Blog

by Bill Gratz, President

A garage door is the largest moving part of your house. Most homeowners don’t think about it until it stops working. That’s fine. That’s our job. Door Power has been repairing and installing garage doors in Minnesota since 1967. I want to explain what that means, and what it doesn’t.

My dad started this company. I grew it.

My dad, Jim Gratz, started Door Power in 1967. In the early days it was openers only. No doors.

I came to work for him full time in 1986. That’s when we started doing door repairs, and then new door installations.

By 1998 he was ready to retire. I took over the company and became owner.

From there I kept building. More technicians, more trucks, a bigger operation than the one I walked into.

The more important decision came in 2001.

Devern VanHorn had been here for years by then, carrying real responsibility. I didn’t want to run this alone. I wanted a partner I could trust to run the place right when I wasn’t in it.

That year I made him a co-owner. He earned it through commitment and responsibility.

That partnership has held ever since. Same standards.

We fix what can be fixed.

The national companies are expanding into our market. We see how they operate.

They will come out and do the fix. But the real motive is the upsell.

They push things like safety drums that don’t make your door any safer. That isn’t a technician making a judgment call in your driveway. That is a trained sales process.

When Door Power comes out, we are here to take care of the issue you called us about. Not to sell you services or garage hardware you don’t need.

If your door needs a new spring, we replace the spring. If a panel can be repaired, we repair it. We will tell you when a full replacement is the right call, and we will tell you just as plainly when it isn’t.

When you call us, a person — Devern, Chad or I — answers the phone. We’ll take the time to understand what’s wrong and give you a close estimate of what it should cost before anyone drives out.

Does a new garage door add value to your home?

Yes. The ROI on a new garage door is high.

The garage is the first thing you see on a home. On most houses it takes up 10 to 20% of the face of the house. The look, the feel, and the space it occupies shape the first experience a buyer has with the property.

That adds real value, and the national remodeling data backs it up. For two years running, garage door replacement has ranked the #1 home improvement project in the country for return on investment. It beats a kitchen remodel. It beats a bathroom.

The numbers are in the chart. Two things the chart doesn’t tell you.

That return assumes you actually need a new door. If yours has ten good years left, replacing it isn’t an investment. It’s just spending money.

And a national average is not a promise about your house. A buyer reacts to what they see. An appraiser weighs condition and comparable sales. Both move the right direction with a good door. Neither one hands you a check.

That’s the honest version. Tell us the situation you’re in, and we’ll tell you straight.

 

A door is also security and energy.

Resale value is only part of it.

Your garage door is the main entry point to the house on a lot of properties. Worn hardware, bad sensors, or a failing opener is a real vulnerability, and it is one most people never check.

In Minnesota, it is also energy. An insulated, properly sealed door keeps winter out of an attached garage and out of the rooms next to it. That shows up on your energy bill.

We help our neighbors.

Our trucks are running through places like Chanhassen, Chaska, Shakopee and Glencoe every week. We serve Carver, Hennepin, Scott, and McLeod counties.

We live in these communities. Our customers are our neighbors, and they talk to each other.

That changes things. A national call center can afford one unhappy homeowner in Minnesota. We can’t. This reputation took nearly six decades to build, and it only takes one bad week to damage.

So we pick up your call, provide a solution, show up when we say we will. We give a straight number. We do the work right the first time.

What all those years actually buy you.

Experience, mostly. We have seen nearly every door, opener, and failure our Minnesota climate can produce. That means faster diagnosis and fewer surprises on your bill.

It also buys accountability. We will still be here next year, and the year after that. A warranty means something when the company behind it isn’t going anywhere.

If your door is making a noise you don’t like, call us. We will tell you what’s wrong, what it costs, and whether it needs fixing at all.

That’s the whole model. It has worked since 1967.

Bill Gratz, President