Garage Door Maintenance Checklist
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- Garage doors are one of the parts of the house that seem to be underappreciated.
- It secures cars parked in the garage when unused, any tools and equipment stored for safekeeping and, at times, doubles as a workspace for various types of hobbies or workouts.
- As such, it is important that your home’s garage doors remain functional to avoid any unexpected complications.
- To ensure your garage door is operating as smoothly as it can, it is imperative to conduct maintenance checks at least twice a year.
- Read through this article to learn these ten necessary steps to perform a thorough garage door maintenance check.
- Look and listen to your door.
- A lot of garage door problems are discoverable from a simple but keen observation.
- Look out for jerky movements, grinding or scraping sounds, asymmetrical sides, or anything that seems out of the ordinary.
- Garage doors tend to run smoothly up and down, relatively quiet when doing so.
- Tighten your garage door’s hardware.
- The typical movement of a garage door is to go up and down.
- This happens numerous times a year because of the constant outings of the household’s vehicle/s.
- The repeated motion and vibration from this can loosen up the door and its hardware.
- Be sure to inspect the brackets holding the tracks to the wall and ceiling.
- Use a socket wrench to tighten all loose bolts and roller brackets.
- Test the door’s balance.
- An imbalanced garage door means the door’s opener will have to work double time to open the door.
- To test the door’s balance, pull the release handle to disconnect the opener.
- Manually lift the door about halfway—it should stay in place.
- If not, the door is improperly balanced or the springs are getting worn.
- Contact a local garage door repair service company to assist you in fixing this problem.
- Check the rollers.
- The rollers are situated at the door’s edge.
- If any of the rollers are chipped, cracked, or worn then these should be replaced as soon as possible.
- Ensure that these roller brackets are not attached to the lift cables.
- Inspect the cables.
- It is discouraged to touch or tinker around with high-tension cables.
- Check your cables for any broken strands, as well as any signs of damage.
- Call a professional if such are present.
- Clear the tracks.
- Ensure the tracks found on either side of the door are clear of any debris and rust.
- You may also use a level to check if the tracks are perfectly vertical along their sections.
- If otherwise, you are free to make minor adjustments.
- However, major repairs should be left to a professional.
- Grease the moving parts.
- Twice a year, lubricate the moving parts of your garage door.
- Greasing the moving parts ensures that these components operate smoothly for longer.
- Replace weatherstripping.
- The weatherstripping of your garage door helps in keeping out the cold, dust, water, and dirt.
- These are along the bottom of the door.
- If the weatherstripping appears to be broken or cracked, replace these to keep unwanted particles inside your garage.
- Test the auto-reverse feature.
- For automatic garage doors, there is an auto-reverse feature that reverses the direction of the door.
- This happens when an object is detected to be in the door’s path.
- It also activates itself when an object is hit while the door is closing.
- To test this, grab an object (wood, brick, or a flat board) and place it in the door’s path.
- The door should reverse its direction once the object is detected.
- Inspect the door itself.
- Do not forget to check on the door itself.
- For steel doors, look out for any form of rusting.
- Also, examine for water damage, warps, and chipped or peeling paint.
- Feel free to repaint if you deem it necessary.
- Wash your door regularly with a mild all-purpose cleaner.
- A well-maintained garage door saves homeowners from a number of problems in the future.
- Make sure to take some time off your year to perform maintenance checks on your garage door.
- For any problems that require the help of a professional, you may contact your local garage door repair services.
- These are easily accessible for homeowners residing in Ottawa, Kanata, Orleans, or Ontario.
