How to Choose a Garage Door Company in Florida
Choose a garage door company in Florida on a written estimate before dispatch, published prices, a contractor license you can verify at myfloridalicense.com, a real arrival window and a warranty printed on the invoice. For a new door, the company must pull the building permit and name the wind rating on it. A spring should be quoted at $150 to $350 installed and a wind-rated steel single door at $950 to $4,200 with the permit included.
The signals that actually mean something
They will quote in writing before dispatch. The strongest single signal in this trade. It costs an honest company nothing.
Prices are published or freely given. A company that answers “how much for a spring” with “$150 to $350 installed, depending on the door” on the phone is a company that expects to charge that. Ours are on the price list.
Licensed and insured, with details on request. Not the words on the truck. The name the license is held under, so you can look it up, and an insurance certificate if you ask for one.
They pull the permit themselves. In Florida a replacement door needs a building permit, and the permit is pulled by a licensed contractor. A company that asks you to pull it as an owner-builder, or suggests skipping it, is telling you something about the rest of the job.
They can name the wind rating. Ask what design pressure the door is rated for and whether it carries a Florida Product Approval or, in Miami-Dade and Broward, a Miami-Dade NOA. A company selling doors in this state answers that in one sentence.
A real arrival window. Three hours, not “sometime Tuesday”, and a call when it changes.
A stated warranty. Specific periods for parts and for labor, printed on the invoice. Ours is one year on each.
They will show you the failed part. This one separates more companies than any technical question.
The two minute license check
Almost nobody does this, and it filters out more bad actors than anything else on this page.
- Ask the person on the phone for the name the license is held under. It is often a person’s name rather than the company name.
- Go to myfloridalicense.com, the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation site, and search that name.
- Check three things: the license is current, the name connects to the company on your estimate, and there is no disciplinary history listed.
A company that gives you the name without hesitating has told you something. A company that gets vague, or says the license belongs to “our partner”, has told you something too.
Storm chasers
Every named storm brings them. Trucks with out-of-area plates, a knock on the door the week after landfall, a deposit wanted in cash, and a promise to have the new door in by the weekend because “the permit office is closed anyway”.
Some of these crews do adequate work. The problem is what happens after they leave. An unpermitted door has no inspection and no rating on record, which means it does nothing for you at a wind mitigation inspection, and the warranty on it is a phone number that stops answering in about six weeks.
What protects you is the same list as always, applied a little harder:
- A written scope and price before any money changes hands.
- A permit pulled in the contractor’s name, which you can confirm with your county or city building department.
- The door’s approval number on the estimate.
- No cash deposit. A modest deposit by card or check against a written contract is normal for a door order. Half the job in cash is not.
If you are quoted a price after a storm that looks wildly out of line with the published ranges, the Florida Attorney General’s office takes price gouging complaints during a declared state of emergency. We do not inflate storm repairs, and we say so on our storm damage page, because that is the complaint people have after every hurricane.
The signals that mean less than they appear
| Signal | Why it looks strong | What it actually tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Years in business | Survival | Nothing about pricing or permits |
| Heavy advertising | Size | Often a lead generation operation, not a shop |
| A very low advertised price | A bargain | The cost of the visit, not the work |
| Star rating alone | Popularity | Easy to buy. Read the one and two star complaints instead |
| A big showroom | Substance | You are paying for the showroom |
Age of the company. “Since 1987” tells you a business survived, which is worth something, but it does not tell you how it prices. Some of the longest established firms in this market still will not quote before arriving.
Volume of advertising. The heaviest advertisers in this trade are frequently thin lead generation operations that resell your call to whoever is nearest.
A very low advertised price. Almost always the cost of the visit rather than the work. Our article on the $29 service call explains the model.
Star ratings alone. Useful in aggregate, easily gamed in isolation. Read the one and two star reviews rather than the average, and look for whether complaints are about the price changing after the technician arrived.
The two minute check before anyone comes out
- Ask what the finished repair costs, and get the answer by text or email.
- Ask what happens if they find something else once the door is apart.
- Ask for the warranty on parts and on labor.
- Ask for the name on the license and look it up.
For a new door, add two more:
- Ask who pulls the permit.
- Ask for the door’s approval number and the wind rating it carries.
Six questions. A company that handles all six cleanly will almost certainly handle the job cleanly. Our full list of questions to ask goes through each one with what a good answer sounds like.
The Florida jobs where this matters most
A spring on a door that has cycled hard. Florida doors are the front door of the house for most families, and the springs go at 10,000 cycles whether that takes seven years or four. A spring replacement at $150 to $350 per spring is the most common job in the trade and the one most often quoted low and billed high.
A door replaced after a storm. This is where permits get skipped, ratings get invented and deposits disappear. Read what to do after storm damage before you sign anything.
A hurricane-rated door. Impact-rated and HVHZ doors run $1,800 to $6,500 installed. At that price the approval number, the permit and the inspection are the product, not paperwork.
What to do about our own position
We are a newer company, so by the age signal we lose to most of our competitors and we are not going to pretend otherwise.
What we offer instead is the thing the age signal is supposed to stand in for: published prices before you call, a written estimate before anything is touched, the failed part shown to you, a permit pulled by a licensed contractor on every door we install, and a one year warranty on parts and labor printed on the invoice.
If another company gives you all of that too, hire them. The point of this article is not that you should hire us. It is that you should not hire anybody who will not.
Related reading
- Garage door repair scams and how to spot one
- Is my garage door quote too high?
- What a fair quote includes
- Garage door permits in Florida
- What a garage door technician actually does on a call
Related questions
How do I check whether a Florida garage door company is licensed?
Ask for the name the license is held under, then look it up at myfloridalicense.com, the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation site. You want the license to be current, to match the company name on the estimate, and to show no disciplinary history. It takes about two minutes and it is the check most people skip.
Does replacing a garage door in Florida really need a permit?
Yes. The garage door is the largest opening in the house and the Florida Building Code treats it as structural, so a replacement door needs a building permit with the wind rating documented on it. A licensed contractor pulls the permit. Replacing only the opener normally does not need one.
What is a storm chaser?
A crew that arrives in the days after a named storm, often from out of the area, knocks on doors, asks for a deposit in cash, and offers to skip the permit to move faster. Some do adequate work. Many are gone before the door fails or the inspection is missed, and the homeowner is left with an unpermitted door the insurer will not credit.
Does it matter if the company is new?
Less than the trade would like you to think. Age tells you a business survived, not that it prices honestly or pulls permits. What matters is whether they will commit to a number in writing before work starts, which any company can do on day one and some established firms still will not.
Should I use a national franchise or a local company?
Both can be good and both can be expensive. Franchises tend to have better systems and higher prices. Local firms vary enormously. Judge on the written quote, the license lookup and the permit answer, not the sign on the truck.
