Fall is nearly here! Is your garage door ready for colder weather and occasional snows? If not, this garage door repair checklist is exactly the tool you need to keep your door functioning as it should, so you can park your car in the garage throughout the fall and winter.
1. Perform a visual inspection.
Inspect your garage door for signs of wear and tear that could indicate your door or opener needs a repair or replacement. Look for:
- Torsion spring is sagging or is corroded or rusted.
- Vertical tracks are sagging or crooked, show signs of rust or corrosion.
- Wires are cracked or brittle.
- Weather seal is cracked, broken, or missing.
- Garage door is crooked, dented, or cracked.
- Garage door is having difficulty opening, closing, or makes a strange noise.
Although you can probably replace the weather seal yourself, most other issues should be addressed by a qualified garage door repair person. If you’ve identified any of these other problems with your garage door, contact a garage door contractor for help.
2. Lubricate moving parts.
If you’ve been trained to safely lubricate the parts of your garage door with a lithium-based grease, now is a time to do that. However, not all parts of your garage door should be lubricated. Nylon rollers, for example, do not need lubrication.
If you’re not sure which parts require grease, contact a garage door repair person for a tune-up. Your garage door contractor will address these issues during the tune-up, and if you’d like to find out which parts need lubrication for next year, you can ask your repair person at that time.
3. Test safety features.
Test your garage door’s safety features. If they’re not working, contact a contractor or repair person quickly, and stop using your garage door until the repairs are made.
- Wave a broom in the path of a closing garage door. The garage door should reverse course.
- Place a brick in the path of your garage door, then shut the door. The door should open again when it touches the brick.
These safety features have been built into every garage door since the early 1990s. Unless your garage door opener is very old, it should have these features. If your garage door lacks safety features, have it replaced.
4. Contact a garage door contractor for a tune-up.
You don’t have to perform your own garage door inspections; your contractor can do it for you. Contact an expert to inspect your garage door this winter. Call Overhead Door of Oklahoma City to make an appointment and get your garage door ready for cold weather this season.
