What to do when you back into your Crystal Lake garage door

It takes a few seconds for it to sink in, for you to realize it can’t be undone. You’ve backed into the garage door of your Crystal Lake home and the question now is how much damage was done and what to do next?

The first consideration, of course, is whether everyone is okay. This may or may not include your psychological disposition at the moment. The next question is whether you can or should move the car.

Depending on how much damage you’ve done, parts of the garage door could come crashing down if you move the car. You should carefully check the rollers to ensure they’re still in their tracks. Check the door panels to make sure they’re still connected. From a distance, look at the spring(s) to ensure they’re safely connected (those springs have enough strength to seriously injure or kill someone). You also want to check that the garage door opener is still securely mounted and won’t fall on your or the car.

Additionally, you may want to take a photo or two for the insurance company before you move the car away from your Crystal Lake garage door.

If you’re not sure it’s safe to move the car, don’t. Call in garage door repair professionals to make that call and to safely move the vehicle.

Now, assuming you’ve called your insurance provider (auto/home/both?), it’s time to consider securing the garage and repairing the garage door.

Your garage door specialist may need to order panels and other parts to repair the garage door. This means that they won’t, necessarily, be able to repair the garage door immediately. In that case, it’s a question of securing the garage door until they can.

If there wasn’t too much damage done, it’s possible that the damaged garage door can adequately secure the garage until repairs are done. But, if too much damage was done, the garage door specialist may need to construct a plywood structure to temporary secure the garage. In either case, you may not be able to use the garage door until repairs are done.

Repairs may include replacing the entire Crystal Lake garage door. If this is the case, hopefully, your garage door was older to begin with. In either case, trust your insurance agent to help with the financial aspects of the incident. Trust your garage door technician to straighten out the garage door.

Oh, and don’t feel too bad about it; you’re not the first person to back into their garage door.