ranges. Door size and weight, spring rating, how much has been damaged and how easy the garage is to work in all move the number, and we tell you before we start, not after. A door caught before it is forced back through the opener is nearly always the first line of that table. There is more on the causes in our off track guide, and on insurance after a vehicle strike in the vehicle impact guide.
Service Area
We cover London and the surrounding area: St. Thomas, Strathroy, Dorchester, Komoka, Ilderton, Lucan, Belmont and Thorndale. The prices on this page are for the London area; somewhere further out can carry a small travel charge, and we tell you that when you book. If you are just outside the area and not sure, call 519-619-7901 and ask. We would rather tell you straight away than have you wait for a callback that says no.
Questions
We would not. A single door weighs 80 to 160 pounds and a double a good deal more, the springs may still be under load, and a door that is already unbalanced can drop or swing when it is levered. The videos that make it look simple leave out the part where the cable is still holding the weight.
A simple re-rail with nothing else damaged is $150 to $280 all in before HST. If a cable, a roller set, a track section or a spring went with it, that work is done in the same visit, which costs less than booking the two separately: springs plus a re-rail runs $350 to $650 all in before HST.
Leave it exactly where it is, do not run the opener, and keep children and pets out of the garage. A door hanging out of its track is not held by anything reliable.
Which policy applies depends on whose vehicle hit the door and on the wording of your own cover, and it is only worth claiming if the repair is well above your deductible. A single panel and a track section rarely is. Our insurance guide works through which policy pays.
Rarely. Most doors come off the track without damage to the sections, and a bent track section or a dented panel can usually be replaced on its own. A full replacement is the answer when several sections are bent or the door was already at the end of its life.
Unplug the opener, keep everyone clear, and call us. Most doors are back on the track in one visit.
📋 Book an Off Track Repair 📞 Call 519-619-7901