Your garage door is a significant investment to take care of that contributes to your property’s value, but most of all, security. Giving your garage door regular and proper maintenance is key to ensuring smooth operation and durability.
This Home Service Guide Pro guide wants to give you some key tips to help you keep your garage door in top shape.
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Lubrication is key:
Proper lubrication is crucial for a device that constantly opens and closes such as your garage door. Lubrication minimizes friction, reduces wear and tear, and ensures your door operates quietly and efficiently.
Do some maintenance once in a while and lubricate all moving parts, including hinges, rollers, and springs, using specialized garage door lubricants, which are often silicone-based.
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Inspect and tighten hardware:
A key tip is to perform a thorough inspection of your garage door hardware.
Check for loose bolts, nuts, or screws and tighten them as needed (do not overtighten).
Loose parts can be dangerous for both security and accident reasons, say special attention to the brackets holding the tracks in place. Enhance your garage door stability by tightening any loose hardware.
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Balance and alignment checks:
An unbalanced garage door can lead to damage or premature wear on the opener and other components. Many people test the balance by disconnecting the opener and manually lifting the door. It should always stay in place, even when partially open. If not, you need an expert. Call a garage door provider for adjustments.
Additionally, visually inspect the door’s alignment within the tracks.
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Clear the tracks:
Ensure the garage door has a smooth track to slide on. Make sure the track is free from debris, dirt, or any obstructions.
You could use a damp cloth to remove accumulated grime and clean the tracks. Do this periodically as dirty tracks can disrupt the operation of your garage door and potentially cause damage to the rollers.
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Regular testing:
Following the list, you could perform routine tests to ensure the safety features of your garage door are functioning correctly.
Place a small object in the door’s path and see if it reverses immediately to test the auto-reverse feature.
The photoelectric sensors are required on most if not all garage doors, ensuring they are aligned and clean to ensure proper function.
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Visual inspection of springs and cables:
Closely examine the garage door periodically, especially the springs and cables for signs of wear, fraying, or rust. For these or any other issues, please call a garage door professional to address the situation as these components are under high tension and should be handled with care.
As you just read, there are a lot of things you can do by yourself to keep that garage door working smoothly but for security and practicality reasons, call a garage door expert to inspect and solve the big problems it could have.
Use Home Service Guide Pro to locate home service providers.