Livingston is mostly single-family homes on suburban lots, and for most households the garage doubles as the front door. When it fails on a January morning, or late at night with the door stuck open, it is more than an inconvenience. Cars are trapped, the house is exposed, and cold air pours into the rooms next to the garage.
This guide explains which problems need help right away, which can wait for a scheduled visit, and how the town's mix of mid-century houses and newer rebuilds affects the doors on them. Neighboring Roseland, West Orange and East Hanover share the same weather and many of the same door types.
What counts as a real emergency
Some problems should not wait; others only feel urgent. A quick way to sort them out:
- Get help now: the door is stuck open after dark, a spring snapped while the door was up, a lift cable is dangling, or one side has dropped or jumped its rollers.
- Get help now: someone backed into the door and the sections or track are bent.
- Can wait for a booked visit: noisy operation, a slow opener, a remote that quit while the keypad still works, or a worn bottom seal.
- Never on your own: winding a spring, unbolting a bottom bracket, or forcing rollers back into a kinked track.
Stranded with an open door after dark
Park a car across the opening if you can, lock the interior door that leads from the garage into the house, and keep children and pets out from under the door. Disconnect the opener's power cord too; a reflexive tap on the wall control is the last thing a damaged door needs. Don't try to pull the emergency release on an open door with a suspected broken spring, because the door can drop hard.
Mid-century houses and modern rebuilds
Much of Livingston went up during the post-war building boom, and many of those colonials, split-levels and ranches still have one- or two-car garages sized for the cars of that era. Original doors were often wood, and some houses still run on extension springs. Low headroom over the door is common, which affects which springs and openers will fit.
At the other end, a fair number of original houses have been torn down and rebuilt as larger homes with three-car garages, taller openings and heavy carriage-style doors. Heavy custom doors need correctly sized torsion springs and a strong opener, and they are less forgiving when the balance drifts. Have them checked every year, not only when something breaks.
Snow, road salt and nor'easters
North Jersey winters bring snow, ice and road salt, and all three end up in the garage. Brine dripping off cars eats at the lowest steel panel and the foot of each track. Snow piled against the door freezes the bottom seal to the driveway, and the opener tears it free when someone hits the button.
Before winter, get the balance and springs checked and swap out a bottom seal that has hardened. During snow season, clear drifts away from the door's bottom edge and hose the brine off whenever a thaw makes it practical. Nor'easters can drive rain under a worn seal, so look at the threshold after big storms.
Openers for busy households
Families with several drivers can put thousands of cycles a year on an opener. If yours is loud, slow or more than a decade old, a modern belt-drive or wall-mount unit runs quieter and adds battery backup for outages and phone alerts if someone forgets to close the door. A very old opener that still uses fixed-code remotes is worth replacing for security alone.
Battery backup earns its keep in storms, when an outage can leave a car stuck inside. Every opener should also reverse when it meets an obstruction and stop when the photo-eyes are blocked; test both once a month.
Last updated by the American Garage Door Team.