Service the door twice a year to spot potential problems.
The garage door is often the largest moving object in a home. Unfortunately many people do not take the time to periodically inspect the door. The components of a garage door must be in good working order for the door to operate correctly. Servicing your garage door twice a year helps ensure that your door is operating at peak performance, and allows you to make minor adjustments before they become big problems. Some parts of the door are under extreme tension and should be serviced by professionals. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
1. Close the garage door. Pull the emergency release rope to disconnect the opener from the garage door, if you have a garage door opener. The emergency release rope is the rope you pull when the power goes out to operate the door manually.
2. Tighten all nut or hex bolts securing the door hinges to the door with a socket wrench. Replace missing nuts or bolts. Inspect each hinge for damage. Each hinge has a number stamp on the face. Replace damaged hinges with a hinge of the same number. Do not replace the bottom corner brackets. This is where the cable connects and it is under extreme tension. Call a door professional if the bottom bracket has damage.
3. Turn the stem of each roller in the hinges. The stem should rotate freely. Spray silicone lubricant on each hinge and into the seam in the roller sleeve. If you have steel rollers, spray the ball bearings of the rollers. If your rollers are plastic, do not spray the roller in the track. Replace rollers that are seized or broken.
4. Open the garage door and check for binding as the door is going up. Place a cold chisel against the side of the track bracket and hit the chisel with a hammer to adjust the tracks, if necessary. Avoid loosening the track bracket from the wall.
5. Spray the spring with the silicone lubricant. If your springs are above the top of the door, spray the springs with the door closed. If you have springs that stretch on each side of the door, open the door to relieve the spring before spraying. Coat one side of the spring and operate the door up and down twice to distribute the lubricant.
6. Close the door, and reconnect the door to the opener. Jerk on the pull rope as the trolley goes over the carriage until the trolley locks into position.
Tags: garage door, door opener, door twice, door twice year, emergency release, emergency release rope
