Your garage door is a significant investment that protects your vehicles and other possessions and provides entry into your home. A high-quality, well-maintained garage door can last for years. Following a garage door maintenance checklist once or twice yearly will ensure you keep it in its best condition.
Between the weather’s effects and daily use, your garage door withstands much wear and tear. While you can perform some basic maintenance, some problems are beyond the average homeowner. Contact a garage door technician if your door has severe damage or is inoperable.
The longer you wait to service your garage door, the more problems it will develop. Learn about the signs it’s time to replace a garage door and determine if your needs exceed what maintenance provides. If not, follow the tips below to fix more minor issues.
Garage Door Maintenance Tasks
Specific garage door maintenance tasks may vary depending on the season. Regardless, you should know how to perform maintenance whenever you need to. The following tasks are crucial to include in your regular maintenance regimen year-round.
Inspect and repair the equipment
The first step of your garage door maintenance checklist should be to inspect the garage door, its operating device, and additional equipment. Without adequately running machinery, your door won’t open or may only open partially.
Note minor damage that could cause future problems. The most basic physical concerns include frayed or exposed wires, rusting metal parts, and other physical damage.
It’s necessary to repair these most fundamental issues as soon as you spot them. Otherwise, these inconveniences become more significant problems later.
Inspect the door for damage
Years of rain, sunlight, and humidity are no friend to your garage door. These elements cause rusting and decrease your door’s longevity and weather resistance. A garage door with physical damage is prone to further mold growth and moisture accumulation.
Gaps in weatherstripping, faded areas, and structural cracks are the most common damage to garage doors. UV rays can make your garage door fade, and mold growth causes additional deterioration.
Weatherstripping keeps drafts and water out during California’s rainy weather. Inspect the door’s weatherstripping for damaged areas. Wash away mold on the door with an aggressive cleaner safe for its material.
Wash the door and other parts
A clean garage door makes your property look great and prevents dirt, debris, and mold from damaging the door or getting indoors. Thoroughly cleaning your door helps keep it in top shape. Here’s how:
- Wipe the door’s surface with mild soap
- Rinse with a hose
- Clean windows with glass cleaner
- Apply paint to painted doors or stain wooden garage doors appropriately
- Check that all minor metal parts are tightened and lubricated
Dirt, dust, and other contaminants build up on the garage door tracks and can be tough to remove. Professionals can clean them properly or provide reliable replacements if they’re too dirty to function.
Check moving parts for functionality
After inspecting the door system and clearing it of debris, the next step of the garage door maintenance checklist is to test the door’s moving parts. Carefully check the rollers, garage door springs, vertical and horizontal tracks, pulleys, cables, hinges, and the spring bar. If you see no damage in these areas, test the door.
Open and close your garage door as you normally would. Be mindful of unusual noises, and note whether it struggles to move along the track.
The door should close entirely and move smoothly without making creaking, squeaking, or grinding sounds. If you encounter any trouble here, you’ll need professional repair.
Test the garage door opener
Without a working garage door opener, your door won’t operate properly. Your door opener should be responsive and have a working backup system. If this isn’t the case, reach out to professionals.
Check that your garage door opener remote has working batteries and that the opener’s lights work when the door opens. Inspect the opener’s wires, belt, and motor gears for tears and other damage, and schedule repairs when necessary.
All garage doors must come with a backup battery system. Test the battery and get a replacement if it doesn’t work.
Check the safety features
Safety features like auto reversal are crucial to preventing accidents. Without regular maintenance, the sensors become dirty and disrupt the mechanisms necessary to stop your door’s operation.
After cleaning the sensors on your garage door opener, put an object in the door’s path and close the door to test it. If this function doesn’t work, you should consider immediate repairs.
Garage door maintenance should include lubricating moving parts
This step is optional in your garage door maintenance checklist, but it can add many years to your garage door’s life. Lubrication keeps mechanical parts moving smoothly. Older garage doors or those with minor rusting may face some resistance when opening and closing, and so will need lubrication.
Key places to apply oil or another lubricant include:
- The horizontal and vertical tracks
- The spring bar
- Hinges and brackets
- The end-bearing plates
Balance the door
The last step of your garage door maintenance checklist is to balance the door. An unbalanced door won’t stay upright without assistance and applies negative pressure on the opening mechanism. This behavior results in significantly decreased garage door life.
To check the door’s balance, open it manually. Once the door is half open, release it. If it doesn’t stay up, you should contact a garage door repair company for service.
Contact A Professional Garage Door Repair Company
By following a comprehensive garage door maintenance checklist, you can keep garage doors of any type durable for years. Scheduling garage door repairs alongside maintenance will further increase your door’s lifespan. If maintenance and repairs aren’t enough, expert garage door replacement from R&S Erection of Vallejo, Inc. can resolve your concerns.
Choose garage door repair professionals in Napa, CA, from R&S Erection of Vallejo, Inc., when you need reliable, individualized garage door repair services. Contact our friendly garage door technicians with your questions. Call our Vallejo office today at 707-644-5537.