Tag Archives: Garage Door Maintenance
A Healthy Garage Door: Get a Check-Up
Your garage door should get a regular check-up to maintain its health!
Watch and Listen to your door. Strange sounds or motions can be signs of trouble. Popping, banging, snapping, grinding, or an oddly moving door generally indicates an UNSAFE door.
Monthly visual inspection. Stand inside the garage with the garage door closed. Look over the garage door springs, cables, rollers, pulleys and mounting hardware, such as hinges, for signs of wear or damage. Look for cable wear or fraying. Is the mounting hardware becoming loose? If something doesn’t look quite right – or doesn’t sound quite right – it could be the symptom of a more serious issue. Have the garage door system inspected by a trained service technician.
Monthly door balance test. If your door is equipped with an automatic opener system: CLOSE the door and disconnect the automatic opener. (Do not disconnect while the door is open.) Once you are able to lift the door manually: Lift the door. It should lift smoothly with little resistance and should remain fully open. If it is difficult to open or does not remain open, the door may be out of balance and should be serviced by a trained service technician.
Monthly reversing mechanism [more]
The Garage Door and the Broken Spring
If you think you have a garage door broken spring you should know for certain because generally when a garage door broken spring happens you may have to open you garage door manually.
Hopefully you know where the manual override is located so you can open you garage door manually.
If your garage door broken spring happens you may also have other problems with your garage door. This is a good time to call your garage door service company and schedule an inspection of your garage doors and also have them repair the broken spring. They may have to replace both springs. Just because one garage door spring breaks it doesn’t necessarily mean the other one is bad but since they have both been on there for the same length of time it is probable that the other spring has fatigue and may break soon. You don’t need to take that chance. Just have both garage door springs replaced or however many garage doors you have and then only pay for one service call.
A garage door itself can last for a long time. If it is metal it can be repainted if it begins to look tired. A wood garage door may [more]
Up and down. Down and up. Day in. Day out. Double time on weekends.
Your garage door, typically the largest and heaviest moving object in your home, works without any complaints and is at your command with the press of a button. Give it some attention.
Regular garage door maintenance should be done once a year. Getting a professional who looks at all the bearings and springs and just makes sure its operating properly is the thing to do. Usually this amounts to minor adjustment on the torsion shaft bearings. Then the homeowner can lubricate the bearings about every three months since it’s so dry here.
Homeowners should always listen to their garage doors. Once the door is operating properly, it should move up and down quietly and efficiently. There should be no added noise. Any unusual noise probably means something is wrong.
Besides making it easy to get in and out of your home, automatic garage doors are a safety investment. If you have to get out of your car to open the garage, you’re exposing yourself to anybody who is outside. If you drive in, you simply close the door behind you. All garage door openers today are random rotators which means it rotates to a new code each time. So every time you press [more]
Garage Door Safety Measures
How often do you think about your garage door other than to push the remote button to open or close it as you come home or head out?
Automatic garage doors are designed to be as simple for you to use as pushing a single button and the door opens or shuts. With keyless entry systems, your children can come home from school to a locked house and quickly get in the house by entering the code, rather than having to worry about taking care of a key all day long. You have the convenience of pressing the button, waiting a moment while the door opens and driving your car into the garage to unload your groceries.
You may not realize that there are safety measures built into garage doors. However, if your doors are not properly adjusted, they may not work properly and could possibly cause damage or injury. If the door were to suddenly close without the button being pressed, you can imagine the problems that it could create.
Even though we often take garage doors for granted, we should teach our children to be careful around them and never let small children play with the remote opening devices. It is [more]
Keep The Door To Your Castle In Good Shape
Garage doors are an important part of your home. They tend to take a great deal of abuse while protecting your family’s vehicles and all the other tools or valuables you have stored away.
Hockey and baseball players need a target for their shots and throws, and where better than the garage door? All this endless thumping only makes the wear and tear on the door to your garage progressively worse.
Your garage door can increase or decrease the value of your property and your home’s curb appeal, based on how well it functions or how attractive it is. It may even become a great liability or a serious nuisance if it is not fully functional. Take a close look at your garage door. Perhaps it is time to seek out a garage door service company for repair, a new door spring, or a complete replacement.
