The life of a garage door is simple – all it does is to move up and down every day, forever. But, once in a while, this perfect arrangement of events gets interrupted by a malfunction. Fortunately, a simple malfunction can require a simple repair job. Sometimes, however, even the most reliable garage doors fail and may require a much bigger garage door repair job.
Simple spring maintenance practice and quick repair tricks
If you are certain that your garage door is working perfectly as required, you are capable of keeping its current state by subjecting it to an easy-to-follow inspection and maintenance practice. You can also use these tips to identify problems at their earliest stage and correcting them.
Start by examining the tracks and rollers on which your garage door runs on. Do you remember when you last cleaned and/or greased them? If you can't recall, then this is the best time to brush and clean all those axles and rollers. Also, take some time and examine the bearings. If they are wearing out, consider replacing them and adding new rollers.
The condition of the hardware
Is the hardware tight enough? In most cases, the tracks that lead on rollers of the overhead garage door tend to be assembled in separate sections and eventually attached to the walls of the garage through brackets. Inspect these sections and ensure they are secured. Check the bolts and screws and ensure they are as tight as required.
Cables and pulleys
Once you have established the conditions of the rollers, tracks, brackets, and bearings, proceed to the pulleys and cables. Spring-operated doors come with pulleys and cables that wear out with the time of sustained use. If you notice that the pulleys are damaged, and cables are frayed, consider replacing them immediately – this kind of repair is best done by a qualified professional.
The door's balance
Does the door balance as it used to when it was new? It is easy to determine the balance factor of your garage door – a well-balanced door should require less effort to push up and down. The opener of the garage door will only need to work harder to push up the door if the springs wear out or lose their resiliency, in which case the wear and tear of the motor may be escalated. Replacing problematic springs, again, is the job of a qualified professional.
Test the door's auto-reverse feature
It is common for garage doors to be designed in such a way that they will automatically reverse and move up the door when they encounter an obstacle. If this feature is found to be no longer functional, it needs to be corrected immediately because it would possess a serious safety if left un-repaired. It would be prudent to hire an experienced door repair and installation technician.
There is a long list of problems that can arise with sustained use if your garage door. Here are some more:
The door that can't stop groaning and creaking
Noisy garage doors can be a real annoyance, whether a guy lives immediately above your garage or you would just want a calm and silent working environment. Fortunately, noisy garage doors aren't hard to correct – all you need to do is to combine routine spring maintenance and to replace a few parts. And if a simple maintenance routine in Spring recommended above doesn't stop your garage door from creaking, there is a strong chance the springs have seen good times and need be replaced immediately. The rollers that run on the metallic tracks can age as well, wearing off and becoming noisy in the process. The bearings can be at fault this time and should be replaced, among other identifiable problems.
The garage door is frozen
The winters can be incredibly cold, and the only thing you would want is speed and peace when opening your garage door. But that's the season water finds time to freeze in those moving parts of doors, making it a real hell to open them. Sometimes it can be too much, like the door sticking to the garage's floor through a "glue" of ice. A repeated bang on the door can help clear the ice, but it doesn't work all the time.
You are more likely to be tempted to move the door using the opener, but this maneuver often ends up worsening the situation, breaking the springs, and stripping the gears in the process. The motor may be burnt-out as well.
Avoid ruining your garage by employing destructive corrective measures. Instead, opt for the better alternatives that can break the ice without damaging the moving parts. Traditional de-icing chemicals and products can do the job perfectly. You can also use a scooping tool such as a flat shovel to chip out the ice from the floor.
Once you have opened the door, immediately embark on clearing away all the ice and water, or snow from your floor and keep the garage clean and dry.
Broken glass
More often than not, yards converted into playgrounds, attracting young baseball players who would occasionally smash sporting equipment on your garage door and breaking the glass in the process. Broken glass should be cleared and replaced immediately regardless of the cause because broke glass is both a security and safety issue. Worse yet, the gapping space may provide a great window through which all sorts of insects and birds may pass through to build their nests in your beautiful garage. Fortunately, it isn't hard to replace a pane of broken glass – it is as easy as replacing glazing on your house.
Safety concerns
A typical garage door weighs several hundred pounds. If it is badly maintained, it becomes a safety risk because you don't know when it would come slamming on the floor without warning. There have been dozens of incidences involving garage doors hurtling down and killing pets and young children. The advent of auto-reverse and auto-stop doors has drastically reduced these incidences, but that doesn't mean mishaps won't occur when garage doors aren't maintained well.
When the door opener of your garage becomes too old or more prone to mishaps, replacing it becomes not only a convenience but a family safety measure as well.
Security measure
The garage is perhaps the last investment you would want to take for granted because it houses property worth hundreds or even thousands of pounds. Yet this critical space can easily be broken into if the door isn't functional. For this reason, replacing faulty garage doors is a necessity. You should even boost the security of your property by adding modern high-tech add-ons such as rotating digital codes to keep intruders at bay.
Problematic garage door opener
While our attention tends to be fixated on the garage door, much of our activities take place in the inside of the garage. That means we entirely depend on the garage door to get into the structure to complete our activities before leaving through the same door, all at push of a button. So if by any chance, the door opener of the garage decided to pause and take a break, we'd be stuck outside. Such situations may seem complicated and hard to get around, but if the door opener is diagnosed and repaired, getting in and out of the garage becomes worry-free.
Worn-Out Springs
The garage door achieves counterbalance through torsion springs connected to a system of pulleys and cables. Torsion springs create another counter force to the door's weight, thus allowing the user to raise it with minimal effort and with the help of a motorized door opener. With sustained use, however, these springs tend to wear out. As a result, the door opener starts to have trouble opening the door, and the user begins to feel like they are expending more effort during the opening.
The job of replacing the springs on the garage door should be left to professionals because of the great pressure on the springs and the risk of injury the whole exercise poses.
Worn-out garage doors
A well-maintained garage door can last for 50 years or more. The neglected one would barely get past ten years beyond which there won't be anything to do to correct any problem besides replacing the entire door. You are more likely to opt to replace the door purely for aesthetical reasons, for you would've been fed up with its appearance and style.
The process of shopping for a brand new garage door is hard, partly because it is not something we often do, and there aren't plenty of sources of information and guidance that can help the consumer make the right decision on the first attempt. Shopping for a garage door can be divided into several stages, which can be established by these factors:
- The overall cost of the garage door
- The material used to make the door
- The style of the garage door (will it look great on your house?)
- How to get the best garage door installation deal (because even if you buy it cheaply, you won't install it yourself)
Brand Garage Doors services the following areas with garage door installation and repairs: Youngstown, Campbell, Struthers, Niles, Boardman, Austintown, Warren, Niles, Hubbard, Masury, and Girard.
Brand Garage Doors, Inc.
153 Oak Knoll Drive SE
Hubbard, Ohio 44425
(330) 333-4037
https://www.brandgaragedoors.com/
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