Age is a poor guide here. What actually matters is what's broken, and whether it's the first thing to break or the third.
A broken spring, a snapped or frayed cable, a worn roller, an off-track door from a knock, all of these are cheap fixes on a door of any age. The part costs the same whether the door is five years old or twenty, and none of them indicate anything's structurally wrong with the door itself.
A warped or bowed panel, rust that's eaten through the track or frame, a door that's been repaired two or three times in the last year for different faults, or an opening that's no longer square. At that point, another repair often just delays the same conversation, and you end up paying for several small jobs instead of one proper replacement.
Here's a rule of thumb that cuts through most of the uncertainty: if you're paying for a repair on the same door for the second time within about a year, that's the moment to ask for a replacement quote alongside the repair quote, not after the third one. It's not that a second repair is automatically wrong, sometimes it genuinely is the cheaper option, but it's worth comparing the numbers rather than defaulting to another patch.
A new door usually means better insulation, quieter operation, and modern locking and safety features that an older door, even a well-repaired one, simply wasn't built with. If the current fault happens to coincide with wanting those upgrades anyway, that tips the calculation further toward replacement even when the immediate repair alone would have been cheap.
Most single repairs run £80–£350. A full replacement starts around £450 for the simplest door type and rises from there depending on size and spec. If you're facing a repair at the top of that range, it's close enough to a basic door's starting price that it's worth at least getting a replacement quote before committing, even if you end up repairing anyway. Full detail on both is on our prices page.
Not automatically. If the fault is a spring or cable and the door itself is in decent shape, a repair is still usually the sensible choice regardless of age.
Yes, that's a core part of how we work. A replacement quote is worth more to us than a repair, we'd still rather tell you the truth.
Most calls booked before early afternoon get a same-day slot. No callout fee if we carry out the repair.