Keep reading to learn simple garage door preventative maintenance tips you can do all by yourself.

1) Clear The Tracks:

This one is quick and straightforward. Just check both sides of your garage tracks to make sure there isn’t any debris. Also keep an eye out for other parts that might be interfering with the operation, now or later. It’s easy for random pieces of stuff to get stuck on the tracks, but scraping or wiping them away is just as easy and can save you a world of trouble.

2) Keep The Exterior Looking Like New:

Granted, you already instinctively want to come home to a nice-looking residence, yard, garage door, and all. However, if you have a garage door made from wood, you should check it out for old, chipped paint and even water damage. Should it need a new coat, it’s time to scrape and sand off the older paint before giving it a new layer. If your garage door is steel, then sand off any rusty spots before wiping it all down with the same mild and all-purpose cleaner you use on your car.

3) Test Your Auto-Reverse Safety Mechanism:

Your garage door has an auto-reverse safety feature. It has two different working mechanisms. One is the photocell, and the other is mechanical. Test both of them.

In order to test the mechanical one, just lay down a piece of wood onto the ground that’s in the track path of your door. As the door starts coming down, see if it reverses direction when it makes contact with the wood.

Testing the photocell mechanism means pressing the button that closes your garage door. Once the door starts lowering, just stick your foot into the sensory beams. The photocells are working right when the garage door stops and starts moving back up.

If your garage fails either test, then it’s time you get a new garage door opener.

4) Lube Up Anything That Moves:

This task might just be the most crucial thing you do, and yet in many garages, it’s also the most neglected. Your garage door has many working parts. Many or most of these parts are made up of metal. They rub against each other, and as most folks know, metal moving against metal doesn’t always go well. You’ll add many years to the life cycle to your current garage if you commit to oiling and greasing the door.

It only takes you a quarter of an hour to do, which is a lot less time that it would take you to earn the money you spend on replacing the garage. The overhead springs should get a light spray coat of lubricant, and you can apply white lithium grease to the screw or chain of the garage door opener. You’ll simultaneously reduce rust and increase efficiency.

When you apply these preventative maintenance tasks to your larger to-do list at home, you can handle more of the work on our own with less reliance on expensive repairs or costly professionals. Just know that as you do some of these tips and tasks, you might find deeper issues that still need professional attention, but when you call around to find one, congratulate yourself on discovering the issue before it got worse or broke something down on a morning you just didn’t need anything to happen.

Throughout their useful lives, these doors and the opening mechanisms behind their opening and closing go through a lot of wear and tear. When garage door springs break, most homeowners usually find themselves worrying about how much it might cost to replace the entire garage door opening system. Fortunately, these springs can be replaced without the need for an entire overhaul.

If you suspect that your garage door spring is broken, or you are not sure why the door won’t open, look for these tell tale signs of a broken garage door spring.

Loud Noise

A metal bar runs through most of the torsion springs fitted on garage doors. When the spring breaks, especially when the door is closed, a loud noise is produced as the coils unwind in a matter of seconds, releasing a lot of force. This results in a loud banging noise that can be startling to say the least.

It is also worth mentioning that broken a broken garage door spring may cause noisy operation. You might hear squealing and squeaking noises coming from the door every time you open or close it. Since such noises may be caused by a variety of factors, it’s recommended that you call in a qualified professional to check things out before making a final judgment.

Garage Door Won’t Open

The torsion spring is designed to make it easier for the garage door opening mechanism to open and close. To protect the automatic opening mechanism from unnecessary damage as a result of handling an undue force when trying to lift the garage door without the help of the spring, newer systems come with a safety feature referred to as the opener force. This feature prevents the door from rising past six inches above the ground when the spring is broken.

Therefore, if your garage door won’t go more than six inches above the ground, if at all it does move, then you might have a broken spring.

The Garage Door Opens Unevenly

Some garage doors are equipped with a torsion spring that runs parallel to the bottom of the garage door, and two tension springs located on each side of the door, perpendicular to the ground. If one of these tension springs break, the effect will be a door that rises slower on one side; the side with the broken spring.

This uneven rising and falling of the garage door is due to the imbalance created by the broken spring.

The Door Closes Too Fast

Since earlier garage door opening systems did not come with the opener force safety feature described above, they may still end up opening the garage door by sheer force. However since the broken spring cannot provide the necessary force needed to facilitate a slower and balanced fall/closing, the door ends up closing faster than usual.

If you observe that your garage door is closing faster than it used to in the past, check to see whether the spring is still intact, where possible, otherwise you should call in a qualified professional.

Gaps In The Spring

Torsion springs are designed to extend significantly, this also means that once they break, a gap can be seen in between the two resulting pieces. You can clearly see this gap, if you have a broken garage spring, by closing the door and inspecting the torsion spring visually.

