Garage door quote too high? Get a free second opinion.

When a garage door quote is worth a second look

Most people who ask for a second opinion are not accusing anybody of anything. They have a number in their hand, no way to tell whether it is normal, and the only person they have asked is the person who wrote it. That is an information problem rather than a dispute, and a second visit solves it.

None of the signs below prove a quote is wrong. Each one is a reason to have a second technician look at the door before you agree to the work.

Why people in Las Vegas ask us for a second look:

• The number went up after the technician arrived. A price given on the phone and a price given in the driveway are allowed to differ once somebody has actually seen the door. The difference should be explained in terms of what they found.
• A broken spring came back as a recommendation to replace the whole door. Sometimes that is genuinely right, on a door that is out of parts or rusted through. It is also the largest jump in price in this trade, which makes it the single most worthwhile thing to have looked at twice.
• There is no itemised price, only a total.
• The quote does not say how many springs are being fitted, or at what cycle rating.
• You were asked to decide on the spot, before you had a chance to think or to call anybody.
• A part was replaced and you never saw the old one.
• A whole opener is being replaced on a door that is a few years old, for a symptom nobody explained to you.

What a second opinion costs here, and what it includes

It costs nothing, and that is not an offer invented for this page. The trip fee on this site has always been $0 and the inspection has always been free, which means a second opinion is simply the thing we already do, done on a door somebody else has already quoted.

So there is no second opinion fee, no deposit, no obligation and nothing to mention when you call. Tell us another company has been out, tell us what they found if you want to, and a technician comes and looks.

What the visit includes:

• A technician at your door at no cost, because the trip fee is $0.
• A free inspection of the whole door and opener, not only the part named in the other quote.
• A written, itemised price from us before anything is touched.
• A plain answer on whether what was recommended looks necessary to us, and what we would do instead if it does not.
• If it is a qualifying same-day spring replacement, that is $499. A new door starts at $1,400 installed on qualifying standard sizes and configurations.
• No pressure to use us. You are welcome to take our written number back to the first company.

What we will not promise, and why we think that is the better deal

We will not promise to beat another company's written number before we have seen your door. It is worth saying why, because that promise is a popular one and it sounds like it is on your side.

A company that agrees to undercut a quote it has not seen is bidding against a number rather than pricing a job. The usual way that promise gets kept is on the parts: a spring with a lower cycle rating costs less and lasts fewer years, and it is easy to fit one and still call it a spring replacement. You would have won the comparison and lost the door.

What you get instead is our own number, arrived at the same way for you as for anybody else who calls today, in writing, before any work starts. Sometimes it is lower than the quote you are holding. Sometimes it is not, and then we will say plainly that you were quoted fairly, which is worth the visit on its own.

We also will not tell you that whoever quoted you is dishonest. We were not there and we do not know, and that is not a claim anybody should make about another company's work sight unseen. We will tell you what we can see on your door and what we would charge to put it right.

How to compare two garage door quotes, line by line

Two quotes for the same door can differ by a lot and both be honest, because the same words cover different work. Lining them up on the points below usually explains the gap in a couple of minutes.

If a line is blank on either quote, that is the question to ask before you compare the totals.

The lines worth comparing on two garage door quotes

The three jobs people most often get a second opinion on

Springs. A torsion spring that let go after ten or twelve Las Vegas summers is the most quoted job in this trade and the one with the widest spread. What moves the number is whether it is one spring or two, the cycle rating, and whether the cables that aged alongside it are being replaced. A qualifying same-day spring replacement with us is $499, confirmed after the inspection and before work begins.

Openers. An opener that will not lift is sometimes an opener, and sometimes a door that has become too heavy for it, which is a spring problem wearing an opener's symptoms. It is worth asking which one you are being quoted for, because a new opener bolted above an unbalanced door will fail again and the second failure is not covered by being surprised.

The whole door. Replacing a door is the right answer when panels are split, when the model is out of parts, or when rust has gone through the bottom section. It is the wrong answer to a broken spring on a sound door. If a replacement has been recommended to you, ask which panels, ask what specifically cannot be repaired, and ask for that in writing. New doors from us start at $1,400 installed on qualifying standard sizes and configurations, confirmed after a free measure.

Springs and cables are not a do-it-yourself fix, whichever company you use

This part of the page carries no opinion at all. A torsion spring holds the weight of the door in wound steel, and a lift cable under load does the same thing. Releasing either one without the right bars and the right training is how people lose fingers and how doors come down.

So if the price is what has you looking for another answer, the answer is a second quote and not a weekend with a socket set. The inspection costs nothing, which means finding out what the job actually is costs nothing either.

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