Living in Wichita Falls means accepting that a few times each spring, the sky drops ice on everything you own. Your garage door — the largest moving part of your house and usually the biggest painted surface facing the storm — takes the hit right alongside your roof.
What Hail Does to a Garage Door
Steel doors dent. Small hail leaves cosmetic dimples; the golf-ball-and-larger stones the Red River corridor produces can crease panels, crack paint, and knock photo-eye sensors out of alignment. Wood doors fare worse — hail splits panels and shatters glazing. Even when the door still opens, dents along panel seams can break the weather seal and let wind-driven rain into the garage.
Repair or Replace?
If the door is under ten years old and the model is still manufactured, individual panel replacement is usually the smart play — $250 to $600 per section versus $1,500+ for a new door. If panels are discontinued, or three or more sections are damaged, full replacement often costs about the same and gets you an insulated, wind-rated upgrade.
Insurance and Hail Claims
Garage doors are covered under most Texas homeowner policies as part of the dwelling, and hail is exactly what that coverage is for. After a storm:
1. Photograph the damage before touching anything — close-ups of dents and wide shots of the whole door.
2. Check whether the door still seals; note any daylight at the seams.
3. Get a written repair estimate — we provide damage documentation formatted for adjusters.
4. File promptly; Texas insurers handle spring hail claims in waves, and earlier claims settle faster.
After the Next Storm
We triage post-storm calls by severity: doors that won't close and lock come first, then doors with structural damage, then cosmetic work. If a storm just rolled through and your door took a beating, call early — the schedule fills fast after every hail event.