If your garage door is functioning properly at this moment, you can keep it functioning that way for a very long time – as long as you have a simple inspection and maintenance routine. Here are several tips to keep your garage door well-maintained and get ahead of festering issues.

Examine the rollers and tracks on the garage door. Now is the time to tidy up the tracks and rollers if you can’t remember the last time you cleaned them. Make sure to brush them thoroughly and lubricate the axles and rollers. The bearings on rollers can also wear out; change out any rollers that don’t function properly.

Secure the hardware. The tracks that guide the rollers on an overhead garage door are assembled in sections and affixed to the garage with brackets. See to it that the sections are well-secured, and the screws and bolts that hold the brackets are taut.

Check out the cables and pulleys. Spring-operated garage doors have cables and pulleys that might wear out with time. Frayed cables and damaged pulleys have to be replaced by a professional.

A garage door should entail only a small amount of pressure to push it up and down. If springs wear down and lose their resiliency, a power garage door opener may have to work very hard to lift the door. This can cause the motor on the opener to wear down quickly. A skilled technician should change out worn-out springs.

Try out the auto-reverse feature on the door opener. Garage door openers are made to automatically reverse and lift the door if it encounters a hurdle on the way down to the ground. If this feature no longer functions accurately, the heavy door can present severe hazards and lead to accidents. Be sure to have the door opener dealt with or changed out.

Still can’t get the right fix for your problem? Call a trusted garage door installer and technician to take the pressure out of repairing your garage door.

Noisy Garage Door

Noisy garage doors may be a problem, particularly for those who have to sleep above or close to the garage. Fortunately, most noisy garage doors can be remedied with a combination of periodic maintenance and parts replacement.

If the general maintenance tips above still can’t silence your noisy garage door, it’s likely that the door’s hinges have to be substituted. The rollers that run in the metal tracks can also wear down with time and make noise when their bearings quit rolling properly.


Frozen Garage Door

On the coldest days of the year, you’re sure to want and treasure the convenience of opening and closing your garage door promptly. Unfortunately, that’s exactly when using your garage door can be the most difficult, because of the moisture and cold.

Garage doors can and do freeze down to the garage floor. This may be repaired by hitting the opener button, which shatters the ice that connects the two surfaces.

But if the door refuses to shift on the first attempt, resist the urge to keep banging on the automatic opener button. This is very likely to trigger a more critical problem with the garage door opener, including, but not limited to, stripped gears, broken springs, and a burned-out motor on the opener.

Instead, try other methods that could break the ice-covered connection between the floor and the door. For instance, you can use a heat gun or hair dryer to thaw the ice and free the door. Typical de-icing products can also do the job.

If you’re careful not to ruin the door or the seal on the bottom of the door, you can also make use of a flat shovel or similar tool to chip away at the ice.

Remove any water, ice, or snow from the floor below the garage door once you get the door open. Keeping this part dry will prevent future freezing.

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