A garage door is the biggest moving thing on your house
It is also the biggest flat surface anyone sees from the road, so it has to work every single day and it has to look right from the street.
The measure comes before the catalog
A door gets ordered to an opening, not to a photograph. The width and height of the rough opening, the headroom between the top of the opening and the ceiling, the sideroom either side for the vertical track, and how far back the ceiling runs before it drops away all decide which door and which track can go in. Get any of those wrong on the order and the door arrives and does not fit, and you wait again.
Low headroom is the one that catches people out. A standard lift track wants about twelve inches above the opening. A lot of older garages around Stanly County have far less than that, and a detached shop built on a budget can have almost none. There are low headroom track kits for exactly this, but they have to be ordered with the door rather than discovered on installation day.
One customer wrote that they had planned for a garage door for more than twenty years before it happened. Another wrote that Ricky was helpful in finding options based on their budget. Both of those are the same conversation: what the opening will take, what you want to look at, and what you actually want to spend.
- Opening, headroom, sideroom and backroom measured before anything is ordered
- Door, track and spring specified together so they match the door's real weight
- Old door and old track taken down and hauled off
- New opener or your existing opener re-set to the new door
- Door cycled, balanced and the safety reverse tested before we leave
Springs are sized to the door, and this is not optional
A sectional door is counterweighted. The springs carry the weight so the opener only has to overcome friction, and a door that is properly balanced will sit still halfway up when you lift it by hand with the opener disconnected. That is the whole test, and it takes ten seconds.
When the spring is wrong for the door the opener does the lifting instead. It runs hot, the gear strips, and you get a couple of years out of something that should give you fifteen. This is the most common thing we find on a door somebody else installed: a good door on a spring that was already in the van.
An insulated steel door is heavier than a single skin one. A wood or wood overlay door is heavier again. Add glass and the top section gets heavier still. Every one of those changes the spring, so the spring gets calculated after you pick the door rather than before.
What people around here actually put on the front of the house
Carriage house doors are the most common thing we hang on a home. They read as swing out barn doors with strap hinges and handles, but they roll up like any other sectional. The five real jobs on this site include two of them in a dark walnut woodgrain finish and one in white with black hardware on grey siding.
Woodgrain steel gets picked when somebody wants the look of stained wood without the maintenance. It is a steel door with a grain print and a stain finish, so it does not need refinishing every few years the way real wood does. Real wood is still the best looking door on the market and we hang it, but it is a heavier door, it costs more, and it wants looking after.
Windows in the top section change a garage more than people expect, because most garages have no other daylight in them. Insulated glass, plain glass, and obscure glass all cost differently and all look different from the road at night with the light on.
Installation day, and what the walk at the end is for
The old door comes down first, and the old torsion spring gets unwound rather than cut. Then the new track goes up plumb and square, the sections go in one at a time, and the spring gets wound to the count the door needs.
Then it gets cycled, which means run up and down repeatedly while somebody watches it. A door that binds at one point in its travel is telling you the track is out, and that is fixed while the tools are still in the garage rather than in three weeks when the roller finally jumps.
The last checks are the ones that matter for a family. The photo eyes get set at the right height and aligned, the safety reverse gets tested with an object under the door, and the door gets balanced by hand with the opener disconnected. Then you get shown how to disconnect it yourself, because one day the power will be out and you will want the car.
Replacing a garage door?
Call and we will come and measure the opening before anything gets ordered.
What 37 homeowners said
Every quote below is a real review, word for word, from our Google profile.
I have been using Entrance Masters for almost 2 years, and from the first encounter the service has been absolutely fantastic. I had been having the worst issues with my garage since the recent purchase of my home, and they have been there every step of the way working to try to figure out the issue. Ricky tried every cost effective option he could before just saying you need to replace the motor, which most companies would not have. The motor was replaced a week ago along with some other updates and my garage closes and opens as it should and it is so smooth and quiet now.
When our residential gate stopped working I called them for a quote. Ricky was extremely responsive (even though he was out of town). He quickly scheduled his tech to come out and within a couple of hours he had our gate working again. He also replaced sensors on a garage door that had not been working properly for a couple of years. Once Ricky was back in town he scheduled to come back and button up a couple of loose ends and bring us some much needed clickers for the gate. Fantastic experience, excellent communication, skilled workmanship, extremely reasonable pricing.
We interviewed two garage door companies. The prices were very close however we chose Entrance Masters Garage Door and Gate Co. after reading great reviews and because it was important that they are local. We had many questions and they kindly and quickly responded. Also the delivery was on time and install quick. We have planned for a garage door for 20+ years and they helped us make our dream come true.
Tim Johnson repaired our garage door today. He went directly to the problem and fixed it. Then, he serviced moveable parts with lubricant. During all of this he talked with my wife and I explaining the various aspects of good garage door maintenance. His service was beyond expectations. We have been caught before with service people and it makes you wary. Tim Johnson spoke highly of his boss and it means that we are going to mention Entrance Masters to all our neighbors.
Great service and very reasonable! After another company told me I needed things I didn't need, I called Ricky and he came out and not only fixed it but did maintenance too, all for under 200 bucks. Would definitely recommend to all my friends and family!
Our garage door looks amazing and Ricky provided top notch customer service. First he was willing to communicate via calls, text and email. This itself is huge. So many companies today want you calling the office and email only which slows production and communication. Next he really laid out all the options and explained them in great detail. Once we narrowed down to two, Ricky went above and beyond really going over pros and cons of both. The install went quick and on time just as he stated. A few days after install he shoots me a text to confirm we're happy.
Amarr Gold Dealer. 4.9 on Google from 37 reviews.
A standard two car door is normally a single visit. What adds time is a low headroom opening that needs a different track, or an opening that has to be reframed because the old door was hiding something.
A door gets ordered once you have picked it. One customer wrote that Ricky got in touch quickly once their door came in and installed it straight away. We tell you the lead time when you order rather than after.
Usually. It gets re-set to the new door's travel and force, and the safety reverse gets retested. If the opener is close to the end of its life we will say so and let you decide rather than replacing it quietly.
Yes. The old door and track come down and leave with us, and the torsion spring gets unwound rather than cut off under load.
If the garage is attached to the house or you use it as a shop, yes. It is quieter, it holds temperature, and the door itself is stiffer because of how it is built. On a detached garage you never heat, it matters much less.
Talk to us about it first. The door has to have the right spring for its weight and we would rather work that out before it is standing in your garage than after.
Tell us what the door is doing.
Most garage door problems are one part. Describe the symptom and we will tell you what it usually means.