Where we work

Most garages in Kansas City are 1920s Brookside bungalows with detached single garages, split-levels and two-car attached garages across the Northland. That single fact drives more of what goes wrong than the weather does, because it sets the door's weight, and the door's weight sets everything else. Which spring, which cable, and how hard the opener has to pull.

A double door in Kansas City runs 130 to 190 pounds, more if it's insulated. The spring cancels that weight, two cables carry it, and rollers in a steel track steer it. Lose one and the remaining two go in a matter of days.

For a Kansas City door, around Brookside and Blue Hills we see the consequences of that chain often enough to recognize them on the phone. Describe the sound and we can usually name what went and what it damaged.

In Jackson County, which is the practical reason to call somebody who works this area rather than a dispatch number: the diagnosis starts before the van leaves.

Kansas City is the base and the surrounding towns are within the normal working radius. These are the areas the van is in most days:

• Brookside
• Waldo
• Northland
• Westport
• Red Bridge
• Blue Hills
• Overland Park
• Olathe
• Lee's Summit
• Independence
• Liberty
• Shawnee

Night calls go everywhere day calls do. In Kansas City, a door standing open overnight anywhere on that list gets somebody out.