Replace the Seals and Broken Parts
Before the cold weather sets in, replace the weather seals. This should help to prevent cold air and water from seeping in to the garage. If you have any other stiff or temperamental parts, get them looked at too.
Use a Lubricant
Spray a lubricant along the garage door tracks, the rollers and the hinges to keep the door opening and closing smoothly and making it easier to open if it should happen to freeze.
Use Grit/Salt
Imagine your garage door freezing shit! Well, this can happen when ice forms between the concrete and the bottom of the garage door. To stop this use salt/grit – the type that is used on roads and paths. This will stop the area from freezing. Just as you would grit your path or your driveway, do this at the foot of the garage door too.
Consider heating the garage
With rising energy bills, this may not be practical. You will also need to ensure that you can access the garage from another area, or that the room is well ventilated. This will work if your garage is attached to the house and accessible from another door.
What Not to Do with a Frozen Garage Door
Don’t try and open a motorised garage door if it is forced shut – you could end up burning out the motor. If the ice has formed between the bottom of the door and the concrete, you are going to need to try and scrape the ice away from your frozen garage door with a scraper or melt it. Be careful if using hot water – you may just add to the problem if it freezes again
Don’t Ignore Broken/Faulty Components
If you have an issue with your garage door heading into winter, it could cause issue when the colder temperatures to arrive. Having a pre-winter garage door service and fixing any vulnerabilities now, could save you bigger problems further down the line.
It’s not just opening the door either – as metal contracts, you could have issue closing it too and you don’t want to be left with an unlocked garage door – especially if you keep valuables inside. If your garage door is old and you are worried about its efficiency, we can discuss a replacement.
Frozen Garage Door Locks
This is quite a common problem. There are a couple of tricks you can try to resolve/prevent this. The first one is to use a lubricant to stop the lock from freezing.
If you didn’t apply it to the lock as a preventative measure, you can try lubricating the key before you try and turn it in the lock.
DO NOT TRY AND FORCE IT – you could end up with snapped key stuck in the lock – then you have bigger problems.
Before the winter sets in, it may be worth discussing your winter garage door requirements, especially if your garage is older and you think there may be problems that need addressing. We can either repair the issue or discuss a replacement garage door. Just contact us