A door that is not functioning properly is a danger and a liability. An average one is likely to weigh three hundred to six hundred pounds. If this falls on a person or an automobile, it can leave quite an impression. Lessening the dangers of a garage door malfunction is the ideal if you want to protect [more]
Why Steel Garage Doors Are Always a Good Choice
Recent studies have shown that there is only one type of home improvement you can do on your own that will actually improve the value of your home above and beyond the price that you have paid for it, and those items are steel garage doors. With all other home improvement projects, you will only get a portion of the investment back when you sell your home, but when it comes to steel garage doors, you will get every penny back.
People replace their garage doors for a variety of reasons, but usually it is because they have worn out over time or through overuse, or they have become ruined by the weather or moisture. Of course, there are also those cases when someone drives through a garage door or accidentally bumps it enough to throw it off its tracks and break the structure that is holding it in place.
Whatever your reason for replacing your garage door, you should first think about steel garage doors before choosing any other type.
Why Would You Want Steel?
The main reason why people choose steel is because it is easy to care for. In fact, it takes no caring at all! Unlike wood doors that need [more]
What to Do About Noisy Garage Doors!
Loud garage doors are annoying, embarrassing, and can be a real pain.
There are many ways that you can greatly reduce the noise from a door, and most of the time you do not require professional help!
First you need to identify what type of door you have.
The first question is whether or not your garage door is the original one installed on your home. If the answer is yes, and your home is 5-9 years old, there are many items that can be serviced and need to be considered.
Homes that are an average age of 5-7 years old generally have builder grade overhead doors installed. Almost always these doors are installed (for cost and profit reasons), with one spring, plastic rollers with no bearings, and plastic bushings. These are notorious causes of garage door noise.
Step one, buy a can of silicone lube at your local Home Depot, or Lowe’s. Apply it pretty liberally to the spring, rollers, and hinges.
Next is a little tricky. You want to look for a black or white bushing that enters the end of the spring that is attached to the wall. DON’T TOUCH ANY OF THE BOLTS! There is an average of 160-220 lbs of force [more]
Safety Matters!
June is Garage Door Safety Month. It’s a reminder to make regular safety checks on your garage doors. Educating yourself and your children on correct use and operation as well as taking proper care of your garage door will help you avoid unnecessary accidents and loss of life.
Here are a few precautions to keep in mind:
Safe distance – Garage openers and wall control units should be at least 5 feet away from the floor, and the door opener control button should be high enough that small children cannot reach it.
It’s not a plaything – Children should not, at any time, be allowed to play with the garage remote control or any part of the door. Hitting the door with their hands or even a soft object may cause the interior mechanism to loosen and the door to malfunction when you least expect.
Familiarize yourself with the manual – Read the door’s instruction manual and understand the door’s emergency release feature so that in case of an emergency you’ll know how to operate it.
Monthly visual inspections and maintenance checks – At least once a month, inspect your door and its component parts for wear and tear. Pulleys, cables, springs, and rollers may [more]
Garage Door Check-Up
Garage Doors are amazing if you think about it a bit. A large, flat panel is rotated up and down either in sections or one big flat plane at least a few times a day without any problems. Well, that is as long as you do some maintenance on your door.
Are you even aware you should do maintenance on your garage door? Well, you should if you want it to last. The first thing to check is lubrication. Regardless of the type of system and door you have, something does the pivot and pull when the door goes up or down. This means you should lubricate the chain on the opener and the pivot points on the braces that pull up and lower the garage [on the outer edges].
Next, check the springs on your door. Look for signs of rust and sag. If you see them, you are better off replacing the springs before they break. If the break, the door can literally be bent out of shape since one side of the door will be supported by a spring while the other sags. This will knock your door out of shape [more]
JUNE: IT’S GARAGE DOOR SAFETY MONTH!
The International Door Association and the Door & Access Systems Manufacturers Association have designated June as Garage Door Safety Month.
The International Door Association and its affiliated dealers will be working to increase awareness of the possible hazards of garage doors and automatic opener systems, and the need for periodic inspection and maintenance to keep them safe. Give your garage door a safety check to insure it’s in proper working order by using these ten garage door safety and security tips.
1. Make sure garage door opener control button is out of the reach of small children.
2. Do not let children play with garage door remote controls.
3. Consult the owner’s manual and learn how to use the garage door’s emergency release feature.
4. Visually inspect the garage door each month. Look at springs, cables, rollers and pulleys for signs of wear. Do not attempt to remove, adjust or repair these parts or anything attached to them. A trained door repairman must make adjustments to these parts, which are under high tension.
5. Test the garage door opener’s reversing mechanism monthly by placing a 2 x 4 board or a roll of paper towels in the door’s path. If the door does not reverse after [more]