Garage Door Marketplace

Garage Door Marketplace

Buying & selling safely

We put buyers and sellers in touch. We do not inspect a part, watch it being fitted or certify anyone's work. A garage door is the heaviest moving thing on most houses, so the checks below are worth doing before money changes hands or a spanner comes out.

Springs are the one part to leave alone

  • •A garage door spring is wound to hold the entire weight of the door. That energy is still in it when the door is down, and it comes out all at once if the spring, the winding cone or the shaft lets go. Untrained people adjusting or removing torsion springs have been killed and seriously maimed doing it.
  • •Winding and unwinding a torsion spring is done with the correct winding bars by someone trained to do it. A screwdriver, a bolt or a length of reo in the cone is how hands and faces get broken. If a spring needs to come off or go on, book an installer.
  • •Never buy or fit a used spring of unknown cycle history. A spring is a wear item rated in open-close cycles and there is no way to look at one and tell how many it has left. A cheap second-hand spring that fails at head height was never cheap.
  • •Springs are replaced as a matched set. Fitting one new spring beside an old one leaves the door out of balance and puts the whole load onto the part that is about to fail next.
  • •Cables, drums and the shaft carry the same energy. Frayed cable, a chewed drum or a bent shaft is a spring problem wearing a different hat, not a separate small job.

Inspect the part before you commit

  • •Match the brand, model and compliance plate to the listing. Ask for clear photos of the plate, the panel faces, the rollers and hinges, the cable ends and any rust, dents or previous repairs.
  • •For an opener, ask for a short video of it running a door start to finish, including the auto-reverse. A head unit spinning on a bench tells you the motor turns and nothing else.
  • •A used motor without its remotes is a half-price motor for a reason. Check the code system before paying: whether it is a fixed code, a rolling code, TrioCode or an older 27MHz unit decides whether replacement transmitters exist at all and what they cost.
  • •Doors and infill panels from the asbestos era can contain bonded asbestos sheet. Do not cut, drill, sand or break up an unknown old panel, and do not accept one that has already been broken up.
  • •Treat a burnt plug, a cut and rejoined lead, a missing earth pin or a cracked photocell housing as unsafe. Buy the part, not somebody else's failed repair.

Check the fit, then test the safety systems

  • •Check the door balance before you blame the motor. With the opener disconnected, a balanced door lifts by hand with light effort and stays put around halfway. If it slams down or shoots up, the springs are wrong and a bigger motor will only hide it until something breaks.
  • •Confirm the part suits the door before you pay: door type and weight, headroom and side room, drive type (chain, belt, screw, direct or jackshaft), motor force in Newtons, and the track and hardware it has to bolt to. Openers and doors that look alike are frequently not interchangeable.
  • •After any install or opener swap, set and test the force and the auto-reverse. The standard check is an obstruction on the floor in the door's path: the door must stop and reverse off it, not push through it.
  • •Safety photocell sensors belong on every automatic door. Fit them, align them, and test them by breaking the beam while the door is closing. A cable-tied or bypassed sensor pair is not a saving, it is a child at ankle height.
  • •Any hard-wired electrical work is for a licensed electrician. Ask your state regulator what applies before you start, and remember a listing, invoice or seller statement is not a compliance certificate for anything.

Pay, meet and collect carefully

  • •Inspect before paying where you can. Meet somewhere public in daylight, or at the property with someone else there if the part has to come off a door.
  • •For a door, a panel set or anything palletised, agree in writing what is included and who removes, lifts and transports it. A complete door is a two-person load and it damages easily.
  • •No deposit because a stranger has invented a deadline. Avoid gift cards, cryptocurrency and international transfers, and be wary of an overpayment that comes with a request to refund the difference.
  • •Keep the listing, the messages, the receipt and photos of the compliance plate. A business seller may owe consumer guarantees that a one-off private sale does not.
  • •If a listing is recalled stock, an illegal modification or plainly unsafe, report it rather than quietly walking away and leaving it up for the next person.

Get spring work quoted, not attempted

If the job involves winding, unwinding, replacing or relocating a spring, or the door has come off its tracks with the spring still under tension, that is installer work. It is the one line on this page we would rather you took as a rule than a suggestion.

Use the directory to find a spring specialist or repairer near you, check they carry insurance for the work, and get the quote in writing before anyone starts. Buying the part here and having it fitted properly is still cheaper than the alternative.

Something look wrong? Read the listing rules or use the report link on the listing.