This page lays out what garage door work actually costs in the Ann Arbor market, what the city collects when a job needs a permit, and which features of a Washtenaw County garage push a repair to the upper end of its range.
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Six boxes, about thirty seconds. You pick when to be called back, and that is when the phone rings.
Or call (734) 888-2606Ann Arbor prices a residential permit from estimated project cost, and the first tier includes one rough and one final inspection. A nonrefundable $15 base application fee is added to every permit.
City of Ann Arbor building permit fee sheet, revised July 2025
Charged per inspection added to an open permit, billed after the inspection happens. A failed rough on a new opener circuit is what usually triggers it.
May 2025 median hourly pay in the Ann Arbor metro for the occupation that covers door and opener service. A billed hourly figure carries truck, spring inventory, insurance and drive time on top of that wage.
BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, Ann Arbor metro
Every range below is what companies working in Ann Arbor publish for that job, gathered from the numbered price pages under the table. It spans what several of them show, so the figures move with the specifics of the property and with who does the work. Nothing here is a quote, and no business has set a price on this page. A real number comes from whoever looks at the job.
| The job | Range seen | Billed as | What moves it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Service call to diagnose a door that will not open | $75–$14512 | per visit | Bottom is a service fee credited back on repair. Top is diagnostic labor. |
| Broken torsion springs replaced as a pair on a two-car door | $200–$475234 | flat | Oversized wire and cones seized onto a cold shaft move it upward. |
| Both lift cables replaced after the door hangs crooked | $150–$25023 | flat | Salt-corroded bottom brackets that shear during removal add bracket work. |
| Annual tune-up and safety inspection on one door | $30–$10056 | per visit | Covers lubrication, balance, hardware tightening and a reverse test on one door. |
| Opener repaired with a gear kit or logic board | $100–$35023 | flat | Parts for a discontinued unit or a high ceiling add cost. |
| Sectional door replaced and installed, opener reused | $800–$4,00078 | per unit | Low is a plain single-car steel door; top is oversized and insulated. |
Prices each of these companies publishes on its own site, read on the date shown in each listing. A published price can change without notice, so treat a number here as what was posted rather than what you will be told today.
Three variables decide where any single job lands: which component failed, how much of the door has to be dismantled to reach it, and what hour of the week the truck arrives. A torsion spring on a straight shaft with sound bearing plates is contained work. The same spring on an Old West Side garage with a shortened header and winding cones frozen onto the shaft takes far longer, and the invoice tracks the hour hand rather than the part number.
Corrosion is the local multiplier. The city treats 346 lane miles of priority streets to bare pavement through the winter, and every vehicle that pulls in carries that brine over the threshold, where bottom brackets, cable ends and the lower two feet of track absorb it first. Swapping lift cables on clean hardware is quick; swapping them where the bracket bolts shear off inside their holes becomes a bracket and track job too.
Federal wage data explains most of the labor side. Median pay in the general maintenance and repair occupation across the Ann Arbor metro is $23.64 an hour in the May 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics release. Once a truck, a stocked inventory of springs in several wire sizes, drive time and unproductive hours load on top, the billed figure sits at a multiple of the wage, which is why an hour saved on access shows up directly in the total.
The permit side is narrow but real. Rehanging a door, replacing springs, cables, rollers or an opener normally stays outside the permit process; changing the size of the opening, altering the header or running a new circuit does not. The city's fee sheet prices a permit from estimated project cost, with $100 covering the first tier and one rough plus one final inspection, a nonrefundable $15 base application fee on every permit, and $35 for each additional inspection. Exterior work inside a local historic district also needs an approved Certificate of Appropriateness before a door is ordered.
A quote worth acting on names the wire size, inside diameter and length of the spring going on the shaft, because those three numbers are what make a spring correct for a door. It states the door's weight or drum size and separates the diagnostic visit from repair labor. On a replacement it names the model, the gauge of steel, the insulation value and whether the existing opener carries over.
The pressure point is the leap from one broken spring to a full replacement door, because a snapped spring is loud and leaves a door that will not budge, which is when a homeowner is most likely to agree to whatever is proposed. Sometimes the door genuinely is finished, with rust perforating the bottom section and hinges tearing out of the stiles. Often it is a bearing and a pair of springs on an otherwise straight door. Ask which parts are condemned and what condition each one is in.
National averages price parts and a flat labor allowance. They leave out the low-headroom track kit an older detached garage often needs, the haul-away of two hundred pounds of steel sections, the second trip when a landlord signs off a day later, the extra inspection fee if a permitted job fails, and the wait for historic review. They also leave out matching: one section in the color and profile of a discontinued door can cost more than the section is worth.
If the door will not secure the garage, has gone crooked, or is making the opener work against resistance, get a repair visit scheduled. State the door position, the symptom, and whether a renter needs owner approval. The technician inspects the actual failure and provides the repair price before work begins.
Call (734) 888-2606Upfront pricing · No obligation · Local Washtenaw County technician