Repair or replace

Repair is usually the answer

A door that is structurally sound but has a failed part, a spring, a cable, a set of rollers, a bent track, a dented panel on an otherwise-good door, is a repair. The spring-on-a-ten-year-old-door is a repair; the door will outlive the new spring.

Replace is usually the answer

A door that is structurally done, rusted through, bowed, sections delaminating, a frame that has moved past square, is a replacement. A door that predates safety sensors entirely, or whose repair estimate runs a third or more of a new door's cost, usually gets the same answer. And a door that has been repaired three times in two years is telling you what it is.

The honest trade

The replacement costs more today and less over time. A ten-year-old steel insulated door on an Everett or Lynnwood house outlasts several more rounds of repair on a rusted original. The callback is where that math actually happens, describe the door and its age and the pro can usually say which side of the line it is on.