Repairing Garage Door Dents

Garage doors not only serve to keep your home safe and secure, they can add to the overall look of your property, and increase your property value. The garage doors of today are available in wide variety of materials including wood, vinyl, aluminum, steel, and fiberglass.

Among the many materials available today, aluminum garage doors really stand out, as they require minimal maintenance – until, that is, it is dented from some foreign object or scarier still, your vehicle.

Whether it is the result of inching the Honda a bit too far, the handiwork of your kid’s bouncing balls off of it one too many times, or for any other everyday occurrence (or not so everyday!), the ugly truth is that garage door dents happen. More often than we’d like.

You may feel the urge to run out and purchase a new garage door. But replacement is not your only option. Minor garage door dents and dings are relatively easy to repair. You will, of course, need to gather a few tools and materials to pop the dent out.

What You’ll Need

Here are the items you will need to perform garage door dent removal:

• Clean water
• A Sponge
• A clean cloth/rag
• A medium bucket
• Ordinary dish soap (Dawn)
• Quality aluminum foil
• A lighter or similar source of heat
• An air compressor or can of compressed air

What You’ll Need to Do

1. Fill the bucket with water and add 1 teaspoon of dish soap. Mix well.
2. Thoroughly wash the dented area with a clean sponge.
3. Rinse the area with clean water and dry it with a clean cloth/rag.
4. Once the area is dry, cut off a sheet of aluminum foil that is big enough to cover the dented area, plus has some slack. Hold the foil sheet against the dent. Hold the foil with one hand only.
5. Using your heat source, apply heat to the foil over the dent. Move the heat source in a back and forth motion. Keep heat for approximately one minute.
6. Now remove the foil and quickly blast the dent with compressed air from your can or compressor. Keep the compressed air trained on the dented area for approximately thirty-seconds.

If everything works as it should, then your garage door dent will simply disappear into thin air, like magic. This is because the temperature variance between the heated garage door surface and the cold liquid from the compressed air cause the dent to “pop” out. Leaving your door looking like new.

An Important Warning for Garage Door Dents

While the above technique can be a simple, fast, and virtually free way to free your door from unsightly garage door dents and dings it is important to note that the impact may have damaged other parts of your door – such as its alignment.

To that end, it is definitely a good idea to have a garage door repair expert come out and give your entire garage door system a professional look over to make sure everything is in good condition, and that everything works as it should.