One of the most frequently ignored home maintenance tasks is garage door maintenance. Your garage door deserves the same attention as the appliances in your home that you maintain. Your garage door will last longer and function more consistently if you regularly service and maintain it. Additionally, regular garage door maintenance helps you avoid costly future repairs. Simple garage door maintenance advice will be covered in this blog to assist you in keeping it in top condition.
Why Is Garage Door Maintenance Important?
There are so many reasons why you should maintain your garage door, but this article will highlight the three most important points.
- Reliability: most people use their garage doors more than once a day. When you leave for work in the morning or go shopping later in the day, you use it. Maintaining your garage door ensures its reliability. A working garage helps you escape the cold, high-heat, and even snow or rain from entering your home from your garage. It also prevents you from getting stuck outside in an emergency. A residential garage door service company can help you keep it in shape.
- Safety: garage door maintenance is crucial because delays can lead to accidents. Garage doors use cables, and if one is broken, the door can shut suddenly. Since the doors are heavy, any crash could damage your car. It can also cause injury to an individual. Regular maintenance of your garage door can prevent such unnecessary accidents. Garage door service companies can detect broken cables or torsion springs in time and fix them.
- Long-term savings: maintaining your garage door will make it last for many years. A long-lasting garage door equals a reduced cost of repairs or replacement. As stated earlier, garage doors use cables and springs. If there is damage, the components could fail. In time, this little problem could grow and affect other parts of the garage door. This means spending more money on repairing more parts. Maintaining your garage door often helps reduce unnecessary expenses throughout the year. A commercial garage door service company can handle preventative maintenance to prevent garage door failure in the future.
Garage Door Maintenance Tips
You can maintain your garage door by carrying out some basic tasks like lubricating, inspecting, and replacing. In other cases, you may need a residential garage door service company to handle more difficult maintenance tasks. Below are some garage door maintenance tips:
Lubricate the Doors Moving Parts
Metal to metal friction can cause enormous squeaking and prevent your garage door from working properly. Lubrication is essential, and just a little could go a long way. It is also easy to do, so you don’t need a professional for it. Get a spray lubricant, if possible, to grease the drive screw or opener’s chain. You may also need to lubricate the hinges of the door as well as the tracks and rollers.
A small amount of lubrication can go a long way toward preventing noise and keeping your garage door operating properly. Use a spray lubricant to grease up the door opener’s chain or drive screw. It is also a good idea to lubricate the door’s hinges, rollers, and tracks. Lubricating these parts makes the operation of the door smoother and quieter. You also help extend the life of the opener and the chain. Before lubricating, read the owner’s manual so you can be sure about which screw openers need lubrication and those that do not.
Check the Hardware for Tightness
Moving parts are bound to loosen over time, and this is the case for garage doors. Since it moves up and down, the hardware can start to loosen. Be sure to check it and tighten loose bolts or roller brackets.
Perform Safety Test
Safety tests on your garage door help you determine when you need to call for garage door maintenance services. You can perform a garage door balance test by:
- Allowing the garage door to operate manually
- Lifting the door halfway up and releasing it
- If it slips, call a garage door service company. If it doesn’t, you’re good to go.
Another test to carry out is the mechanical reverse feature. To do this:
- Put a hard object on the garage floor door path
- Close the garage door
- If the door does not reverse direction, call a professional.
You should also test the door’s photocell. Do this by:
- Locating the photosensors under the door
- Checking the sensor alignment as they light up when properly aligned.
- Activating the garage door. Wave an object over the sensor path when it closes. If it doesn’t reverse, call a technician.
Garage Door Service Near Me
Need a new garage door? Or maybe your old one needs maintenance or some repairs? Either way, the team at Titans Garage Doors Quad Cities can help. We have been servicing the Quad Cities area for years and know exactly what it takes to get your door back in working order. Plus, we offer free estimates, so you can be sure to get the best possible price. So give us a call today!