Garage Door Repair Guide
Garage doors are simple; they just go up and down over and over, year after year, until suddenly, they stop working the way they should do. Most of the times, the repair is simple since garage doors have a simple functionality. But there are times that even reliable garage doors may need major repairs.
Quick Fixes and Basic Maintenance
Suppose your garage door does not give you any problem right now. In that case, you can probably just keep it working the way it works if you follow this simple maintenance and inspection routine:
- Watch and listen while your garage door operates.
- Clear the tracks. Inspect the tracks on both to ensure that there are no debris and rust.
- Tighten the hardware parts. Since the garage door usually moves up and down many times, the vibration and the motion can loosen up the track hardware and the door itself.
- Inspect and replace the rollers if needed. Do this at least twice a year.
- Check the pulleys and cables that are connected to the bottom roller brackets of the door.
- Keep the rollers and other moving parts well-lubricated. By doing this, it can reduce stress on the door openers and the rollers.
- Check the door balance. If your door isn't properly balanced, the garage door opener would need to work harder, and it would not last long.
- If you have an automatic garage door, check the auto-reverse feature. It is designed to reverse the direction of the door and stop it as well if it detects an object along the path of the door.
- Keep your door clean.
If you follow these tips, it could correct the problems that you might experience sooner.
Now, let's discuss the most common problems you can encounter with garage doors and how to fix them.
Frozen Garage Doors
You will encounter this problem during the winter season when you need the convenience of opening and closing your garage door fast and quickly. The moisture and cold can freeze your garage door to the garage floor. Frozen garage doors can be caused by just a minor icy connection between the garage floor and the garage door itself. If this happens, you can quickly fix it by hitting the opener button.
But if you notice that your door refuses to budge during your first attempt to open it, do not keep banging on the garage opener button. It might cause more severe problems with the garage door opener if you do that.
You can try other methods that can break the frozen connection between the floor and the door. You can do standard de-icing, heat gun or even a hairdryer to melt the ice and free the garage door.
Once you were able to melt the icy connection, clear any water, snow or ice from the floor under the garage door. Keep this area dry to prevent future freezing.
Noisy Garage Doors
Noisy garage doors can be irritating especially if there's someone who sleeps above the garage. Fortunately, fixing this is easy. Routine maintenance and replacing a few parts can quickly fix this problem. Check the door's hinges because they might need replacement.
Security Concerns
The garage usually contains valuable products, so never take it for granted. Make sure that your garage has excellent security by installing modern garage door opener that has rotating digital codes feature.
Safety Issues
Garage doors are hefty, and they can be dangerous if you do not maintain it properly. There are already too many stories of injuries caused by faulty garage doors.
Thanks to modern automatic door openers, they have drastically reduced accidents.
Worn-Out Springs
Garage doors are counterbalanced by torsion springs or extension springs that are connected to pulleys and cables. These springs have counterforce to the heaviness of the door and allow it to lower and raise it with just a little force.
But these springs are always under pressure, and eventually, they will wear out. Once your garage door opener begins to struggle in opening the garage door, it only means that the springs are starting to wear out and in need replacement.
Replacing garage door springs is not an easy task. That is why most homeowners hire professionals.
