Tag Archives: garage door
A Frozen Garage Door Can Be Hard to Open!
Your garage door might be opened several times a day. When you move your car in and out of the garage or when you enter a garage that is not attached to your home to retrieve or store something, you will need to be opening the door. However, if you have a severe snow or ice storm or even just a particularly cold string of days, your garage door can freeze closed. Luckily, there are things you can do to prevent your garage door from freezing
1. Apply a commercial garage door lubricant or silicone spray to the tracks of your garage door. The lubricant will prevent freezing.
2. Add some lubricant to the rollers of your garage door, as well.
3. Put the commercial lubricant onto the hinges of your garage door to prevent them from freezing during the winter.
4. Shovel snow and ice from the outside of your garage door each morning. Allowing the snow and ice to accumulate or refreeze at night can also freeze your garage door.
5. Warm up your car in your driveway, rather than inside your garage. Your car heating up can melt the snow or ice around the door. Then, when it refreezes after you drive away, the [more]
Pass the salt, please!
This is a winter during which temperatures are averaging below normal for about three-quarters of the nation. So don’t let winter’s freeze to be the cause of your garage door seal freezing to the concrete floor.
Whether it’s wind piling snow up against the door to your garage or a dripping eave that is splashing around the front of the garage and then freezing overnight, chances are you’ve encountered a garage door that’s frozen itself to the concrete floor.
The simplest remedy is to use ordinary table salt. Sprinkling a generous amount along where the rubber seal meets up with the concrete will minimize the chance of it freezing by keeping the salt in place. You just might want to keep a large container of table salt near the garage door, so it will be handy and you’ll remember to use it. Keep the area beneath the garage door seal swept clear of snow and reapply salt as necessary.
It sounds like a hassle, but chipping ice away from the bottom of the garage door and chewing up the rubber seal in the process is no fun, and parking outside the garage defeats the purpose of having a garage in the first place.
Use this [more]
Prevent Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
Every year hundreds of people die from accidental exposure to carbon monoxide poisoning. In fact, carbon monoxide from motor-vehicle exhausts is the main cause of poisoning deaths in the United States.
Eighty-three percent of these types of poisoning deaths were in stationary vehicles, with most deaths occurring in garages. Even though garage doors or windows are open, passive ventilation may not be adequate to reduce risk in semi-closed areas.
Carbon monoxide is an odorless, colorless, tasteless and toxic gas that replaces the oxygen in our blood, causing the body to suffocate from the inside. Most people have no idea they are exposed to a high level of carbon monoxide until it’s too late. Symptoms of mild acute poisoning include headaches, vertigo and flu-like effects. Larger exposures can lead to significant toxicity of the central nervous system, heart and death. More tragic is that many people surviving high exposure to carbon monoxide are left with devastating after-effects such as learning disabilities, memory and skills loss, and coronary and respiratory problems.
Drivers can prevent carbon monoxide poisoning with the following precautions:
-Regularly check the exhaust and emission systems in your vehicle.
-Check the floor pan for holes or leaks that could allow exhaust gases to seep into [more]
Your garage door- get it serviced periodically
Without bothering of the type of garage door you have, you must make it a point to get it serviced periodically.
Doing so is extremely easy and you can employ one of the given methods. In case of an overhead garage door, the jamming of the overhead door can be because of the tracks getting misaligned or the tracks losing the proper lubrication. Determine whether the screws are held correctly and are held properly in place. More information on the topic of garage doors is located at garage door repairs.
The leveling and proper plumbing is necessary for vertical tracks. If a track is out of alignment, loosen the track brackets and tap the track with a mallet until it is plumbed. The slots provided in the track brackets are for making adjustments. Tracks which are distorted can be re aligned by using a wrench. If the bent track doesn’t straighten, getting it changed is the only option.
The tracks should be slightly pitched inwards inside the garage to hold the door in place. Moisten the rag using maintain thinner before you use it to clean the tracks. The spindles, the door hinge pins and the roller bearings need to be lubricated [more]
My Garage Door is So Heavy!
Garage doors are generally the largest moving piece of machinery in your home, with an average size of 8′ wide and 7′ high for a single car door and 16″ by 7′ high for a double car door. Regardless of the type of material used, they will be heavy. That’s why there are springs and a counter balance system to take all that weight, and make it easy for you or your Garage Door Openers to handle easily.
Over time, springs do break and/or relax, making the doors feel heavier. Stripped openers gears are often caused by this type of problem. To check this – occasionally disconnect your door from the opener. Pull down on the Red cord to accomplish this… If the door is “heavy” and/or will not stay half open on its own… it’s a good idea to have some maintenance done. Note: Annual Maintenance is recommended.
