Tag Archives: garage door opener
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]
A Great Fix-Up Starts with your Garage Door
What’s the one home fix-up project that takes only a couple of hours and yields the biggest bang for the buck of any exterior home renovation?
Here’s a clue: This project adds style, energy efficiency and security to your home and the preparation is easy and mess free – all you need is an Internet connection and a telephone. For most people, the answer does not immediately come to mind: it’s a stylish new garage door.
Think about it. If your house has an attached garage, the garage door may comprise more than one-third of your home’s front facade. If that home is more than five years old, your garage door probably is a solid colored, raised-panel door that looks like every other garage door in the neighborhood.
A new door, quickly and correctly installed by a local professional, will differentiate your home and add style, value and curb appeal. The hottest new style in garage doors is the carriage house design. It’s available in steel, wood or composite materials and in many price ranges.
A garage door is an important home improvement project. It is typically the first thing people notice when they pull into your driveway or pass your house. Doors also [more]
That Annoying Garage Door Noise!
Why is my garage door so noisy? It’s so annoying!
Your garage door is made up of an intricate system of pulleys, cables, gears, and springs, so there are many parts that can cause the door to make noise. Some of these are easily fixed, and some require the services of a trained garage door technician.
First, you need to identify the type of opener you own: screw drive, chain drive, or belt drive. Chain drive doors are noisy. Period. This doesn’t make them a bad choice. Chain drive doors are relatively inexpensive, long-lasting, and reliable in extreme climates. Regular lubrication will lessen the noise, but it’s not going to go away. Screw drive doors are less noisy early but become as noisy as chain drive doors over time. A belt drive door is quiet when it’s working properly.
If the door is not balanced, it can become noisy, or it can even stop operating. You can check the balance of the door by pulling the red emergency release cord and operating the door manually. Raise the door manually about halfway, and then release it. If it is properly balanced, it will have little movement. If it is unbalanced, it will begin to [more]
Going Shopping
Here are some factors to consider when buying a new garage door.
• Budget. Like everything, budget dictates options. Garage doors range in price from a few hundred to several thousand dollars depending on the size, materials and design you choose. Even if you have a small budget you can still get a great looking door that is going to enhance the look of the house.
• Design. Think of the garage as an extension of the home’s theme, not an afterthought. Let the home’s architectural style, the shape and size of the windows and entry doors, and exterior design details influence the design of the garage door.
It’s a good idea to visit dealer showrooms and review manufacturer Web sites to get a sense of the options available. Many companies offer doors pre-designed to match specific architectural styles, which can make the selection process easier.
• Insulation. Doors can be insulated or non-insulated. If the garage is attached to the house you’ll want an insulated door. This will help reduce utility bills – a popular selling point with prospective buyers. If you live in a mild climate or have a detached garage that will only be used to park the car, you can [more]
Why Didn’t It Close?
Everyone’s finally dressed and ready to leave. You back the car out, hit the remote, and you’re off. Until you realize the garage door hasn’t gone down. You reluctantly pull back into the driveway, brow furrowing in frustration. It happens to everyone. Many homeowners don’t even realize they left it open until they return home.
Why didn’t it close? Garage doors usually fail to close as a result of the safety sensors being blocked. They’re located on each side of the opening, no more than a foot or so off the ground. Typically, each will have a small light that stays lit when everything is going well. If either of the lights are out, simply move whatever is blocking the sensor (sometimes even cobwebs/small debris can cause safety sensors to malfunction) or adjust them so that they are pointing at each other again. You can move these around by hand if they’ve been knocked out of alignment.
If you’re still stuck at home, make sure nothing is blocking the path of the door. This can be a common cause for service calls on garage doors. Always use caution when operating your door, but be extra cautious when it’s not working correctly. It’s [more]
My Door Won’t Open! Arrrrg!
You wake up early ready to go to work only to find out that you cannot get to your car and the reason behind it is that the garage door doesn’t open. Eventually, the door opens but it cannot open fully, you must push it quite hard to provide way for your car. If you have enough strength, you could succeed but if you are not, all you can do is go find some help. This is why you should ensure that your garage door repair is well done to avoid such inconveniences.
One of the best ways you can ensure that the repair is well done is by seeking service repair from a remarkable service provider. However, remarkable services do not come in handy. They must be sought after and their credibility researched. Seek information that will lead you to the best service providers from the internet and referrals.
Know what this entails and you will know what to expect from the repair. Usually this consists of the opener and the door itself. Whether their operation is based on a spring tension, swing up as one piece of roll in sections, they all operate under a similar mechanism. They move on [more]
What Type of Garage Door is Best for You?
Modern-day garage doors are not limited to the wood of centuries past or steel of decades past. You can also get garage doors made of other materials like aluminum and wood composites. But which of these many materials is most cost-effective and durable? Which looks best? We’ll examine the pros and cons of each material.
Steel is by far the most often picked material for garage doors. They aren’t terribly expensive, they’re quite durable and require very little maintenance, and they can come in pretty much any style you might demand. Steel’s appearance is flexible, as it can be painted or formed into panels, and can be treated with a gel stain that makes it look similar to wood.
When you’re actually doing your shopping there is a few things to keep in mind about steel: it’s a pretty ineffective insulator, and probably requires an outside source of insulation to keep your garage habitable and save you energy. Also, steel panels tend to vary in their thickness, usually varying with the price, and if you want a steel door that will withstand basketball games, you’ll have to pay for it. Aluminum doors are similar to steel in many ways, especially in that they [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]