How to Fix Garage Door Dents

As an exterior element of your home, your garage door can take a beating! Hail and severe weather can leave little dents in your home’s garage door as well as basketballs, frisbees or accidents with a kid’s bike. No matter how your door got nicked, you can try to work out these little dents yourself as a DIY home improvement project. Check out the two different methods that may remove the dents in your garage door.

DIY Dent Removal Idea No. 1

For this method, you will need the following items: a small piece of wood, rubber mallet, fine-grit sandpaper, putty knife, patching pieces, primer and paint (depending on your garage door’s finish). Once you have your supplies gathered, wash the area or areas that have the little dents and let it dry. Next, hold the wood over the dent and lightly tap it with the rubber mallet to even out the dent. Now, sand it to smooth out the surface. Patch the affected area to help smooth it out even more and create a surface that will hold primer and paint or stain. After it has dried or set, prime and paint or stain the now dent-free surface. This works for natural type of garage doors, such as wood that have been painted or stained in the first place

DIY Dent Removal Idea No. 2

If you have a residential or commercial garage door that is made up of steel or aluminum, then this second method is a good one to try. You will need to gather up compressed air, a heat source and aluminum foil. After you have located the small dent that you want to remove, wash it and let it dry completely. Then tear off a strip of aluminum foil and place it over the dent. Next, carefully hold onto the foil while heating it up with the heat source you have on hand. After about a minute, remove the foil and spray the affected area with the compressed air that is turned upside down for approximately 30 seconds.

Experts Needed for Larger Dents

After trying these DIY ideas, you may still have traces of the dents left behind or if you have large dents that need to be addressed, then a professional in the field can help. While you may not think anything of these dents, as they add up or become larger, they can impact how your garage door works and lead to repairs down the road or unsightly issues later on. Our Affordable Garage Door team members are knowledgeable about all things garage door and can help you with any needed repairs or go over design ideas and options for installation of a new garage door. Large repairs or malfunctioning doors need to be reviewed by an expert as working on garage doors can be dangerous if you do not know what you are doing. Connect with us through our online contact form.