Garage Door FAQ
Garage door maintenance may not be uppermost in most homeowners’ minds, but a little regular care will go a long way to ensuring that your garage door performs reliably. At a minimum, it is a good idea to inspect your door once a year, and every three months is not out of the question. Check for dents, cracks, and other physical damage or wear. See that your wooden door’s stain or paint is holding up. Next, clean the door track with a damp cloth. Lubricate any parts that need it with a silicone-based spray or white lithium grease. Realign sensors, if necessary, simply by moving them back into their proper position. If the door is having trouble closing all the way, reset the opener. Unplug the opener from the power source, wait 10 seconds, and power it up again. Close the door completely. Lastly, wash the exterior with a mild detergent and water, and you are done.
As your garage door gets older, sections of it can begin to sag or bend, making it difficult to close the door. There are also many pieces of equipment on the door that can degrade over time. When these devices are compromised, additional stress is placed on your door, which causes breakdowns to occur. You should consider replacing a garage door if it becomes difficult to close or begins to malfunction.
There is quite a bit of advice on the internet about what to do if you can’t get into your garage door, but much of it involves actions that could cause damage to the door or to another part of the structure. If it is a question of not having a remote, the first step may be to try and contact someone else with access. If that does not work, or if the remote is not the issue, your next best option may be to contact the company that installed the door, or to call another reputable company that does service and repair for garage doors. Often a good company will offer around-the-clock emergency help.
There are four basic types of garage door openers. Chain-drive openers utilize a chain wrapped around a rail. They are dependable but can be a bit noisy. Belt-drive openers function in a similar way, but they have a metal-reinforced rubber, polyurethane, or fiberglass belt instead of a chain. They are quieter and usually somewhat more expensive. Screw drive openers work with a trolley that rides on a threaded steel rod. Traditionally, these economic openers have functioned best in climates with no dramatic shifts from hot to cold. Direct-drive openers refer to a range of openers, but the term generally means that the chain remains stationary while the motor moves. In addition to these is the jackshaft opener, which is a side-mounted opener useful in situations where the ceiling cannot support an overhead fixture.
You have to get the size of the garage door rollers right. Our garage door repair specialists explain that most residential doors use 2-inch rollers, but you have to check the size of your tracks just in case. Additionally, you can consider replacing metal rollers with nylons ones, which are quieter and have greater durability.
Some garage door torsion springs are easier than others to replace. One significant danger comes from having cone holes with inconsistent sizes or a winding bar that doesn’t fit in the holes properly.
What’s a cone hole? At the end of the torsion spring there is a part called the winding cone. There are shallow holes or “slots” in the winding cone into which a winding bar is placed to help you turn the spring to tighten or loosen it. When you are using a winding bar to tighten the spring, the bar may slip out and cause a sudden release of the spring’s tension. This is when injuries occur.
This is ONE JOB that a Professional Garage Door tech Should Do!!!