Forklift hit the overhead door? Where it landed decides what bent
Shops, warehouses and farm buildings around Howard County all have the same traffic at the door. Forklifts carry pallets through it and trucks back up to it. Sooner or later something meets the door. The first useful question afterward is where the hit landed, because a hit on the face of a closed door, a mast that catches the bottom of a door that was partway up, and a bump that only found the track each bend different parts. Each one is read below for both kinds of door, sectional and rolling steel.
A forklift hit the overhead door. Can the bay keep running?
Only if the door is still in its track or guides. A sectional door with every roller inside the track on both sides, or a rolling steel curtain still riding in both guides from the hood to the floor, may keep cycling while you wait for commercial garage door repair. If any part of it has left that path, the door stays where it stopped and the operator and its wall controls stay off.
A door sitting lower at one corner counts as out, even when every roller you can see is still in place. It has lost its lift on that side.
The pull to cycle it anyway is strongest on a dock with a truck waiting. A door out of its path still has its springs wound, and the motor will pull against whatever is binding.
What bends when the hit lands on a closed door?
The part that took the hit, plus whatever held it in place. A closed door is locked into its track or guides along both sides, so the impact pushes the middle out of plane while the edges try to stay put. Something at the edges gives: rollers on a sectional door, the slat ends on a rolling one.
On a sectional door, the struck section bows. A strike from the inside, the usual forklift case, pushes it toward the lot. The hinges on that section and the one next to it bend or pull their fasteners, and the rollers at that height pop out of the track or bend their stems. With one section bowed the door is no longer square, and the cable on one side tends to go slack while the other carries the load. The sections above and below can look fine and still have cracked stiles where the hinges bolt on.
A rolling steel door takes it differently. The slats at the point of impact bow into a belly, and the end locks or wind locks riveted to those slat ends, which ride in the guides and hold the curtain there, tear loose or drag the curtain edge out of the guide. A hit low on the door bends the bottom bar. Above the bend the curtain can still look straight, so stand back and sight along it.
What happens when the mast catches a door that was not all the way up?
The bottom edge takes the hit, and it is also where the door gets lifted. On a sectional door the lift cables attach at the bottom brackets. On a rolling door the bottom bar is the last piece to coil. A mast or a load that catches that edge hits the lift points directly, which is why this kind of hit leaves a door hanging crooked even when the face looks undamaged.
On a sectional door, the usual chain of events runs like this:
- The bottom section gets shoved up or sideways at one corner.
- The bottom bracket on that side bends, or its cable comes off the drum when the door is pushed up faster than the drum can take up the cable.
- That side loses its support, so the door drops lower on one side and twists in the track.
On a rolling steel door, the mast pushes the bottom bar up and into the coil. The bar bends, and the curtain above it can be shoved up into the hood unevenly, with slats pulled from the guides near the top where you cannot see them from the floor. A dented hood over the coil is a sign that happened.
What if the forklift hit the track or the guide and never touched the door?
Then the door is fine and its path is not. A sectional track bent inward at fork height puts a kink in the rollers’ route, so the door stalls, jumps or grinds at that one height every cycle. A rolling door’s guide knocked in will pinch the curtain and drag it, or catch the end locks on the way down. Sometimes the track itself is straight and the jamb or wall angle it bolts to has been pulled off the wall. That one shows as a gap where the bracket used to sit tight.
Yellow paint scuffed onto the lower few feet of a guide usually gives it away. A guide or track that keeps getting hit in the same spot is a candidate for a post or guard in front of it, anchored in the floor and set far enough out that the forklift meets the post before it reaches the track.
What decides between new sections or slats and a new door?
How far the damage spread, and whether the parts are still made. One section or a band of slats gets replaced when the damage stayed in one place and the door’s maker and profile can still be matched. It turns into a whole door when the hit spread across several sections or most of the curtain, or when the replacement part is no longer made for that door.
What a technician looks at to decide:
| What they check | Points toward a part | Points toward the whole door |
|---|---|---|
| How many sections or slats are bent | One section, or a band of slats | Bends spread across the door |
| The hinges and section ends around the hit | Bent hinges, straight sections | Torn stiles, cracked section ends |
| Whether the part still exists | Same maker, gauge and profile available | Discontinued profile or odd width |
| Lift parts after a low hit | Bracket and cable replaced, door square again | Bottom section and bracket both gone, door racked |
A sectional replacement has to match the width, gauge and profile of the sections above and below, or the door will not run true. A rolling curtain can take new slats in the middle, but a curtain with torn end locks along most of its height usually comes out as a unit. The springs and the barrel on a rolling door are rarely touched by a forklift hit, and a new curtain can usually go back on the same ones.
How is the opening closed for the night when the door will not come down?
The door stays where it stopped, the operator stays locked out at its disconnect, and the opening gets covered by something other than the door. On a dock that can be a trailer left backed to it. Elsewhere it is a temporary panel or a barrier fastened across the opening, put up by whoever comes out for the repair.
Leave the door alone even if it hangs low enough to look like it nearly closes. Pulling or chaining a door that is out of its track to make it seal is how a slack cable comes off its drum. If the building cannot sit open overnight, that is what emergency garage door repair is for. On a hit door, securing the opening comes before the repair.