Your garage door is at the front line when it comes to the well-being of you and your family. It secures your home, car, your important valuables and most importantly, your family. In order for your garage door to fulfill its job, it must withstand all trials and errors. With proper care, your garage door can serve you a long time and continue to provide you that peace-of-mind. Unfortunately, garage doors that are unkept and not maintained deteriorate very quickly and can pose a great threat to the security of homeowners. Such deteriorating can be a direct result of uninformed homeowners who truly have no idea what to do. 

Luckily, we have compiled some helpful tips that will provide you a basic guide on how to properly care for your garage door. Follow these steps and we guarantee you will see improvements in the effectiveness of your garage door. 

1. Safety First

Garage doors can have excessive wear and tear if proper regular maintenance is avoided or overlooked. As a result, a door can lock, stick, or in extreme situations, can even fall off its tracks, which can cause serious damage and injuries. 

Hiring a professional is highly recommended and definitely your best choice for ensuring a guaranteed maintenance treatment. However, if you do choose to do any work yourself, remember that accidents can easily occur, especially if you have never done it before. You much take proper and appropriate safety precautions before performing any work, such as:

• All tension should be removed from the door when removing the lift cables. 
• Adjust spring locking pliers on the roller tracks when working on an open door, in order to keep it secure.
• Unplug the door opener and remove any controls in order to disable them as you work.

2. Complete Inspection

It is always a good idea to take some time and perform a complete inspection of your entire garage door. While inspecting: 

• Look for signs of damage around the doors ,such as: any breakage or rust in the tracks, springs, cables, roller wheels, and hinges. 
• Observe the door as it is moving and check whether the movement is jerky or smooth. 
• Listen to the garage door’s sound and examine for scraping or grinding noises.
• Ensure that both sides of the garage door are symmetrical.

3. Keep Hardware Secure

Garage doors are often used multiple times a day, which can lead the door’s hardware to loosen overtime. Check the following hardware parts and tighten them if they are loose:

• Rollers: If you’re using nylon rollers, check for cracks and chips. If you’re using steel rollers, check if the bearing has a tilt to its wheel. You can buy replacements at hardware stores if needed.
• Nuts and bolts: Tighten all the roller brackets and bolts that connect it to the rail.
• Tracks: Check if there are any cracks, bends, breaks, or other damages. If there’s any, call a technician since it may cause harm if you’ll do it yourself.
• Lift cables: These can wear-out pretty fast, especially in colder climates. Remove any dirt or build-up at its bottom as it is the part most exposed to moisture. You can use soft brushes to clean it up.

4. Test Balance

Proper balance is extremely vital to the functionality of your garage door. If the door is not balanced properly, it will be much harder for the garage system to go up and down which can thus wear-down the life of the garage door. To test the balance of your garage door, move the door halfway up after disconnecting the opener by pulling the release handle. A clear sign that your springs are imbalanced is if the door doesn't stay put. To fix this issue, you will need the help of an expert who will either replace or repair the door springs.

5. Regular Lubrication to Moving Parts 

In order to prolong the life of your garage doors, you need to keep all the moving parts well-lubricated. Properly lubricated rollers ensure that the door opener operates with less stress and tension on the system. A top choice for appropriate lubrication is using white lithium grease. 

Lubrication and cleaning of the overhead tension springs and extension springs should be done at least twice a year. We recommend scheduling regular lubrication treatments throughout the year in order to prevent sticking and friction issues. Regular lubrication should be performed by a trained professional. 

Conclusion 

We are sure that at this point you are well aware of the importance of properly caring for your garage door. Homeowners who take this task for granted end up spending more time and effort than the actual maintenance task itself. It is better to prevent garage door issues that can cause great pain, both financially and emotionally. If you are in need of a proper maintenance treatment for your garage door, then we at Door Quest will be more than happy to help. Our skilled technicians will follow through all the tips we have provided and more to ensure that your garage door continues to serve you for many years to come. Call us now at (732) 341-1818 to schedule a maintenance appointment.