Mark Griffin has been in the garage door industry for more than 30 years. His company, Automatic Garage Door, repairs and installs residential garage doors and commercial rolling steel doors for homes and businesses in the Bay Area.

The company completes all jobs in a single day–”installed, double checked and triple checked,” according to Mr. Griffin. All jobs result in a “delighted” client, he says, and problems are rare and immediately remedied.

You can count on Automatic Garage Door to perform timely warranty work along with new installations, Mr. Griffin says. Should warranty issues arise, he handles them quickly and personally.

A long-time resident of the Bay Area, Mr. Griffin’s extensive knowledge of San Francisco’s neighborhoods equips him to understand the special needs of his customers. His company’s work ethic is built on the basic principles of common courtesy: show up on time or call if you’re running late; keep trucks and equipment clean and organized; exercise the same commitment to quality and meticulous care that you would if installing your own garage door.

The overwhelming majority of calls handled by the company (90 percent) result in repairs rather than replacements. The only doors the company can’t service are those deemed unsafe: doors lacking sensors to reverse their direction when they encounter a blockage, and one-piece doors with dangerous side-springs. Under those circumstances, Mr. Griffin will recommend the homeowner install a new door as quickly as possible.

Automatic Garage Door has a complete showroom where you can view many styles and brands. Its two full-time secretaries are fluent in English, Spanish, Mandarin and Cantonese.

If you ignore maintenance on your garage door, don’t be surprised when it breaks. People get the brakes on their car checked. They get their car’s oil changed. Yet they completely ignore their garage door, the single largest moving object in their house.

“It goes up and down constantly, and no one does maintenance on it. It’s one of those things people just take for granted,” says Mark Griffin of Automatic Garage Door. The result is that the garage door may break much sooner than they should.

Whether you need your garage door repaired or replaced, Mr. Griffin recommends you find a journeyman with at least four years’ experience repairing and installing garage doors.

The key to a long-running and smooth-operating garage door, says Mr. Griffin, is proper balance. When an experienced professional comes to service your garage door, his first step should be to balance it. He should put the door on its manual setting, adjust the spring tension and oil the parts.

There are two types of doors that should not be serviced, says Mr. Griffin. First is a door without the safety sensors that are mandatory in newer doors. The second is an older, one-piece door that flips up and, because of its dangerous side springs, creates a safety risk. If you own one of these one-piece models, he recommends you keep all its parts well oiled, stay clear of the springs and purchase a new folding door as soon as possible.

Another piece of advice to anyone looking for a company to service their garage door: Visit its showroom—the very existence of which tells you the company is established. Trust your instincts. If the showroom looks and feels professional, that should help reassure you that the company is a trustworthy choice.

Q: Should I get a wood door or a metal one?

A: You don’t want a metal door in San Francisco, because it’ll rust. Outside of San Francisco, metal is very popular because it comes back pre-painted and it’s insulated.

Q: What about carriage house doors?

A: Many people live in Victorian home, and they want a garage door that looks like those old 1900 swingers, which is what the carriage house garage doors are. I can absolutely do this. These doors go up in sections.

Q: I need a garage door but I don’t know what’s out there. How does your process work?

A: I do every single estimate in person. I bring out a book of different designs, which you can also find on our website.

Q: What about safety?

A: All the new garage door motors have safety sensors. If your door is coming down and something blocks the beam, it reverses. Every motor we install includes those safety sensors. Even if a cat goes near it, it backs up.

Q: Can you retrofit my garage door with a safety sensor?

A: No, unfortunately. If you want the sensor—and everybody should have it—you need to put in a new motor rod. You can’t add the beams to an old motor.