garage door spring repair bilings mt

What Are The Most Common Problems With Garage Doors?

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Maybe you tried to leave for work today only to have your garage door refuse to open. Perhaps your garage door doesn’t open and close as smoothly as it once did. There are a variety of issues that people may experience with their garage doors, but many can be traced back to a few root causes.

Dead Transmitter Batteries

First things first: make sure your transmitter batteries are working. If they’re out of juice, they can’t transmit a signal to your garage door, telling it to open or close. Luckily, this is a simple fix – just replace the batteries.

Misaligned Tracks

Your garage door runs on a metal track, and this track needs to be properly aligned for your garage door to move. Gaps between the rail and rollers or bends in the rails are a serious problem. Your garage door is heavy and can make even seemingly insignificant problems with the track worse, making your garage door a danger to use.

Broken Springs

If you’ve checked your transmitter batteries but your garage door still won’t open, you may have a problem with your door springs. Garage doors have either one or two torsion springs that do the heavy lifting of raising your door. If a spring is broken, the door may struggle to open – if it opens at all. A professional garage door repair service should be called immediately, before you try to open or operate the door further.

Broken Tension Springs or Cables

Garage doors also have tension springs, which help the door open and close safely and smoothly. If your garage door is closing much more quickly than normal and hits the ground with a bang, you may have broken tension springs or cables. This is a dangerous situation that should be addressed by a professional garage door repair service. Once tension springs or cables break, there is nothing preventing the door from crashing down onto whatever may be in its path. Call a repair service as soon as you can, and refrain from using your garage until the door is fixed.

Contact Bailey Garage Doors today for all of your garage door needs!

 

Garage Door Opener Maintenance

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Garage Door Maintenance Billings MT

Like any major appliance in the home the garage door and the garage door opener should be regularly maintained to prevent poor service or possible failure. To begin maintenance, tell everyone in the home your plan to work on the garage door or opener to prevent any possible injury. The first step to garage door maintenance is simple: stand inside the garage with the garage door closed; inspect the springs, rollers, pulleys and all of the mounting hardware for both the garage door and the opener. If there are any signs of damage or noticeable wear to these components, it may be time to call your garage door professional to replace the damaged or worn components (Remember garage doors are held up under a lot of tension, and a trained professional should be called to replace damaged hardware to prevent any possible injury to the homeowner).

The balance of the garage door should also be regularly checked to ensure the garage door is opening and closing with no resistance along its track. With the garage door closed, disconnect the automatic door opener, and, with the automatic door opener disconnected, lift the garage door manually into an open position. If the door moves smoothly and freely into the upward position, the door is in alignment. If, however, the door catches and drags on the rails, a trained garage door technician should properly service the door.

The garage door’s reversing mechanism – devices which have been added to all garage doors built after 1993 and are responsible for the prevention of the possible entrapment of a person under the garage door – should also be tested regularly. To test the door’s reversing mechanism, open the garage door and place a two by four on the garage floor directly in the path of the garage door. With the two by four in place, close the garage door onto it. When the garage door falls on the two by four and makes contact, the garage door should retreat back up on the track into the open position. If the door does not immediately retract, call your garage door service technician to fix the reversing mechanism.

On a final note, a small amount of lubrication can be added to all of the garage doors moving parts. Make sure that the garage door is either in a fully opened or closed position while working on the garage door, and stand clear of the garage door and all of the moving parts when the garage door is activated.

Garage Door Tune Up Billings MT

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Your garage door is probably the single largest moving object in your home. An automatic garage door opener will literally do all the heavy lifting for you when it comes to your garage door, but like all mechanical devices it requires regular maintenance if it is going to keep working like it should. The average garage door will move up and down over a thousand times a year, and that kind of usage will put significant wear and tear on anything.

A garage door should receive a tune-up at least once a year, and although that seems like a difficult task it becomes easier as long as you follow these simple steps.

garage door repair billings mt

Look for Problem Spots
The first step in your garage door tune-up is to look for any obvious problem spots in your garage door system. Rollers should be in working order, the seal around the door should be pliable and the door itself should not be dented or warped. Any parts that are overly worn or damaged should be replaced.

It is also important to disconnect the power to the garage door opener before looking over your garage door system. The last thing you want is to have your garage door to open while you’re working.

Lubricate the Roller
If you have metal rollers, they can be easily lubricated with WD-40. If you have vinyl or rubber rollers, you will have to use another lubricant since WD-40 can damage non-metal components.

garage door repair billings mt

Re-Align Locking Bars
Misaligned locking bars are common and can prevent the garage door from sliding into the slots on the door track and locking into place. If the locking bars are misaligned, loosen the screws on the guide brackets that hold the locking bars in place and tap them gently into place with a hammer until they are aligned with the slots. Tighten the screws when you’re finished.

Inspect and Clean Moving Parts
Your garage door has several moving parts, which is why it is subject to so much wear and tear. Loose bolts and screws will all need to be tightened, and any gummy parts will need to be removed and soaked in mineral spirits. To make sure all parts that are removed are put back in the right place, try to only remove one part at a time.

Lubricate Chains and Springs
The chains of a garage door system can be lubricated with white lithium grease, while the springs will require a silicone-based spray. The springs are under a lot of tension and can pose a safety hazard, so don’t be afraid to contact a professional to inspect or replace them safely.

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