One of the largest appliances in your home is the garage door. It’s also one of the most overlooked for regular maintenance. Most homeowners have their heating and cooling systems checked annually. It’s also a good idea to have a professional check your garage door and perform essential maintenance to help prolong the life of the door.
Although you can perform simple maintenance tasks yourself there’s other tasks like spring or roller track repair/replacement that are best left for trained professionals.
Basic maintenance includes the following:
- Clean your metal doors a couple of times per year with a mild detergent using a soft car brush. Wood doors should be cleaned in accordance to the manufacturers instructions.
- Keep the area where the door meets the ground free of any obstructions. These areas tend to collect leaves, dirt, cobwebs and other debris. This may prevent a strong seal or impact the weight distribution of the door.
- Apply white lithium grease to the moving parts of the garage door– rollers and hinges.
- Since there’s many moving parts in a garage door (track, roller wheels, springs) it’s important to look for worn or loose parts that may cause a bigger problem if not repaired or replaced.
We’re here to serve you. Let us know how we can help so your garage door works efficiently for you.
If your garage door won’t open:
Disconnect the door from your opener and try to lift it manually. (Pull the red handle hanging from a red string.) If you can’t lift the door, you probably have a broken spring.
CAUTION! If the opener lifted the door only 6 inches or so, be sure your toes are not under the door when you release it from the opener. If the spring is broken, the door will fall closed very quickly.
Look at the coil spring above the door on a shaft or along either side of the overhead tracks. If you see an opening or break in the coil or have a spring hanging down, you have a broken spring. Measure the height and width of your door and call us for a competitive price and an appointment. If your spring is not broken, the problem may be in your opener.
If your garage door won’t open:
If you can open and close your door manually, but not with the opener, try pushing the wall button for your opener. Do you hear a motor running but don’t see the chain or screw drive moving? You may have a stripped gear or screw carriage. Look at the brand name of the opener and call us for a price and an appointment.
If your garage door won’t close:
If you can open and close your door manually, but not with the opener, try holding the wall button down. If the door closes, your photo eyes are probably out of alignment or blocked. Photo eyes look like little cameras mounted at the base of the garage door tracks on both sides. They must be pointing directly at each other. Try to clean them and align them. You could save yourself a service call! If it still won’t work, call us for a price and an appointment.
If your garage door is off track or crooked in the opening:
Don’t touch it. Unplug the opener so no one else can accidentally make it worse. Call us for an appointment. We can usually get to you the same day you call.