Fix it
Garage door will not close all the way
A door that stops a few inches short and stays there has hit its down limit early. A door that stops short and reverses has hit something. A door that closes but leaves daylight at one end is sitting on an uneven floor or has a worn bottom seal — and that is the cheapest of the three by a distance.
Do this first
Note whether it stops and stays, stops and reverses, or closes but leaves a gap. Those are three different faults with three different answers.
Need it today?
MF Garage Doors
Door stuck, spring gone, car trapped — ring, do not fill in a form.
Call (863) 592-2143Repairs and service within 40 miles of Sebring — Avon Park, Lake Placid, Wauchula, Arcadia, Lake Wales, Bartow, Frostproof and Winter Haven.
New doors and replacements across central Florida — Tampa, Orlando, Lakeland, Winter Haven, Kissimmee, Clermont, and everywhere between.
2 of 3 are yours to fix
What it usually turns out to be
| Cause | How to tell | What happens next | Yours? |
|---|---|---|---|
| The down limit is set short | It stops a few inches up and stays there, quite happily. | Adjust the down travel on the opener head, a quarter turn at a time. | Yes |
| The bottom seal is worn or the floor is uneven | The door is fully closed but there is daylight at one corner. | A new bottom seal takes up half an inch or so. A badly out-of-level floor takes a stepped seal. | Yes |
| The track is out of line at the bottom | The door pinches or scrapes in the last foot of travel. | The vertical tracks are adjusted back to plumb and the correct distance apart. | Call somebody |
What it costs
$70 – $160
For a bottom seal with retainer. National guide range, checked September 2026 — get it in writing.
Other faults
The repair
What actually happens on the visit
- Measures the gap. An inch and a hand's width are different faults.
- Checks the down limit, which is the usual cause — the opener has been told to stop short.
- Checks the bottom seal. A perished seal looks like a gap and is a twenty-minute fix you can do yourself.
- Checks whether the floor has moved. Slabs settle, and a door set to a floor that is no longer there stops in the wrong place.
- Checks the cables are even, because one longer than the other closes the door crooked and leaves a wedge of daylight at one end.
How long it takes. Half an hour for a limit or a seal. Longer if the cables need balancing or the threshold needs work.
Next time
Can you stop it happening again?
Partly. Replacing the bottom seal when it hardens is the one you control. A settling slab is not preventable and is the reason an old garage needs the limits reset every few years.