Why does my Pell Lake garage door stop short of the floor

The garage door opener on her Pell Lake garage works great. It glides up and down in its tracks as though a hot knife flowing through butter. There’s only one fly in the ointment; the door stops just short of closing all the way.

In the winter, snow will blow under the door. In the summer, rain washes below the door and wets the floor for a wide area in the front of the garage. You can learn to live with it – to accept that your garage door doesn’t want to close completely – but why should you?

The garage door is supposed to go all the way down when it closes. If it doesn’t, there is something wrong; there is a reason that it won’t close properly.

There are several explanations as to why your Pell Lake garage door won’t close completely. For instance …

• You could have a problem with the safety sensors: There are safety sensors on both sides of the door. If one, or both, are damaged or worn out, you’re liable to have a problem closing your garage door completely.
• Your safety sensors are out of alignment: When aligned properly, your garage door should go all the way down. But, maybe someone kicked one of the sensors by mistake (who would kick a safety sensor on purpose?) or something else knocked a sensor out of alignment. If this is the case, the sensors need to be realigned. 
• Your garage door opener may require travel adjustment: Inside the opener casing, there are two knobs for adjusting the travel of the garage door. These may need a little tweaking so the garage door will go all the way down.
• You could have a problem with mechanical parts of the garage door: A bad gear or a binding track may stop your garage door short of its intended destination all the way down to the floor.

There are all potential problems that could keep your Pell Lake garage door from closing all the way. While you may be tempted to fix the problem yourself, you may prefer to call in a professional since there is a way to adjust the travel of the garage so thieves have a harder time breaking into your garage.