Springs are dangerous – have a professional licensed garage door dealer check for proper spring tension, and adjust them if needed.
Choosing the Right Garage Door Installer
When selecting a professional garage door company for your home, you should sense a few things before actually hiring one.
First, you should do some research and find out if your potential garage door installer is professional to begin with. Make sure you validate proper contractor license. Start by asking for a list of jobs they’ve actually established along with references. Do not rely or trust an ad on your local paper or the internet. Just because they have an ad it does not mean they are trustworthy.
Don’t let their nice, attractive personality fool you. Although they may seem to be of nice character, you may hire the incorrect person for your project. There is wide range of garage door repair technicians in your area to choose from. Fraudulent individuals are out there, so you must filter them carefully. This article will give you a few tips on how to contract your next repair expert where you live.
Some of the most familiar things to consider before you hire your next repair technician or contractor should be as follows: 1. Check how long they have been in business? 2. Are they making any promises on their ads that can be easily [more]
I Love Architecture But I’m Not An Architect.
I love to watch it, learn about it and try to understand it. I enjoy figuring out why some buildings are a great success and some hurt my eye to look at them. I guess I could be characterized as an alert observer; someone who knows enough to be dangerous.
With that disclaimer firmly in place, I will add that I love Pioneer era homes in downtown Phoenix’s Pioneer Park. To me, these are the hot homes of our time. Pioneer homes, built from 1842-1870 are charming and comforting. They have beautiful physical exteriors that provide meaning to our great respect for the men and women who settled the state. A red brick, two story, decorated home from the late 1800’s is hard to beat. They are larger, have more ornamentation and elicit “oohs” and “aahhs” each time I see one. They maintain principles of balance, mass, proportion, rhythm and scale beautifully.
The post WWII , mass produced Sears bungalow kits although humble, were pleasing to look at and had character. They were functional, attractive and still stand as a good example of how the country stepped up to the plate when the boys came home and needed a place for their [more]
You’ve Come A Long Way, Garage Door
Garage doors have come a long way since they were first invented. In the early days of garage doors, they were made from heavy wood and were difficult to open and close. These doors were large and awkward and were much more difficult to use than today’s counterparts.
Sectional garage doors became popular in the early 1990s and the they had widespread acceptance because they offered convenience and affordability to the average person. Some of the things that the modern garage offers are efficiency, ease of installation, and affordability.
The first thing that a good garage door should offer is efficiency. The most important thing that a garage does for you is store things. Many people choose to store their cars in their garages, but there are others that keep other contents in there as well and you need to keep the contents of the garage safe from both intruders and the elements. Since people keep to many things in their garages it is important that the garage door take up as little space as possible. The roller garage is perfect for this because it takes up a very small space and allows for the storage of other items.
When looking for garage [more]
Escape the Elements!
The needs of homeowners and the designs of garages today have evolved to include many distinct needs and applications that demand that garage door openers are diverse in their design and application.
Garage Door Openers are considered a necessity by most homeowners today and often rely on the garage door as the main entrance to the home. You don’t want to get out of the car in driving rain, blizzards, freezing cold or scorching heat – just press the button on your remote transmitter and your garage door opens automatically.
The new generation of garage door openers are reasonably priced, safe and easy to install. They are affordable and no longer a convenience for only a select few. So what happens when you lose power in your home?
Operating your door manually is no fun, especially in areas with frequent power outages. If you’re fortunate enough, you opener will have a battery backup system that will continue to operate your garage door.
For example, the LiftMaster 3850 opener features an ultra-quiet 12V DC motor with a belt drive system and the industry’s only integrated EverCharge™ Battery Backup system. The integrated battery backup technology not only powers the opener for up to 40 full cycles [more]
Repurposing the Garage Door
Retire and re-invent an aged outdoor item or architectural element that’s past its prime and give it a stylish new life indoors. This headboard was fashioned from an old garage door. It used to be easy to distinguish an outdoor from an indoor item, but with today’s trends toward recycling and repurposing, that’s no longer the case. Elements from outdoors are being creatively transformed into decorative and functional pieces to achieve a charming cottage style look in the home.
Don’t let that distressed door go to the landfill, dust it off and use it for a room divider or fashion it into a headboard. An old ladder or a boat oar easily transforms into a great place to hang towels in a kitchen or bath. With a little paint, an old metal ceiling tile makes a great magnetic chalkboard. Attach a recovered piece of architectural molding to a simple table or shelf for some spruced up style.
The possibilities are limited only by your imagination. So, don’t throw it out! Bring it in and sand it, paint it, love it! – Romancing the Home.