The garage door in your home is the portal to your personal and real life living space. What happens when it breaks? Time for a DIY project. There are two main components of a garage door, the opener and the door. While styles vary, the overall idea of a garage door is the same. Let’s start by talking about the door.
There are many types of garage doors, roll up in sections, one piece that swings up, large French door style, or my favorite the barn door style roll open. They all work pretty much the same way, the door moves on a metal track inside the garage.
The power is supplied by a heavy spring or multiple springs. It’s a fairly simple process so most repairs are fairly easy to do. Let’s take a look at 5 basic repair tips for your garage door.
Check the Metal Tracks
First thing to check if your garage door isn’t opening is the metal tracks inside. This is the most likely place for an issue and one of the easiest to fix. Start with making sure the track is clear of any obstruction or debris. Next look at the mounting brackets, secure any nuts or bolts, if the track is not secured tightly or has any slack in its movement. If all that checks out, let’s move to the track itself.
Let’s now look at the garage door track for any dents, damages, or crimps. If any are spotted you will want to hammer them out. A rubber hammer or mallet is usually best for pounding out damaged metal. Lastly if the damage is extensive, replace the track. Again this is a fairly easy and inexpensive DIY problem you can fix. Now is also the time to check those rollers along the edge of the garage door.
These should be inspected at least twice a year and replaced every 5 to 7 years. During your inspection, replace any rollers you find that are chipped, cracked, or obviously worn. With the exception for the bottom rollers that may be attached to cables, the other rollers can be easily removed and replaced just by removing the brackets holding them.
Leveling up
If step one didn’t solve the problem, the issue may be that the track isn’t level. Making sure the track is level is key for your garage door to operate efficiently with gravity. If you have horizontal tracks, they should slant slightly downward. On vertical track doors the tracks should be dead even. Use a level to check their status.
You can loosen the bolts and use your rubber mallet to bang them back in to place if need be. Do not remove the bolts entirely just loosen, adjust, re-tighten.
Spring Into Action
All fixed? No! Well then it is time to check the springs. Odds are you know what failing springs look like already. Do a quick inspection, then check the alignment. If the springs are off the garage door itself will be uneven. Unfortunately spring replacement is not a DIY project..
For this you need to call a guy. Remember these springs hold a great deal of weight and are under extreme pressure and tension, there is a real risk to replacing.
Grease the Chain
So we have checked the photo eye to make sure nothing is blocking the door, the tracks, the springs, the rollers and ensured the power source is not disrupted. Now we need to inspect the chain and the switch that bypass the springs in the event of a power outage.
That switch lets you manually open the door should the need arise. An issue with the chain is a very unlikely source of the problem but costly if it is the issue. Inspect, if you find an issue or kink, again time to call the guy.
Upgrade To a Smart Garage
Like everything else these days, smart automation for your garage door is right at your fingertips. With a smart device that is Alexa compatible you can make your garage door open with simple voice commands.. oh glorious day!
The Garadget adds voice control and remote access to your existing garage door. For less than $100 you can add the Garadget to your existing line up of alexa enabled smart home devices. This will give you simple voice command and remote access capability. I do like this device and smart garage option.
I would love it if I could add it to my smart home routines. Having my garage door open and close at designated times would be Jetsons level cool. Unfortunately that Alexa skill isn’t available yet.
The Final Thought
You end up using your garage door more than you would think. Statistically it is used more than your front door. Looking in to annual maintenance services would be my number one overall suggestion. Paired with these DIY tips you should be able to keep the large portal to your home working great at a low overall cost.