You should be aware that your garage door is a part of the exterior design, and it plays an important role in how people perceive you. It's also one of the most used features on your house, with around 1,000 opening/closing events per year!
Many homeowners use their garage as the main entry point into their home- so think about what tone will best represent yourself to visitors when they walk up from behind or approach other areas.
Your garage door is one of the biggest assets of your home. Keeping it in great shape will ensure that you are safe and secure when entering and exiting through this often overlooked entrance point, not only for yourself but also for anyone who regularly works at or visits your house. The team here has compiled some helpful tips to keep things going strong all year long!
10 Yearly Maintain Tips For Your Garage Door.
Is there a time when people should take care of their garage doors? All year long, people need to maintain their door. Each month brings different weather and unexpected temperatures that the door has to endure. By taking care of it all the time, you can make sure that your garage door lasts for many years.
Many of the tips on this list can be done by yourself. But for other tips, if you don't feel comfortable with them, you can call the professionals at Gastonia Garage Doors. You can fix your garage door and make it work again by taking these preventive steps:
1. Watch and listen to your garage door.
It is important to inspect your garage door regularly. Watch and listen as you open and close the door. This way, if there is something wrong with the garage door, you will know how it is supposed to look and sound when it opens and closes.
If the garage door or opener is not working, listen to it and look for these signs:
- It is hard to open or close the door.
- Jerky and uneven movements
- If you hear a loud sound, it could be unusual.
- The grater, scraper, or grinder makes a noise.
If you see one of these signs, check the rest of your system to ensure it is all working. Make sure that the problem is not on both sides and that it is not dirty. Then fix the problem before it gets any worse.
2. Make sure all the hardware is tight.
Your garage door may have loose hardware. This is a risky situation because it means the door would not work if you needed to use it. You should make sure that you tighten any nuts, bolts, screws, and other pieces of hardware on your garage door components. You will need a few screwdrivers and an adjustable wrench to do this. Check the hardware on these places:
- The brackets that hold the tracks for the garage door up are in place.
- The metal pieces that hold your garage door together are called brackets.
- The screws that hold the garage door opener in place are fasteners.
Loose hardware can make your garage door and the opener stop working. It's better to tighten them so that your door will work.
3. Don't let any dirt get on the tracks.
Your garage door has tracks on either side that hold it up. When you open or close the door, the wheels go along a track on each side of the garage door and keep it open or closed. At the beginning of every season, you should check the tracks for anything that might stop the wheels. If there is an object that blocks your garage door, then it will not open. This could damage the wheels and make them out of alignment.
You can find the tracks from high up, and then you need a stool to get down to the bottom. Find any debris and clean it with a rag. Look for rust on pipes because that means they might need new ones put in.
You can also check the evenness of your garage tracks. Ensure that each side is even with the other and that both the vertical and horizontal parts are even. If they are not, this could make your opener more stressed, and it might break down. Call a professional if you notice that your tracks are not level.
4. Check the pulleys and cables on your garage door.
When a garage door's pulley system is damaged or out of balance, it will make it hard for your opener to pull the door up and down. This might cause other problems in your system. Finding these issues early on can help keep your costs to a minimum.
If there is any damage or fraying on the cables, they need to be fixed. If there are any dangling cables or springs, then you should call a professional. They are under extreme tension, and it can be dangerous to try and fix the pulley system yourself.
5.Inspect the garage door rollers to see if they are damaged. Replace any that are broken.
Rollers are on the left and right sides of a garage door. This causes it to move. Rollers that work well make a silent garage door. If you have a noisy one, then you might need new rollers. Rollers can be chipped or lose when they are old, so replace any bad ones when you find them.
To change the rollers on your garage door, you will need to take off the brackets and put new ones in. You can get them at a hardware store or a specialty garage door store. Do not try to take off the bottom rollers because they are connected to your cables under high tension. To do that, call a professional garage door services company.
6. The moving parts of the garage door should be cleaned and lubricated.
Your garage door and opener use complicated things to work. You should keep these parts clean. You can grease your roller brackets and tracks with lithium grease. This will help the opener work better, and it will last longer as well. If a roller is stuck, you can spray it with WD-40 to make it move again.
Use some WD-40 on the moving parts of your garage door. Spray it on the springs and wipe off any extra. If you have a garage door opener that uses a chain, give it some lithium grease. This will help the opener work well. It can last for years!
7. CHeck Garage Door Balance.
When the weather is warmer, it is good to check the balance on your garage door. An off-balance garage door can make your opener work harder. A garage door's weight should be in the middle and not at the top or bottom. This can lead to a breakdown that can be avoided if you fix it before it is too late.
To check garage door balance, you need to disconnect it from the opener. This will allow you to open and close it manually. Pull the red safety cord and then open the door up halfway. If the door is balanced, it will stay in place when you let go of it. But if not, then it will either slide down or up. If your garage door is not balanced, call a professional. They will fix it by adjusting the cables and springs.
8. Make Sure The Auto-Reverse Features Are Working.
Your garage door is safer because it has one auto-reverse safety feature. It can reverse the direction if something gets in the way of its closing path. There are also two more safety features that you might have on your garage door: a pressure sensor and two photoelectric sensors. When these sensors see movement, they will trigger a reversal.
The pressure sensor should stop the garage door from closing if something is in front of it. Test this by placing a small object in front of it as it closes. If the garage door still tries to close, call a professional to figure out what is wrong with the sensor.
The photoelectric sensors can be tested by finding small cameras on the side of your garage. Be ready with a long object and close your garage door by pressing the bottom. If the garage door continues closing, you could try to wave an object in front of the cameras. If that doesn't work, you could gently clean the camera eyes. If they still don't work, there might be dirt or debris on them. If the problem does not go away, you may need to call a professional.
9. Check garage door Weatherstripping
Garage Door weatherstripping is necessary all year. It keeps water, snow, and air out of your house. Weatherstripping can stay strong even when it is not new. If you have weatherstripping that is broken or worn, fix it right away. Remove the old weatherstripping by pulling it off from its fitted grooves. If you owned a wooden garage door, you need to take off the nails to disconnect the weatherstripping.
Most garage doors have a strip of rubber on the bottom of the door. To get to it, you need to open the door all the way. Wipe the dirt off with a soft cloth and some mild cleaner. If you see any cracks, holes, or missing pieces in the rubber, it is time to get new weather stripping. You can find it at your local hardware store or garage repair store.
10. Contact Professional For Garage Door Inspection Service Once A Year
It is a good idea to stay involved with the health of your garage door. That way, you will be able to tell when it starts breaking down. Another good thing to do is have a yearly maintenance appointment with a garage door professional. They can fix things you may not notice. Add an annual garage door inspection to your routine to ensure that the door won't break in the future.
Conclusion
It may not seem like it, but your garage door is one of the most important features of your home. The average person doesn't think about their garage door until they need to use it, and then all of a sudden, you can't get out! Garages are also used for storing items that might be needed during emergencies such as natural disasters or power failures. That's why we recommend following these easy tips on how to keep your garage door in seasonal condition so that when you do have an emergency, everything will work smoothly. Do any of these maintenance tasks sound familiar? If so, give us a call at Gastonia Garage Doors today - our team specializes in all things related to residential and commercial doors, including installation, repair, and replacement.