12 Maintenance Tips For Your Garage Doors

Even the most careful people, who give enough attention to home maintenance and caring for their houses might forget completely about the garage door. Garage doors usually weigh about 150 pounds and they are frequently moved because many people consider them as their home’s main entrance. That’s why it comes as no surprise that these doors are subjected to tear and wear. They require some effort to keep them in order and running smoothly. Neglecting garage door maintenance might cause the door to become dysfunctional which puts your family and belongings at risk, especially kids and pets. So, regardless of the frequency of using your garage door, how can you protect it against the inevitable wear and tear? Here are 12 of the most important tips in order to create your maintenance routine that will save you from any garage door problems. 

1- Get Your Tools Ready

Shopping for maintenance tools is the best thing you can do to be prepared for anything that might happen to your garage door. Since these doors offer us protection and security, we need to act quickly in case the door becomes dysfunctional. Gather all the required materials that you might need for maintenance tasks that you can do yourself is the first step in order to make sure that you are ready and prepared for any possible hiccup along the way, without having to run any last-minute trips and spend hours trying to find the right tools.

• The first thing you will need is a wrench set of different sizes and types to be able to screw off any nuts, bolts, and screws that your door has.
• With your maintenance routine, you might need to take measurements of anything that you might want to change in order to get the exact right size; that’s why you need to buy a measuring tape.
• Any maintenance on your garage door will require a screw gun, lubricant, a hammer, a flat blade screwdriver, a strong cleaner, white lithium grease, and you might need spare garage door rollers.

To change the springs, you might need to hire a specialist that will come with his own set of tools and spare springs; however, it never hurts to be prepared and get some spare springs and a set of tools yourself in case the specialist doesn’t come with any or something in their set breaks down or gets lost.

2- Observe Closely

Visual inspection every now and then is highly recommended and important to be able to notice if anything is different from your door. Paying attention to details when trying to make sure that your door is operating efficiently will give you an idea of whether your door needs any repairs or is it functioning normally. Even for the untrained eyes, if you take some time every once in a while, to check your door thoroughly, you will be able to know how it operates and how to anticipate, with only your eyes, any issues that might be coming your door’s way. Normally, your door should be painted, primed, and sanded. While you are reviewing the overall condition of your door, you should be looking out for any spots for ruse in case you have a metal door, or any water damage if you have a wooden door.

3- You Also Need to Use Your Ears

You don’t have to do a visual inspection every day to figure out if there is something wrong with your door. Training your ears to pick up any strange noises that your door didn’t use to make in the past is enough to find any damages or issues that it might have. If you start noticing any grinding noise with the door jerking in certain places, then the problem might be in the springs’ pulleys. While many issues can be easily fixed without the assistance of a specialist, this problem specifically shouldn’t be tackled by untrained hands. Garage door technicians at https://www.portesdegaragemb.com/contactez-nous.php have advised against trying to fix or replace the door springs yourself, as this procedure might be dangerous for people who haven’t been trained enough. However, technicians do advise that avoiding big repair bills start with paying close attention to how your door operates and sounds. If you can’t put your finger on the issue, but you have been noticing that something might be off or different with how your door sounds while it’s opening or closing, then it’s best to call in experts. If you can’t figure out what’s wrong, you won’t be able to fix it. Asking for specialist help with any issue you might be facing instead of waiting for it to become a big problem that will save you a lot of money.

4- Check For Issues Regularly

While visual inspection needs to be done every few months or once a year, paying close attention to any weird sounds or noises as your door is opening or closing will come naturally if you turn it into a habit. Your schedule should have a spot for inspections every now and then to make sure that your door doesn’t have any visible signs of any damage. You can also dedicate that time to give your door a nice wash. Washing the interior of your door is just as important as washing the exterior. Other than caring for your door by washing it which will make it avoid the problem of cluttered tracks, it will change how your home looks as the garage door is a big part of its exterior look. You need to give your door a good wash with an all-purpose strong cleaner, especially after winter, to clean out any slats or debris.

