The three common failures
Most garage doors fail a home inspection on auto-reverse, the safety sensors or balance.
- Auto-reverse. The inspector lays a length of two-by-four flat under the door. The door must touch it and go back up. If it does not, the close-force needs adjusting or the opener is too old to have the feature.
- Safety sensors. They should sit no more than about six inches off the floor, one each side, and stop the door when the beam is broken. Sensors tucked up on the ceiling, a trick to bypass them, are an automatic fail.
- Balance. With the opener disconnected, the door should stay put when lifted halfway. A door that drops has worn or wrongly sized springs.
Other things inspectors note
Inspectors also write up missing warning labels, a missing release cord and worn hardware.
- No safety warning labels on the door or near the wall button.
- The red emergency release cord missing or tied up out of reach.
- Frayed cables, cracked hinges or rollers coming out of the track.
- An extension spring with no safety cable running through it.
If you are selling
Get it fixed and keep the invoice. Buyers and their agents want to see that the item was dealt with by someone who does this for a living. It is a small repair that removes a line from the report.
If you are buying
Ask for it to be repaired before closing, or get it looked at yourself before you agree to a credit. A failed reverse test on a modern opener is often a ten-minute adjustment. On a very old opener it can mean a new unit.