Since it is the largest moving part in your home, it makes sense that you want to take care of your garage door as much as possible. After all, you use it just about every day, meaning a broken garage door isn’t exactly something you can ignore. Fortunately, these 10 easy tips can help ensure your garage door is always working at its best.
1. Pay Attention
Each time you leave or enter through the garage, take an extra second to watch and listen to the door go up or down. You should see a door that moves smoothly and symmetrically. Although it will make some noise, you shouldn’t hear any grinding or screeching sounds that suggest friction is causing an issue. Just a couple extra seconds here could save you from big problems down the line.
2. Tighten the Hardware
A well-working garage door relies on a number of different pieces of hardware, making each one extremely important. This should be all the reason you need to examine your hardware from time to time and see if anything has become loose. With most garage doors getting used no less than 1,000 times a year, it’s very easy for vibrations to eventually shake bolts and brackets out of place.
3. Assess Its Counterweight
Garage doors won’t function well for long without being properly balanced. Your opener is designed to only handle so much work, so if your garage door is unbalanced, it has to shoulder a far greater load and will eventually break.
To assess the counterweight (spring) system of your garage door, pull the red cord (it might be a handle) and then manually adjust the door until it’s only halfway open. If the counterweight is doing its job, the garage should be able to maintain this height. If you find this isn’t the case, consider calling in a professional to help.
4. Inspect Your Garage Door’s Rollers
Whenever a garage door opens or closes, it does so along the tracks that frame it. However, to do this, you need rollers that will keep it in place. So it makes sense to inspect them regularly. Although they tend to be made from durable materials like nylon or metal, rollers can still break over time. Usually, this takes about seven years, but that’s not always the case.
If you do notice a roller has become worn or damaged, just remove a roller bracket and then trade out the bad one for a new model.
5. Address Weatherstripping Issues
To keep your garage sealed shut, your door should have weatherstripping across the bottom of it. But if this has become brittle, cracked or broken, you’re not getting much use from it at all. Cast an eye over your weatherstripping regularly and, when necessary, head to a home improvement store in order to buy more by the foot.
6. Lubricate
Those essential moving parts your garage door depends on can’t work if friction is slowing them down or otherwise causing them to malfunction. The way around this common problem is by applying lubrication to these parts at least once a year. All it takes is 10 minutes to apply lithium grease to the chain or screw in your opener and to spray the overhead springs with a specialty lubricant.
7. Check the Cables
The cables located near the bottom roller bracket are essential to lifting your garage door up and out of the way. But they are also under a lot of tension, making them dangerous to work with. So check on them regularly and look for any damage that might be an issue. But don’t try to handle repairs on your own. Instead, call a professional if you see they need help.
8. Test the Safety Features
Obviously, you always want your garage door operating safely. So first test the mechanical precaution by putting something durable in the way of your garage door and then shutting it. If this mechanical feature works correctly, the door will make contact and then reverse.
You should also have two photocell devices casting an invisible beam across the width of your garage door (if you don’t, think about updating your garage door). To test this one, close the door and then trip the beam with your foot. Again, the door should reverse immediately.
9. Clear out the Tracks
Secure the route your rollers take by clearing out the tracks of your garage door. While doing this, if you notice the tracks are bent at all, have a professional handle this matter for you.
10. Keep the Door Clean
Finally, make sure you clean your garage door at least as often as you do your own car. This will also give you the opportunity to inspect the door for issues like rust, peeled paint and other forms of damage.
The above tips are so simple, anyone can implement them regularly. By doing so, you’ll also be ensuring that your garage door works for a long time to come.
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