The Importance of Seasonal Garage Door Maintenance

The garage door is a marvel of engineering. But, like many other products and mechanisms that make our lives safer and more convenient, we often take it for granted. We just assume that every time we signal for the door to open it’s going to open, and it always does. Until that snowy or rainy night when we approach the house and nothing happens.

It’s never fun when the garage door fails and you have to call for garage door repair, but it’s often preventable. Garage door failure is typically the result of poor maintenance. Small problems that could have been caught and rectified during a routine maintenance visit become big problems that end up with you having to call for professional garage door repairs.

The change of the seasons is the perfect time to have the pros from A Better Garage Door in to perform maintenance on your door. Different seasons bring different forces to bear on the door and so it’s vital to take stock of any damage done during one season, and prepare the door for the challenges it will face during the next. Let’s look at some of the checks we run during a seasonal garage door maintenance visit.

• Listening to the door - You'd be amazed at what we can learn about a garage door by listening to it. If the door is scraping along in the tracks it may indicate problems with the springs, cables or pulleys. The type of noise the door makes, along with whether the motion of the door is off, will indicate which is the more likely cause. But whatever it is, we’ll find it and fix it.
• Inspecting the hardware - Over the course of an entire season, a door will move up and down hundreds of times. All this motion can have the effect of causing nuts and bolts, brackets and fasteners to come loose. During a seasonal maintenance check, we inspect all the hardware and tighten up anything that needs it. This often results in a quieter, smoother functioning door.
• Clearing the tracks - Often times during the course of a long winter, tracks can become clogged with grit and grime. During the summer months, dust storms can wreak havoc on the tracks. Whenever we perform seasonal maintenance the tracks are one of the first things we inspect. More often than not we wind up having to clear them out. This simple process can help prevent the need to call the garage door repair company down the road.
• Inspect the rollers - Sometimes when a door is squeaking up a storm it’s not because the tracks are dirty. It’s because there’s a problem with one or more of your garage door rollers. If a roller has become clogged with dirt it can stop turning and interfere with the smooth operation of the door. It will also make quite a racket as it’s dragged up and down the track. Inspecting the rollers and replacing any troublesome ones is a basic aspect of seasonal maintenance.
• Inspect the pulleys and cables - Many homeowners have had to call for garage door opener repair or to have the garage door springs replaced, but many are unaware of the important role the garage door cables and pulleys play in the operation of their door. Keep in mind that your garage door mechanism is essentially a crane. A crane tasked with lifting a single specific load. Like all cranes, it isn't much good if the cables and pulleys are worn or loose. Inspecting these crucial garage door components is a standard part of seasonal maintenance.
• Confirm the balance of the door - One of the easiest ways to fend off having to fix the garage door down the road is to make sure it is properly balanced. When the door is out of balance it creates unnatural stresses on all the components. It’s just a matter of time before one or more of those components buckles under the pressure and you’re on the phone calling for garage door services. A seasonal check of the door’s balance can prevent that.
• Check the auto-reverse - The auto-reverse feature on your door is there to prevent the door from closing on you, your car or your loved ones. It's a mandatory feature on all modern garage doors and has saved countless lives. But over the course of several months, it's possible for this feature to become misaligned, meaning it may not work when you really need it. During seasonal maintenance, we check this feature and make sure it's in proper working order.
• Lubricate the door’s moving parts - Most of the moving parts of the garage door are made of metal that is susceptible to corrosion. It's important that these parts be inspected and lubricated at the end of every season to ensure they don't snap and fail, causing harm to life or property. During seasonal garage door maintenance, we inspect and lubricate all moving parts. If we notice significant wear or damage we notify you of the need to replace the affected part.

The Bottom Line

If you're in the Denver area and you want to reduce the number of times you have to call for garage door repair, call A Better Garage Door annually to arrange for seasonal garage door maintenance. This is typically a fast, affordable process that will help ensure a long life for your door, and can save you headaches and money in the long run.