While it may not be the most glamorous element of your home, there’s no doubt that the garage door is an essential one. It represents any house’s largest moving part and also protects its biggest entryway. So, suffice it to say, it makes sense to look after it as much as possible. Fortunately, the 10 tips below make this easy enough to do.
1. Watch and Listen
The simplest way to look after your garage door is to simply watch and listen to it whenever you use it. Your garage door should always be operating smoothly and without a lot of noise. When functioning properly, the entire thing (pulleys, springs, and cables) should all be symmetrical when you look at them.
2. Check the Hardware
Your large garage door works because of a number of much smaller pieces of hardware. So be sure to look at these bolts and roller brackets throughout the year to ensure they haven’t come loose. With the average garage door going up and down over 1000 times a year, it would be pretty easy for this to happen. Fortunately, it’s just as easy to address this situation with a socket wrench.
3. Make Sure It’s Balanced
Something as simple as being unbalanced is enough to cause serious problems for your garage door and will definitely force the opener to work a lot harder.
If yours isn’t balanced correctly, simply release the handle (usually this will be a bright red cord) and then manually push the door about halfway up. Unless it stays up by itself, you have a problem with the springs being unbalanced and will need to call in a professional.
4. Inspect Your Rollers
Like the hardware, your garage door also depends on small rollers that allow it to stay on track when it moves. Whether yours are steel or nylon, you’ll most likely need to replace them every seven years. However, inspect them twice a year just to be sure there are no issues that need to be addressed sooner. Any damaged rollers can be replaced by removing the brackets and reinstalling them as necessary.
5. Replace Your Weatherstripping
Weatherstripping is an essential part of your garage door’s functioning because it makes for a tight seal when the garage door is closed, keeping the outside world at bay. Inspect yours regularly to ensure it’s not becoming too cracked, brittle, or damaged. Replacing it is as easy as heading down to your home improvement store and buying some, then sliding it into the grooves of your door.
6. Apply Lubrication
All the parts responsible for moving your garage door up and down need to be addressed as well, especially with lubrication. This requires nothing more than some white lithium grease for your opener’s screw and chain. Specialized spray lubricant can be used for your overhead springs. Best of all, handling this necessary chore only needs to take you 10 minutes a year.
7. Check Your Door’s Cables
The high-tension cables in your garage door are too dangerous for you to handle them on your own. However, you can still safely inspect them from a distance. If you notice that they are damaged or even broken, especially by the bottom roller bracket, call in a professional to repair the mechanism.
8. Test Your Safety Features
Just about every garage door made within the last 20 years comes with the following two safety features. First, there’s the mechanical one that reverses the door’s directions when it comes into contact with something in its path. You can test this process out with a brick, some wood or a piece of cardboard. The second precaution is known as a photocell device. This system sends an invisible beam from one side of the garage door’s frame to the other. If anything breaks the beam while the garage door is moving, the system will immediately make it reverse. You can test this simply by putting your foot through the beam while the garage door is working.
9. Clean Out the Tracks
Clear out debris from both of your door’s tracks so that nothing gets in the way of its smooth operation. You can also use a level in order to check your garage door’s plumb line, though you’ll want a technician to handle any major adjustments.
10. Groom Your Door
Get in the habit of cleaning your garage door whenever you wash your car. All it takes is some all-purpose cleaner applied to either a wood or steel door. Your garage door covers too much of your home and provides too important a service to take it for granted. So ensure you practice the above 10 tips regularly to take care of it throughout the year.
For a preventive maintenance or repair service done by professionnals contact us now. We serve all Toronto, Etobicoke and Guelph areas.
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