Repair when the door itself is sound and a single part has failed. Replace when the repair passes about half the price of a new door, when the sections are rusted through or racked, or when the door carries no Miami-Dade impact approval. A new impact rated door starts at $1,600 installed, so on a single car door a repair quote approaching $800 is worth a second opinion.
This page gives you the arithmetic we use on site, the prices we actually charge, and the one thing that makes the decision different in Miami than anywhere else in the country.
The trade rule is simple: if the repair costs more than half of a replacement, replace. It is a good starting point and it is not the whole answer, because it treats a twelve year old door and a two year old door the same way.
We add two questions to it. Is the failure a wear part or the door itself? A spring, a cable, a roller set and an opener are all wear parts, and replacing one on a sound door is nearly always worth doing. Sections, hinges pulling out of the steel, and a track that has been bent twice are the door itself. The second question is whether the door would pass today's code if it were installed new, which in Miami-Dade is a real question rather than a technicality.
A door under about eight years old with one failed wear part gets repaired. A door past fifteen with rust at the bottom section and no impact rating gets replaced. Between those two, the arithmetic below decides it.
Almost every call we take is a repair, and most of them finish in one visit because the trucks carry the parts that break. These are our published labor prices, the same figures on our cost page, and they are what we charge rather than a national average.
| Repair | Typical all-in price | Worth doing when |
|---|---|---|
| Diagnostic visit | $149 | You want the cause named before spending anything. It is credited against the work. |
| Torsion spring set, single car door | $400 to $600 | The door is sound. Springs are a wear part with a cycle life, not a fault. |
| Torsion spring set, double car door | $750 to $1,200 | Same, on a wider door running two springs. |
| Cable pair | $249 labor plus cables | A cable has frayed or jumped the drum and the sections are undamaged. |
| Roller set | $249 labor plus rollers | The door is noisy or dragging but tracks and sections are straight. |
| Single panel replacement | $350 to $700 | One section is dented and the rest of the door is sound and still made. |
| Off track, racked door | $450 to $600 | First time off. A door that has racked repeatedly has usually bent something structural. |
| Opener replaced | $750 installed | The door is fine and the motor has failed. Includes battery backup and myQ. |
Prices are for Miami-Dade, Broward and Monroe. Parts are quoted on the door you have, because a matched spring set depends on the door weight and the drum size.
Replacement stops being a preference and starts being the honest recommendation in a short list of cases.
Coastal air eats the bottom of a steel door from the inside out. Once that section is perforated, the fixing for the bottom bracket is compromised, and that bracket is under full spring tension. This is not a section we patch.
A door with no Miami-Dade approval is the largest unprotected opening in the house. Repairing it well does not change what it does in a storm.
A door that has come off its track more than twice usually has bent track, worn hinges and elongated holes in the sections. Each repair holds for less time than the one before.
A single panel is a good repair when the maker still lists it. On a discontinued door the choice becomes a mismatched section or a new door, and the mismatched section rarely ages well.
New impact rated doors start at $1,600 installed and insulated steel from $1,850. When a quote on an older door reaches those numbers, you are paying replacement money for a door you already know the age of.
An approved opening protection product can affect the wind mitigation inspection that Florida insurers price from. A repair to an unrated door cannot.
Everywhere else this is a cost question. In Miami-Dade it is also a code question, and that is the part national advice leaves out.
Miami-Dade and Broward sit in the High Velocity Hurricane Zone. Replacing a garage door here is permitted work, and the door you install has to carry a Miami-Dade Notice of Acceptance or a Florida Product Approval for the pressure at your address. Repairing like for like, a spring, a cable, a roller set, an opener, generally does not trigger a permit. So the moment the decision tips toward replacement, it stops being a same day job and becomes a permitted one with a product approval attached to it. That is worth knowing before you choose, not after.
The reason the code is strict is structural rather than cosmetic. The garage door is the biggest opening in most Florida houses. If it fails while the wind is up, the house pressurises from the inside, and the load that follows goes into the roof. Protecting that opening is why the HVHZ rules exist, and it is why we publish the approval documents for every door we fit.
Salt air is the other local factor. A door two miles from the water ages differently from the same door inland, and it shows first in the springs, the hinges and the bottom section. It is the main reason a Miami door reaches the replace side of the arithmetic sooner than the same door in Orlando.
| Repair | Replacement | |
|---|---|---|
| Typical spend | $149 to $1,200 | From $1,600 installed |
| Time on site | Usually one visit, same day | Measure, order, then a fitting day |
| Permit in Miami-Dade | Generally not for like for like parts | Yes, with a product approval |
| Impact rating | Unchanged | Rated for the pressure at your address |
| What it fixes | The part that failed | The door, the hardware and the rating together |
| Best when | The door is sound and one wear part has gone | The door is old, corroded, racked or unrated |
Both paths start with the same $149 diagnostic, and it is credited against whichever one you choose.
If you are unsure which side you are on, that is what the diagnostic is for. We will tell you when a repair is the better value, including when it means a smaller invoice for us.
Repair is cheaper in almost every single fault case. A spring set on a single car door runs $400 to $600 all in and a new impact rated door starts at $1,600 installed. Replacement becomes the better value when the repair passes about half the price of a new door, or when the door is corroded, repeatedly racked or has no Miami-Dade impact approval.
A steel door inland commonly runs 20 years or more. Within a couple of miles of the water, salt air shortens that, and we see bottom section corrosion and hardware failure from about year 12. Springs are a wear part regardless and are rated in cycles rather than years, so a busy household will replace springs two or three times over the life of one door.
Yes. Replacing a garage door in the High Velocity Hurricane Zone is permitted work, and the door has to carry a Miami-Dade Notice of Acceptance or Florida Product Approval for the design pressure at your address. Like for like repairs to springs, cables, rollers and openers generally do not require a permit.
Yes, when the manufacturer still makes the section. A single panel runs $350 to $700. On discontinued doors the replacement will not match the rest of the door, and at that point most people put the money toward a full door instead.
It depends on what failed. A 15 year old door with a broken spring and sound sections is worth repairing, because the spring is a wear part. The same door with rust at the bottom section, elongated hinge holes or a history of coming off its track is not, because each repair buys less time than the last one.
It can. Florida insurers price partly from a wind mitigation inspection, and approved opening protection is one of the things that inspection records. An impact rated door is the product that qualifies. Repairing an unrated door does not change the rating, so it cannot affect the inspection.
Estimates for replacement are free. A diagnostic on a door that is already broken is $149, because that is a technician putting hands on the door and naming the cause, and it is credited against the work if you go ahead.
Call now or request a free estimate online. Same-day service available across Miami-Dade, Broward and Monroe County.
