Akron grew quickly in the early twentieth century, when the rubber and tire industry brought workers from all over, and whole neighborhoods of modest frame houses went up in a short time. Many of those homes are still standing, often with a small detached garage at the end of a narrow driveway.
The city is also hilly, which surprises people who expect flat Midwestern terrain. Between the older housing, sloped lots and northeast Ohio winters, Akron garage doors have a distinctive set of problems.
Garages from the rubber boom era
Neighborhoods such as Goodyear Heights and Firestone Park were laid out by the tire companies themselves, and similar streets of modest houses filled in across the city. Garages on those streets were built for the much smaller cars of the 1910s and 1920s, and later owners often widened openings, added openers or swapped doors without changing the framing. The result can be a sagging header, side jambs softened by decades of moisture and a door that never quite sits right.
When a door like that keeps coming off track or rubbing, the problem may be the opening rather than the door. A technician can tell you whether a new door alone will fix it or whether the jambs or header need attention first.
Hills, steep driveways and door strain
On sloped lots, the garage floor sometimes pitches toward the door or the driveway meets the slab at an angle. Doors on those garages often touch down unevenly, which leaves gaps and can trigger the opener's auto-reverse.
Steep driveways also mean cars sometimes roll into a closing door or a door gets bumped by a vehicle backing up the slope. A bent section or track throws the whole door out of alignment. Running the opener on a damaged door can pull the cables off their drums, so stop using it until it is checked.
Opener repair or replacement
When an opener quits, the fix is often small: a tripped GFCI outlet, a wall control left in lock mode or a photo-eye knocked out of line. The harder question is whether an opener that keeps acting up is worth another repair.
A motor that runs while the door sits still often has a stripped drive gear. A hum with no movement can mean a failed capacitor, or a broken spring that has left the door too heavy for the motor, so look at the springs before pressing the button again. Total silence from an opener that has power often points to a failed logic board.
- Usually worth repairing: a stripped gear on a newer opener, a failed sensor, a worn-out remote or travel limits that need adjusting.
- Usually worth replacing: an opener with no photo-eyes, one whose parts are no longer made, or a noisy chain unit under a bedroom.
- Worth adding with a new unit: battery backup for outages and Wi-Fi so you can check the door from your phone.
Snow and salt across Summit County
Akron gets regular snow, though usually less than the true snowbelt east of Cleveland. Freeze-thaw cycles, plowed snow and salt still wear on the lowest panel and the bottom of each track. Clearing salt off the lower panels after the worst storms, and fitting a new bottom seal as soon as the old one cracks, protects the parts that take the most abuse.
Thinking about a wider door?
Owners of older single-car garages often ask about fitting a wider door for today's vehicles. That means cutting into the wall framing and installing a longer header to carry the load above the opening, which is structural work and usually requires a building permit.
Once the new opening is framed, a door can be ordered to the new size. If widening is not practical, a lighter insulated steel door in the existing opening still runs more quietly and smoothly than a tired wood one, and free estimates let you weigh both options.
Last updated by the American Garage Door Team.