One of the most commonly overlooked types of maintenance in your home is garage door maintenance. It is recommended you have your garage door and garage door opener professionally inspected and serviced at least once a year to keep them both operating efficiently and safely. The Federal Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) also recommends the homeowner test the safety features of their garage door opener per the manufacturer’s instructions each month. If your garage door has worked properly for years and never given you any trouble, it is easy to overlook the idea of garage door maintenance. Listed below are a few parts of the garage door that should be regularly maintained and how often they should be fixed in order to prevent costly future problems.
Hardware
The vibration that comes from the reoccurring up-and-down of the garage door can result in the loosening of the door and all of its hardware. To ensure that a loose piece of hardware will never cause any of your potential problems, inspect all of the brackets and screws that hold the door tracks to the ceiling and wall and tighten up anything that feels loose. Performing these small, but essential, inspections at least twice a year lessens the potential for future problems.
Moving Parts
Although it seems that your garage door only goes up and down, there are a lot more moving parts that aren’t often recognized. The best way to keep your garage door’s moving parts in top-notch shape is to lubricate the area. By lubricating these constant moving parts, stress will be reduced on the door openers and rolling parts, increasing their lifespan. This should be done at least twice a year.
Rollers
The rollers are the parts that move along the tracks to allow smooth travel up and down of the door. By inspecting the rollers at least twice a year, you can see if there are any cracks and/or chipped or worn areas. If you spot any cracks, chip, or wear during your inspection, it’s best to replace the rollers. By simply removing the brackets that hold the rollers to the door, the rollers can be easily replaced. Be sure not to remove the bottom roller bracket on the sides of the door as they are attached to the lift cables which carry extreme tension.
Counterbalance System
The garage door counterbalance system can consist of springs, cables, pulleys, cable drums, bearing plates, torsion shafts, and bottom brackets. All of these components are under extreme tension and can cause serious injury and even death so please only visually inspect these items and always keep your hands, fingers, and face as far away as possible from these items. If you notice a frayed cable or maybe a worn pulley or bearing, then please contact a garage door professional to check out these issues. Standard garage springs last approximately 5-7 years under normal use and can even break more frequently under high usage. Extended life cycle torsion springs are available that have at least twice the expected life cycle of a standard torsion spring and are recommended anytime you replace a torsion spring. If you don’t like the inconvenience of your car being stuck in your garage at the most inopportune times, then you might even consider replacing your springs before they break if you believe they are near their expected life cycle.
By performing regular garage door maintenance, you can improve safety conditions, increase the life expectancy and reduce repair costs of your garage door. If you’re looking for more help, contact Hollywood-Crawford Garage Doors and Openers for your San Antonio garage door maintenance needs. They will also come to your home and do a free 50 point written safety inspection and offer an estimate to fix, repair, or adjust anything that might be needed.
