New Garage Door Installation for Palo Alto Homes

Why This Fails Locally

Palo Alto's housing stock centers on 1963, a touch earlier than the 1966 median across the rest of this service area. That three-year gap matters more than it sounds. Doors installed on houses from that stretch were usually single-layer, no insulation, hung on tracks sized for the narrower openings builders used before two-car garages became standard. When a homeowner here calls about a door that won't open evenly or binds halfway up, the first thing we check isn't the opener - it's whether the track and jamb were ever squared to begin with, because a lot of them weren't.

We work this area from Redwood City, nine miles out, so we're not guessing at what's common here - we see the same build era on most calls. A new install on a house like this isn't a straight swap. The rough opening is often a non-standard width, the header may not carry a heavier insulated door without reinforcement, and the old track mounting points don't line up with current hardware. Skip that check and you get a door that looks installed but binds in six months.