Keep Your Garage Door Healthy & Operating Safely

Your garage door is the biggest moving component in your home and used very heavily throughout the day. It is also the biggest vulnerability that can invite unwanted guests into your household if it fails. To keep your garage door healthy & operating safely for decades to come, you have to take some measures and follow some of the following tips.

• Observe Daily Operations

It is of utmost importance that you observe your garage door in action from time to time for any signs of degradation in performance. Does it make any unusual sounds while moving? Is the movement smooth? Does it get stuck halfway? And so on. Each scenario has different fixes so you should know what problem you are facing.

• Test The Door’s Balance 

If your garage door is off-balance, the garage door opener will work overtime and eventually break down. You should contact a professional garage door repairman to balance the weight imbalance. If you want to check the balance of your garage door yourself then try these steps.

1. Disconnect the opener by pulling the release handle
2. Move the door halfway up manually
3. If it doesn’t stay up, then the counterweights are imbalanced.

• Inspect And Replace Rollers

Rollers are responsible for the movement of your garage door and they are often made from steel. They should be inspected at least twice a year and replaced every seven years to avoid movement disruptions. If a wheel is found to be cracked or damaged, then it should be replaced as soon as possible to avoid getting locked out of the garage.

• Install New Weatherstripping

Weatherstripping can really keep dust and other exterior elements out of your garage. With the passage of time, the seal strip becomes compromised and should be replaced. Weatherstripping is often sold at hardware and home renovation stores and can be replaced with relative ease.

• Lubricate Moving Components

Your garage door consists of many mechanical parts and for its smooth operation, they should be greased every now and then. Using white lithium grease on the opener chain, rollers and springs can prove to be helpful in the longevity of your garage door components.

• Test It’s Safety features

Most garage doors have two main mechanisms; mechanical and photocell. To test mechanical features, place an object in the path of the closing garage door. As soon as the door senses an obstruction in its path, it will auto-reverse and open again. The second type of safety feature includes a pair of beams at each side of the door. If the beams are interrupted, the door’s closing operation is terminated.

• Clean The Tracks

The most important thing to watch for is debris that can cause the operating of your garage door to be disrupted. The tracks and rollers should be clear of any obstructions and the door should be at least once a year looked at by a professional technician.