5- Check Balance

If you start noticing any asymmetry with how your door opens or closes, then you need to do a balance check. You can easily check the balance by disconnecting the opener. Once you have pulled the red handle at the end of the red cord, open the door and raise it a few feet off the ground. If one end starts dropping more than the other, then this means that the balance is off. Your door has to maintain a straight line whether the opener is connected or not. You shouldn’t ignore an imbalance with the garage door as it puts pressure on the gears. This small problem could easily turn into a big one if you ignore it. An unbalanced door might result in the breaking of the door completely if the issue remains untreated.

6- Inspect the Mechanical Safety Feature

All of us care about safety; but with parents, security and safety mean everything, whether it’s for their kids or fur babies. If your door doesn’t have both the needed safety features which are mechanical and a photocell, then it’s recommended to change it. Outdated doors without these safety features are highly dangerous for kids, especially if they are always playing and running around and pets as the door might close without noticing that something might be in its way. If your door is updated and has these safety mechanisms, then you should inspect them. To check the mechanical feature, you will need to place any object underneath the door while it’s closing. If it stops and opens back up, then your door is safe and secure.

7- Inspect the Photocell Safety Feature

This other safety mechanism is also extremely important, and you need to make sure that it’s there and working. The photocell feature requires photoelectric beams to sense if there is any object in the door’s way to stop it from going any further down. You can easily test this feature by closing the door and sticking your leg on it’s way while it’s going down. If the door stops closing, then this means that your leg has become in direct contact with these beams that “sensed” your leg and stopped the door from moving any further.

8- Lubrication is Essential

As we have mentioned, your garage door is heavy and has all kinds of moving parts that keep closing and opening more several times a day. with all these mechanical parts that are in constant movement, you will need to make sure that you are constantly lubricating all these parts on your door to ensure its smooth operation. While lubricating the moving parts of your door can take 10 minutes to be one with the job, these 10 minutes could add a lot to your door’s lifespan. The white grease mentioned in the toolset part is specifically required for this easy task.

9- Don’t Forget to Replace Weather Stripping

You can find a small piece of rubber at the bottom of your door; this is the u-shaped astragal or the weather-strip. This small piece keeps the door secure against water damage and all the weather harsh elements. It protects your door against debris, stops rain from entering your garage or damaging your door, and prevents rodents. Make sure to add this to your bi-monthly or yearly check-up routine to check if it needs to be replaced. You should focus on this check-up, especially after winter because most likely if you had a tough winter at your place, you will need to replace the weather stripping.

10- Change the Rollers

During your yearly inspection, don’t forget to look out for worn-out rollers that might need to be changed. If you notice that your rollers are cracked, chipped, or worn out, then you need to immediately change them. Sometimes, if you tend to use your garage door a lot, you might need to check your rollers more than once a year. So, it’s recommended that you check the rollers every 4 months to make sure that everything is running as it should. If your rollers have been working fine for more than 7 years, then they need to be changed regardless of their current working conditions. If your rollers are attached to the cable system, then you shouldn’t change them yourself.

11- Don’t Go Near the Cable System

During your maintenance routine, you can do everything yourself. From inspecting the door, cleaning it, lubricating it or even changing some parts yourself. However, you should never go near the cable system, especially the springs. Springs are part of the cable system that you shouldn’t go poking around for your own safety. Technicians have had special training to deal with these parts, so it’s always better to call for their help instead of taking care of these jobs yourself. However, you can lubricate the springs, for example, if you don’t want to call a specialist for such a simple task. All that you need to do is to be extra careful when it comes to these parts. Make sure that you have a good type of lubricant for the springs that won’t leave any premature rust or any residues behind to avoid blocking your door’s tracks.

12- Examine the Hardware

Your door is constantly subject to movement, so it comes as no surprise that some parts might start loosening with time. Make use of the wrench set to tighten any loose brackets on the rollers, bolts, or screws. Sometimes, you might think that your garage door isn’t functioning properly because of a deeper or a bigger issue while you only need to clean the tracks, tighten any loose hardware, and lubricating all moving parts. All these maintenance tips might seem easy and won’t require much of your time, however, they can make or break your door.