Despite it being the largest moving part in their home, most people don’t take proper care of their garage doors, even though they’d have a major problem on their hands if it stopped working. Fortunately, preventive maintenance doesn’t require a lot of work. Just follow the 10 steps below and your garage door will always function at its best.
1. Look at and Listen to It
The easiest step you can take toward maintaining your garage door is simply keeping an eye on it and an ear open for it. Each time you use your garage door, make sure it’s operating symmetrically. You should look for any jerky motions as it opens or closes. Also, listen for any sounds of friction. There shouldn’t be any scraping, grinding, etc. audible when you use your door.
2. Tighten the Hardware
All garage doors come with a number of moving parts that can become loose throughout the year. After all, consider the fact that most people use their door at least 1,000 times every 12 months. All that vibrating is sure to loosen your roller brackets and/or bolts. So just inspect each and tighten them as necessary with a socket wrench.
3. Check Your Door’s Balance
To work properly, a garage door must have proper balance. Otherwise, the opener needs to work extra hard in order to keep the door up or down. All you have to do to check the balance on yours is locate the release handle, which is usually a red cord. Once you’ve activated it, manually move your door until it’s about halfway open. If it doesn’t stay like that on its own, something is off about its balance. Call a professional in to get this repaired as soon as possible.
4. Inspect the Garage Door’s Rollers
Your garage door wouldn’t get very far in either direction without rollers. So it makes sense that you should check these out often too. Your rollers, which will be made out of nylon or steel, shouldn’t be showing any cracks, chips or other forms of damage. If they do, replace them immediately to avoid bigger headaches down the road. All you have to do is detach your bracket and then swap them out.
Plan on replacing your rollers once every seven years. But if you use your garage door more frequently, it’s possible you’ll need to do so even more.
5. Replace Your Door’s Weatherstripping
Across the bottom of your garage door should be a piece of weatherstripping. It works to keep the elements on the outside of the garage when you shut the door. Inspect this piece of material regularly to see if it’s been damaged in any way. If it has, just head to a home improvement store where it’s sold by the foot.
6. Lubrication
All those moving parts need a lot of lubrication to work properly. So grease them up as necessary once a year. It will only take you about 10 minutes. White lithium grease is perfect for the chain or screw on your opener and you can coat the overhead springs with a spray lubricant.
7. Check the Cables
Never try to fix or manipulate the high‑tension cables used for moving your garage door by yourself. They are capable of enough force to actually kill a person. Instead, just check on their condition regularly. If you do see broken strands or other troubling signs, call a professional to fix them.
8. Test out Your Safety Features
All garage doors should come with two kinds of safety features: mechanical and photocell. If your unit lacks both of these, you should probably start thinking about replacing it soon.
The mechanical safety feature is what makes sure your garage door turns around if it connects with something in its way. To test this, find a box, piece of wood or brick and put it on the threshold between your garage and the driveway. When the door hits it, it should reverse directions.
Your photocell device should cast an invisible beam that will trip the door to reverse if anyone crosses it. Test it by closing the door and swiping your foot through it to ensure the door stops and goes up.
9. Clear Its Tracks
Check the tracks throughout the year to be sure nothing is sitting in the path of your door’s rollers. If you find anything, clean it out. If you find the plumb line is off, call in a professional.
10. Keep Your Door Clean
Lastly, just be sure you clean your garage door regularly. Any time you wash your car, take an extra minute to wash it off and inspect it for cracks, holes, rust, etc. Taking care of your garage door is extremely easy when you follow the 10 tips above. However, just because it’s simple doesn’t mean you won’t see impressive results.
For more information on MyQ system, contact us now. We serve York, Harrisburg, Mechanicsburg areas.
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