Garage Door Won't Open: Sorting the Causes

Start with one question: what happens when you press the button? The answer separates the causes you can clear yourself from the ones that need a technician.

Silence: no light, no motor

The opener is not getting power or not getting the signal.

Power. Openers plug into a ceiling outlet. Check the breaker, and any ground-fault outlet in the garage that may have tripped.
Wall button against remote. If the wall button works and the remote does not, replace the remote's battery.
Lock setting. Many wall controls have a lock or vacation switch that shuts remotes out.

Power on, still silence: the fault is in the opener. See opener repair.

A hum, or a motor that runs and a door that stays

Either the door is disconnected from the opener, or it has become too heavy to lift, which often means a spring. Look at the springs before you press the button again. See opener repair and broken spring.

The door lifts a few inches, then stops or goes back

The opener has met the door's full weight and its safety system has stopped it. That is the usual picture of a broken spring. Do not lift the door by hand to help it.

The door moves, then jams at an angle

One side has lost its cable or its track. See crooked or off track.

After a hard freeze

Freezing nights are few in most of the Houston area, and each place page on this site gives the NOAA count for its nearest station. When one comes, a door held by ice along its bottom edge is worth checking before the opener is blamed; a door that still will not rise once it is free has a mechanical fault like any other.

What is yours to check, and what is not

Breakers, batteries and the lock switch are yours. The federal text in every residential opener's manual draws the other line: "Have a qualified service person make repairs to cables, spring assemblies and other hardware" (16 CFR 1211.16(b)(2)). And for a door that binds or sticks, the Consumer Product Safety Commission's advice is that it "should be serviced by a professional" (CPSC Pub. 523).

Updated 2026-09-30.

What you will be asked

What you hear and see when you press the button.
Whether the wall button and the remote do the same thing.
Whether there was a bang from the garage before it stopped.
Whether a spring above the door or beside the tracks shows a gap.
The brand on the opener's motor housing, and about how old it is.

Call (888) 217-5954 to schedule a visit

The line takes repair, replacement and installation of garage doors and openers, for owners and renters, at homes and at commercial buildings. It is not for buying parts, doors on box trucks and trailers, or a price quoted over the phone without a visit. The price is named after someone has seen the door.