A customer in Staines had been struggling to open the garage door for so long that he had eventually stopped using it altogether. He got in touch to see whether the mechanism could be repaired.
Once on site, the fault was visible immediately. The operating arm that moves the garage-door bolts was badly bent. It is only a relatively light piece of metal, and over time repeated use can weaken it until it bends or fails enough to stop the door opening properly.
This is not a mechanism I normally keep in van stock because demand is very low — I might replace one around once a year — so I ordered the correct part.
I returned the following day, fitted the replacement mechanism, straightened the operating arms and adjusted the bolts and keeps.
After testing everything, the garage door was opening, closing and securing properly again instead of being abandoned because the mechanism had become too difficult to use.
