Garage Door Maintenance Tips

Posted by: Severna Garage Door Repair

Most garage doors owners fail in taking care of their garage doors. For them, as long as the garage door moves, everything is fine.

With that thinking, you may be tolerating evident garage door issues that will only cost you expensive garage door repair or replacement. Instead of spending money on repairs or replacement, you can prevent garage door problems with garage door maintenance.

As the garage door owner, you need to conduct regular garage door maintenance to ensure your garage door works in its top condition. However, it is not an easy task. So to guide you, here are some garage door maintenance tips you can follow.

Test the Balance of the Garage Door

One of the issues garage door owners often face is a crooked garage door. When a garage door moves in an unbalanced manner, the possible causes are broken springs, dirt buildup along the track, or snapped lifting cables.

To solve dirt or debris accumulation along the tracks, you can use an old toothbrush or a vacuum cleaner for hard-to-reach areas. But, make sure to unplug the opener and pull the emergency release cord for your safety.

But for broken springs and snapped cables, only a garage door technician can replace them. Don’t attempt to repair springs or cables since you could damage other garage door parts. Just contact your local garage door company and ask for a garage door spring repair service. 

Check for Damages

Aside from the garage door unit, you need to check the garage door parts for damages at least once every two months to be sure. So look for rusts, breakages, dents, and other deformations.

But sometimes, garage door damages are not always obvious, so take note of these warning signs:

• Loud bang after closing the garage door
• Unnecessary shaking and noises while the garage door is opening or closing.
• Off-the-track rollers, cables, and chain, belt, or screw drive system
• Too fast or too slow movement of the garage door
• Unresponsive automatic opener
• Garage door not fully closing or opening

If you experience one of these problems, there is something wrong with your garage door parts. Call a garage door professional to detect and fix the issue.

Tighten Hardware

Like any other machine or device, garage doors use fasteners to connect and hold their parts together. However, the opener has a motor that makes the garage door vibrate. So, the screws, nuts, bolts, and other fasteners may come loose over time.

As part of your garage door maintenance, look first at your garage door’s hardware, especially the tracks, brackets, hinges, and opener. Then, if you have found all the loose nuts, bolts, or screws, tighten them with the right tool. But, ensure not to over tighten them since it can affect the garage door’s overall movement.

Lubricate Hinges, Brackets, Rollers, and Springs

As you probably know, some garage door parts may experience too much friction, especially if they move back and forth every day. That is the case for your rollers, springs, brackets, and hinges.

So as part of garage door maintenance, you need to lubricate the garage door’s moving parts every six months. Also, you should avoid using oil-based lubricants. Use a silicone- or lithium-based lubricant.

For guidance, here are the steps on how to lubricate garage door parts:

1. Disengage the automatic opener and garage door.
2. For plastic and nylon rollers with no ball bearings, apply the lubricant to the part where the roller meets the shaft.
3. For steel and nylon rollers with exposed ball bearings, apply the lubricant on the ball bearings.
4. For nylon rollers with sealed ball bearings, they don’t need lubrication.
5. Reach the springs and bearing plates using a ladder and directly apply the lubricant.
6. For the hinges, lift the garage door manually for better access, then you can spray the lubricant.
7. If you have a chain drive system and lock, you should also lubricate them.
8. Lastly, test your garage door to check if it is working properly.

If you are unsure how to lubricate garage door parts, you can call for a garage door maintenance service.

Conclusion

Your garage door and its parts can experience stress and strain since you open and close your garage door at least a few times each day. Probably, you often overlook its condition since you believe that it is working fine.

But as said earlier, some garage door damages are not always visible, and garage door repair or replacement can be too expensive. But with garage door maintenance, you can guarantee that your garage door is operating properly.

So, with the garage door maintenance tips you learned above, the condition of your garage door is now within your hands. Follow the maintenance ways presented, and you will definitely have no regrets.