Essential Garage Door Maintenance Tips

In this blog entry, the professional Charleston area garage door installation, and Charleston garage door repair service team here at A1 Garage Door Charleston Will detail some essential tips to help you provide maintenance for your garage doors in order to keep them working properly for many years to come.

Essential Garage Door Maintenance Tips

 

  1. Inspect your garage door for any apparent issues. Open and close your garage door, first automatically and then by hand. Is the garage door operating smoothly with not that much noise? Pay attention to any banging or grinding sounds when the garage door is moving. Pay attention to whether the garage door is sticking or jerking. When you manually open the garage door, does it suddenly feel much heavier than it normally should? The point is to locate any specific visual or auditory signals that indicate that the garage door is not working properly.
  2. Keep your garage door tracks clear. Over the years, debris, and Derek can easily collect on your garage door tracks, creating blocks and causing the door to malfunction. Brush debris off garage door tracks and use a damp rag to clean, grime and sticky dirt from the surface. Keep in mind that any serious adjustments to repairs have to be left to a professional who can make sure that your garage door tracks are properly repaired and safe to operate.
  3. Make sure to tighten hardware. Regular use of your garage can cause vibration that loosens nuts and bolts overtime. Carefully use a screwdriver and a socket wrench to tighten loose bolts, nuts, and roller brackets. Just make sure not to over tighten this hardware as this can also cause damage and cause the components to wear out much faster. It is absolutely essential to avoid tightening any hardware that is painted red, or any hardware located on the bottom garage door roller fixture. Adjusting or tightening these components can cause serious damage to your garage door as well as being incredibly dangerous.
  4. Look at your garage door cables for signs of damage, tearing, or frame. Damaged garage doors, cables strain your garage door parts and are incredibly dangerous. Never try to address garage door cables yourself, as they are under extreme tension and can be incredibly dangerous to handle without the proper training. If you notice any issues with your garage door cables, contact one of our expert Charleston garage door repair technicians for rapid assistance.
  5. Visually inspect your garage door, rollers for any shipping, cracking, or general wear. As long as garage door rollers are not directly attached to your garage door cables, or the general cable system, you can replace them. It’s a good idea to keep your rollers clear of any dirt or debris in order to help your garage door operate the best that it can.
  6. You special garage door lubricant to lubricate your springs, tracks, rollers, hinges, and chains. By properly and regularly lubricating your garage door components, with the proper form of lubricant, you can keep these components properly moving smoothly. Just make sure to never lubricate nylon door rollers. Nylon garage door rollers are meant to work their entire life span without any lubricant. Steel garage door rollers, or garage door rollers made from other materials, however, require lubrication about twice a year.
  7. Contact a member of our professional garage door maintenance team to conduct periodic garage door balance testing. While it’s possible to conductors testing yourself by disengaging the garage door, disconnect in The Opener, and attempting to lift the door manually to ensure that it stays balanced and a half open position, we recommend having his professionally done, as if there is in fact, an issue with your garage door cables or Springs, it can be dangerous to perform this balance test yourself.
  8. Have your garage door weatherstripped, replaced periodically. Weatherstripping is the rubber seal at the bottom of your overhead garage door that helps block your garage door interior from experiencing water damage or other damage relating to moisture or the weather. When weatherstripping is brittle or cracked, it can allow moisture into your garage, as well as causing temperature at linkages between your garage and the outside world, potentially increasing  your energy bills.