Garage doors, like any other door, require maintenance to stay in perfect condition. A regular maintenance routine helps keep your garage door running smoothly, saving you from expensive repairs in the long run.
As long as you have basic maintenance skills, tasks like spring tension adjustment and lubrication are easy to do and will help to keep your garage door healthy well into the future. If not, it’s never too late to learn.
To get the most longevity out of your garage door, you should aim to inspect your garage door on a monthly basis. However, maintenance will realistically only be needed on an annual or bi-annual basis.
If you know how to inspect and monitor your garage door properly, you can spot and solve any problems before they arise or increase in severity.
While checking over your garage door, you should take extra care to listen to the noises it makes while healthy, this way you’ll be able to notice any unusual noises, snaps or screeches that are present as it’s opening or closing.
Unusual noises in your garage door whilst opening, such as snapping or screeching, signify that there may be wear in your garage door or in the parts used in the opening mechanism, typically being the opener chain having loosened. The sooner you recognise a problem in your garage door, the easier and cheaper it will be to fix.
Most modern garage doors will be fitted with a seal to stop draughts and increase heat retention throughout your home. Regularly checking that this is intact and still creating a seal is vital for keeping your garage door in good condition.
A broken or damaged seal will lower heat retention and energy efficiency, leading to increased energy bills down the line.
If you have an electric-powered roller garage door or sectional garage door that uses a remote, it’s a good idea to check your remote over in full, ensuring that all of its features are still in working order. If you notice a problem with your remote, the problem may lie with the door itself. It’s always better to identify and resolve a problem sooner rather than later.
Many modern garage doors are fitted with an automatic reverse feature for safety, including a pressure-sensitive sensor to ensure nothing gets stuck in the way of the garage door as it closes. Automatic reverse features are especially important in homes with children or animals, as garage doors that aren’t correctly maintained can pose a safety risk.
In order to test the pressure-sensitive reverse feature, place a plank of wood in the door’s path as it closes. If the wood doesn’t cause the door to reverse, you should call a garage door specialist immediately.
If you’ve found that your garage door is stuck in an open or closed position, this could be for many reasons. Thankfully, it’s simple enough to perform the following maintenance checks to figure out the cause of the issue:
Misaligned or dirty sensors may trick your garage door into thinking something is in the way while it tries to close, which will cause your garage door to get stuck, and prevent it from closing. You can clean any dirt off of the sensors yourself. If your sensors are at fault, this will fix the issue.
A misalignment in the door may cause it to jam and not close properly. Fixing the alignment of a door is dangerous and requires the expertise of a professional. You should contact a garage door expert before attempting to fix the alignment of the garage door yourself.
If the garage door opener is broken, it’s likely that the door won’t move at all. Garage door openers employ complex mechanisms to allow the door to close and open, so unless you know exactly what you’re doing, you should leave a problem like this in the hands of a skilled garage door repair technician.
If you’ve tried the above and you’re still having issues with your stuck garage door, then consider speaking with Sure4Doors about our garage door repairs and replacement services.
We’ll offer you a free quote based on the extent of the damage and survey the door to assess any damage and be completely transparent about what’ll be involved. We provide a wide range of garage doors, including up/over and electric roller shutters.
