We receive many calls about hail damage on a garage door in North Texas. When hail hits the garage door, it leaves little or large dents in the garage door. The dents normally do not effect the function of the garage door, as long as it’s on the panel itself. If the dents hit between where the sections come together, it’s possible the garage door will not roll up or down properly.
The benefits of having a metal garage door is their low-maintenance. Despite their positives, they have one negative aspect: they dent easily and hail is no exception.
Hail Damage on a Garage Door
Can You Fix Hail Damage on a Garage Door?
It depends on how large or small the dents are. Most homeowners believe that a garage door company can take the dents out of a garage door like you can a car. For most garage door companies it is not a task they want to take on. Garage doors do not have a smooth surface like cars do. The wood graining on the front of a garage door is not able to be smoothed out and filled with epoxy or bondo to cover the damage. If the dent is small enough, sometimes just pushing from the opposite side may pop out the dent.
From our experience, most insurance companies will either have a couple sections replaced or replace the full garage door. For a garage door company to replace single sections, it relies heavy on if the manufacturer is still in business. If the manufacturer is in business, do they still make the same model number of the garage door, so the panels will match up? Each manufacturer has a little different design on the front of the garage door as well as inside the garage door.
Can Dents on a Garage Door Stop it From Going Up or Down?
Depending on where the hail falls on the garage door, most of the time it is just cosmetic. Rarely does it affect the function of the garage door going up or closing. If it does, the garage door must be very old or have many splits in the sections. It mainly just looks bad, similar to a car with many hail spots.
Sometimes there may only be a few spots, but the insurance will require to replace all the sections. When insurance requires replacing the garage door, it is the perfect opportunity to upgrade your garage door. Maybe a design change, color change, adding windows, or an insulated garage door installation. Now is the best time to make that change.