To ensure that you don’t end up causing more damage, it’s recommended that you avoid using the garage door, once you witness any combination of the signs indicating that the spring is broken. Instead, call in a qualified garage door repair professional to inspect it for a broken spring in addition to any other issues.

Signs Your Garage Door Isn’t Working Properly:

1. Your Garage Door Won’t Open.

Perhaps the most obvious way to tell that your garage door isn’t working properly is having your garage door unable to open. If your garage door is not opening when you press your remote, you are likely going to be dealing with a larger issue. However, to test to make sure that it is not simply your remote, you will want to replace the batteries in your remote. If your remote needs new batteries, it is not going to be able to send the signal to your garage door to open. Therefore, when dealing with a garage door that won’t open, always start with replacing your remote’s batteries.

2. Sound Of Grinding.

If you notice that your garage door is making a grinding sound every time it opens and closes, you are likely dealing with an issue of your garage door being off track. If you notice that there are gaps and/or bends in the rails, you are likely dealing with a track out of alignment. This is a common problem that can occur and it is going to result in a loud grinding noise from your garage.

3. Your Door Is Opening and Closing Randomly.

This is a problem that can happen occasionally and it might be caused by different issues. Your door opener might be getting mixed up with other signals that are being transmitted in your neighborhood. In fact, it might be a direct result of your neighbor’s garage door getting mixed up with your own. Another issue that could be causing it would be the emitter getting blocked or the spring being broken.

4. The Door won’t Close Fully.

This is another sign that your door is not functioning properly. If your garage door opens but it fails to close properly, you are likely dealing with one of three malfunctioning issues. For one, you might be dealing with improper settings on your opener where the close-limit is incorrectly set. Another issue might be caused by your safety sensors being aligned improperly. Lastly, it could be a result of damaged rollers.

5. The Door Won’t Open Completely.

This is another major sign that your door is malfunctioning. If your door will not open completely, you might be dealing with one of the following issues. The up-limit that is set on your garage door opener might be improperly placed too far away from the unit. Along with this, you might be dealing with significantly damaged rollers which can inhibit the door from being able to open far enough to open the door fully. If you are dealing with an improperly set limit, you will want to move the switch closer to the unit itself.

Overall, there are a lot of things that can go wrong with your garage door. Some solutions are going to be inherently easier to deal with than others. If you are dealing with major garage door problems that you cannot solve on your own, you will want to call on a reputable and experienced garage door repair specialist or company. Doing this is going to put you in a good position to get your garage door issues resolved as quickly and safely as possible.

Top Questions To Ask:

1. How Much Experience Do They Have?

Experience is key when it comes to finding the right repair company. You want to identify a company that has a lot of experience in the industry. Finding a company with a significant amount of experience is a great way to maximize the chances that you are able to get the best repair work completed. An experienced company is going to offer you a much greater opportunity to get the kind of work that you expect.

2. Do They Have The Right Insurance?

Another big thing that you want to ask a potential company is whether or not they have the right kind of insurance that is needed to work on your property without putting you at unnecessary risk. As long as they have the right kind of insurance, you are not going to be responsible for something that goes wrong or if one of their employees gets hurt while on the job.

3. What Is Their Pricing?

Another thing that you are going to want to ask is what kind of pricing they offer. While you never want to solely base your hiring decision off of the price that they are going to be charging, you do want to ensure that you are getting the best price for the service. You can do a thorough comparison with the other garage door repair companies to ensure that you are getting a fair offer.

4. What Is Their Reputation In The Marketplace?

You should be able to figure a lot of this out yourself. Nowadays, you can complete basic searches that are going to give you a good amount of information that you can base your decisions off of. However, by asking the company for specific testimonials that they have, you should be able to tell whether or not they have a lot of satisfied clients. Also, if they provide you with testimonials and references, you will be able to contact them to ask any further questions you might have.

5. Do You Offer Guarantees?

Another big thing that you are going to want to ask if you want to make the best possible hiring decision would be whether or not they are going to offer you any specific guarantees that you will be able to count on. You want to try to find a company that is confident enough in their service that they are going to offer you some type of service guarantee. That way, you will be able to be as confident as possible that you will be getting what you are paying for. Having a guarantee is a great way to get the peace of mind that you might need to make the best possible hiring decision.

By following a lot of the tips above and asking the questions discussed, you should be able to put yourself in a great position to identify the best garage door repair company you should be hiring. You want to ask the right questions when it comes to finding the best garage door repair company. Try to avoid using pricing as the primary means of navigating the marketplace. You want to look at the value you are getting for the money you will be spending on the service.