Garage door repair
Garage door frozen to the ground?
When the bottom seal is iced to the slab, the opener pulls against a door that cannot move. Do not keep running it. Free the ice gently and stop if it will not release.
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Is this what you're seeing?
The door will not rise, or lifts a few inches then stops.
The opener hums, strains or clicks.
Ice or packed snow is along the bottom edge.
The bottom rubber has torn off the door or stuck to the floor.
The garage floor is wet or sloped toward the door.
What's going on
Water gets under the door from melting snow, a tracked-in slush pile, a sloped drive or a leaky floor, then it freezes overnight and glues the rubber bottom seal to the concrete. Colorado does this a lot because of freeze and thaw: sun melts the snow in the day and the drip refreezes at the bottom edge when the temperature drops.
The trouble is what happens next. Each press of the button, the opener pulls up on the door, and the glued seal holds the bottom. The pull has to go somewhere. It can tear the seal off, bend the bottom section, pull the bottom bracket loose, strip the opener gear, or jerk a cable off the drum. A frozen door is a small problem that turns into a big repair if you push it.
There are also times a door that seems frozen is not. A broken spring, a snapped cable or a failed opener will also leave the door stuck, and ice at the bottom is only a coincidence. If you see ice but also hear a bang, see a cable hanging, or the door is tilted, treat it as a mechanical failure and not an icing problem.
What to do right now
Do
Unplug the opener first, so it cannot pull on the door.
Chip loose ice from the floor beside the door with a plastic scraper or shovel, pulling away from the seal.
Pour lukewarm water along the ice, not boiling, then squeegee and dry the area.
Salt or melt the patch and clear the slush so it does not refreeze.
Don't
Do not keep pressing the remote or the wall button.
Do not pull the door up by hand or yank the handle to break the ice.
Do not pour boiling water on it, it refreezes and can crack glass and seals.
Do not pry under the door with a metal bar, it will bend the bottom section.
How we fix it
This is garage door repair. We free the door without damaging it, inspect the bottom section, brackets, cables and opener for strain, replace the bottom seal with a type that handles cold, and talk through where the water is coming from.
Repair or replace?
Most frozen doors need only a gentle thaw and a new seal. If the bottom section has been bent or torn by repeated pulling, panel replacement may be the cleanest repair.
If the opener was running against the ice for a while, we test it carefully before we call it good. A strained opener can fail a week later.
Related questions
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Parts mentioned
Free your frozen door safely
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