What a great question I’m sure you will agree and the one question that’s on everybody’s lips who has a garage door for certain, or maybe not.
However, once you look into how you should maintain your garage door it does come up with a few interesting tips which could end up saving you plenty of cash in the long run. Here we look at what you can do to maintain your garage door.
You can lubricate, oil, grease, tighten, loosen, paint and clean your garage door system as much as you like but if you oil, grease, tighten, loosen, paint or clean the wrong bit you are in a whole world of trouble.
Firstly, arrange with your local garage door supplier a service plan which involves between 1 and 2 visits per year, this way you are fully covered for any mechanical breakdown as they are extremely unlikely to happen, especially if your garage door system is on the newer side. If you want to maintain it yourself then make sure to follow the rules below.
You will want to, at least every three months, oil and lubricate the springs, rollers, hinges, and tracks to ensure fluid and free movement between all these parts. If you do not have this, then stresses will start to form between the joining mechanisms and eventually will end up with one or more mechanical failures which will result in a minimum of a lot of parts needing to be replaced.
A simple lubrication every few months should prevent any of this from happening. Do not just use any old grease though, the thicker the grease the more chance of it attracting dust and dirt which slows down all the moving parts and causes friction and eventually failure.
Use a specific garage door product for lubrication, yes there really are specific garage door lubricants out there to do the job. It’s not advised to use WD40 either as it is not up to the task of lubricating a garage door that has to pull upwards of 40 kilograms every time it’s used.
Attention- Torsion springs can be very dangerous, they hold an awful lot of pressure and should you try to adjust one on your own you could end up with a serious injury or worse they can kill if you are really unlucky.
The National Electronic Injury Surveillance Systems or NEISS reported on more than 2000 garage door injuries in the UK so it’s more common than you would think.
Obviously, little pinches are easy to deal with and only slightly inconvenient, however when compared to a torsion spring letting go and firing all kinds of sharp metal objects at you though it’s clear to see how thee can become serious pretty quickly so please take care and never try to adjust a torsion spring on your own, get a professional to help you or in the best case get them to do it on their own!
Your garage door is the largest and heaviest single moving device in your home so be sure to treat it with respect, especially if it’s an electric garage door at that.
With motors, you now bring in the extra safety concerns of electricity and faulty movement of components which can provide life-changing injuries just on their own. Always use a professional garage door repair company to service and maintain your garage door if it’s an automated garage door.
Not only have you spent out a small fortune to get it installed in the first place but with the extra safety risks involved it’s not worth the hassle of trying to maintain it yourself, always use an expert garage door installer and service provider. One really useful tip is to never try and enter or exit your garage whilst the garage door is in motion.
Although they come with some safety features most of the injuries mentioned earlier are caused by people entering and exiting the garage when the door is in motion and as such can be easily avoided.
Thanks very much for reading about how often I should service my garage door and how should I maintain my garage door. Thanks for reading.