OHEDCO FAQ

The Overhead Door Company
of Corpus Christi, Inc.
3702 Saratoga Blvd.
Corpus Christi, Texas 78415
361-854-5337

Hours: 8 AM - 5 PM, Monday-Friday. Closed between 12 and 1 for lunch

We would like to answer some of the most commonly asked questions to assist you
through your door or operator problems. While we work on both commercial and
residential products, most of these questions are aimed at our residential customers.
Commercial work rarely can be solved in this way due to the size and types of
products they use. If you don't see your question addressed, please contact us and
we will be happy to assist you.

Question/Problem	Answer
Crooked to one side	Your sectional garage door is counter balanced by a spring and cables. This problem usually occurs whenever one of your cables slips off the drum on either side. This is usually caused by the door coming down and striking an object before hitting the ground. Attempting to self repair causes further damage to the door and rarely results in success. Call us or another company to resolve this issue.
Roller is out of track	Your door rolls up and down on about 10 plastic or metal rollers. Sometimes a roller that hasn't been lubricated gets stuck and doesn't slip back and forth in it's sleeve. When this happens, the roller can slip out of the track and cause the door to lose support. This can be self repaired with moderate difficulty but it usually means the whole door needs general maintenance. Do not attempt to put a roller back in if the roller is at the bottom left or right of the door. Those two rollers are part of the bottom fixture which has a tension cable attached. This makes working on those two rollers very dangerous and not recommended. Call us or another company to resolve.
Goes up a couple inches, stops and goes back down	Most of the time this isn't a problem with your electric operator. Your garage door weighs about 150-300 pounds (sometimes more) but that weight is counter balanced by a spring (or two) , some cables, and some drums. Your electric operator is only designed to lift a properly counter balance door. When the spring breaks, it causes the door to weigh more than a normal person can comfortably lift by both hands. The counter balance is the most dangerous part of your garage door. It stores the energy needed to raise the door from the closed position (your operator doesn't do this, it's your springs that do the work). Unless you know what you are doing, do not try to self repair a broken spring. Contact a professional, it's worth it.
Rotten or Rusty	Welcome to the Coastal Bend! We've been fighting these things forever and until they make a dependable and CHEAP plastic door, we're just going to have to maintain. Wood doors can be maintained by painting or sometimes a carpenter is needed to repair the section first. Steel doors need to be sanded and painted over with an acrylic exterior house paint. You could replace a wood section, but the cost is usually more than just replacing the wood door with a steel door. Steel doors can have sections replaced if needed. It's best to know who you purchased your steel door through because most brands are not compatible with one another. Also expecting a 100% match isn't likely. An 80% match is the norm.
Squeeky	We spray penetrating lubricant (WD-40 will do) onto the hinges, rollers, and spring to help quiet down the door. Also spraying a longer lasting white lithium lubricant will help keep the door parts squeek free for a long while.

F.A.Q
Residential Garage Doors

Residential Electric Operators

Clicker / Hand Held Remote Control / Transmitter - not working	Sometimes it's just a matter of changing the battery. Some brands use 9v batteries, 12v A23 batteries, and others use 6v pillow batteries. We can perform this service at our store location and if you have one of our brand transmitters, we can even verify it is properly working and sending a signal.
Will not close by hand held remote and wall button works only if I keep the wall button pressed	This is a problem you can probably solve yourself. At the bottom left and right of your garage door are two little boxes. These are called photocells and they look at each other to see if anything is in the way. First make sure nothing is in the way of the opening. If so, move it out of the way. Make sure these two photocells are pointed at each other. If one of them isn't, just reach down and aim it at the other. They are on light gauge metal brackets that can be moved by hand. Check the lenses to see if either is dirty. Clean with a tissue. Finally, check the wires at the back of each photocell, sometimes they break. If you know how to strip a wire and wrap it around it's screw, you can fix it. The voltage on photocells is considered 'low voltage' (24 volts) and doesn't shock you.
Motor runs, door doesn't	This is usually a worn out gear problem. Inside of many Lift Master brand operators is a plastic gear that commonly gets dry and wears out. When it does the door operator makes running noises but the door doesn't go anywhere. This part is available from our store, we also replace it in the field on operators with photocells. Usually a minor repair.
Power is out, how do I close the door?	You could be in trouble here. If the door is closed, you could use the emergency release (That red cord hanging down from the arm of the electric operator) to disengage the operator from the door. Then you could raise the door by hand. Sadly, when the door is in the open position and you want to pull that cord, doing so could result in injury to you and damage to your door. Sometimes the electric operator can lift a door that is out of balance or even has a broken spring. If you use the disconnect when the door is in this condition, it could take off and fly down. Holding onto the door just drags you along for the ride. If you have no other choice but to try it, just be ready for this possibility. We strongly recommend you don't though, we've heard the horror stories. Local and national.

Trust?

Door Companies without a physical address	If you decide not to use our services, try to pick someone that you either know or has a physical address listed in their advertisement. We've heard stories of the elderly being taken advantage by companies. The common theme is those companies didn't have physical addresses and generally were very vague. Be careful.
Do they carry insurance?	We carry manufactures', contractors', and employer's liability and workman's compensation insurance. Most reputable companies do too. But you don't know for sure unless you ask. Companies without these things can end up costing you in the end. If they get hurt while working on your property, you end up paying.