The garage door is one of the most prominent portals or entryways of your home. According to the Door & Access Systems Manufacturers Association (DASMA), the average family opens and closes the garage door up to five times each day. This translates into more than 1,500 times per year. The garage door also serves an important role in keeping your home secure. It helps enclose the space necessary for parking your vehicle and storing other valuable belongings. Like any type of moving hardware, however, garage doors require regular maintenance to continue to operate effectively. A look at the top reasons to schedule routine maintenance can provide a blueprint for the steps necessary to keep your garage door in excellent condition.
What Happens During Routine Garage Door Maintenance?
Garage door maintenance is a comprehensive service designed to ensure the continued performance, functionality, safety, and longevity of your doorway. Maintenance sessions feature a series of tasks necessary for your door to work as intended. For example, garage door maintenance typically begins with a visual inspection. This assessment evaluates the condition of your door’s exterior, panels, and springs. The assessor may also check the cables, rollers, and tracks for signs of malfunction or misalignment. Your technician may also check components like hinges for signs of rust or wear.
Following the assessment, the door expert then tightens or adjusts essential hardware. This can include the tightening or fastening of nuts, bolts, and screws to keep your door securely in place. The technician may also adjust tension springs or align tracks to prevent unintended strain, stress, or wear. In addition to tightening and adjustments, another important step is the lubrication of moving parts. This step helps eliminate excess friction and reduces the likelihood of premature door system failure. Maintenance can also include testing the balance of your door as well as the function of features like the auto-reverse mechanism for safety. Finally, the last step in maintenance may involve recommendations and small repairs. For example, the technician may replace worn springs or suggest upgrading the old frame to help keep your door in great shape.
What Are Reasons Your Garage Door Should Receive Regular Maintenance?
Scheduling routine garage door maintenance helps protect the investment of time and money that you have already put into your house. With routine maintenance, you can avoid costly repairs, improve home security, increase energy efficiency, boost your home’s aesthetic appeal, and increase the property or resale value of your home.
1. Prevent Costly Emergencies or Repairs
Maintenance allows a professional to identify and fix small issues before they escalate into expensive repairs. For example, suppose you hear unusual sounds or see visible shaking each time you open your garage door. During maintenance, a professional may discover that you have fraying cable or loose connections. Left uncorrected, these issues can cause the door to malfunction, and faulty parts that wear down completely can cause the garage door to collapse. This can not only lead to an expensive replacement, but it can also damage other property within your garage such as a parked car or important storage and equipment. In comparison, maintenance is a reasonable expense that helps protect your family’s budget from unplanned repair costs.
2. Enhance Safety and Security
Safety and security are among the foremost reasons to invest in regular garage door maintenance. According to research from the Chamberlain Group, over 55% of homeowners use the garage door as their main home entryway. If a garage door is poorly maintained, it becomes an easy access point for intruders or break-ins. In addition, worn-out garage doors increase the risk of sudden accidents or breakdowns. The last thing you want to do is put family members, friends, or pets at risk of injury due to garage door collapse. Maintenance ensures that all mechanisms operate smoothly to minimize the risk of mishaps.
3. Improve Energy Efficiency
If your garage is attached to your home, the condition of your garage door can result in heat loss or heat gain that impacts the energy efficiency of your household. For example, a garage door with poor insulation can result in drafts during colder months or excess heat during warm months. Doors with warped weatherstripping can end up with gaps or cracks that compromise stable temperatures within your home. In addition, old mechanical parts like worn-out rollers or tracks can create unnecessary resistance that forces the door opener to work harder, thereby consuming more energy to open or close the garage door. With proper maintenance, you can correct inefficiencies to minimize the changes of energy loss from the garage door.
4. Reduce Noise Levels
Noisy garage doors create unwanted disturbances for yourself and your neighbors. In addition, strange sounds from your garage doors almost always indicate that something is wrong. Common causes of noisy garage doors include damaged rollers, rusty or loosened hardware, strained springs, or misaligned tracks. These are all issues that a technician can check during routine maintenance. Experts can lubricate movable parts to reduce friction or correct alignment issues to help ensure quieter operation.
5. Uphold Aesthetic Appeal
The garage door has a major impact on the curb appeal of your home. It is one of the most noticeable aspects of your house’s exterior and can make either a positive or negative impression on anyone visiting the property. Unfortunately, exposure to outdoor elements like wind and rain can reduce the visual appeal of a garage door. Accidental impact from debris, cars, or equipment can create surface damage, and rusting hardware can also reduce the attractiveness of this structure. Routine maintenance stops blemishes in their tracks and allows your home to maintain its pristine appearance.
6. Preserves Garage Door Warranty
Many garage doors come with a warranty. However, the warranty is often contingent upon reasonable maintenance and upkeep. If you fail to keep up with routine inspections and maintenance, this neglect can nullify the warranty. Regular maintenance provides documented proof that you have complied with the warranty’s terms. Complying with coverage also allows you to replace any defective or recalled parts before the warranty expires.
7. Safeguard Garage Door Sensors
Sensors are among the most fundamental parts of automatic garage doors. If the sensors are defective, the garage door might not open or close correctly. Proper maintenance helps ensure that your sensors remain clean and properly aligned. You can also use the opportunity to ask the technician to test sensors if your door has been opening in a halting or irregular manner.
8. Boost Property Value
Regular maintenance can potentially boost the property or resale value of your home. According to a study from Impulse Research, 80% of home buyers consider the garage while deciding whether to purchase a property. A well-maintained garage door makes a great first impression during open houses, and it gives the buyer one less thing to worry about when closing the sale. In this way, routine maintenance is an excellent return on investment as you protect the assets of your home.
Contact Us Today
Garage door maintenance can help guarantee that you get the most out of one of the most frequently used entry points of your home. If the upkeep of your garage door seems overwhelming at first, there is no need to panic. The experts are here to help. Door Pro America provides garage door services for homes in Gainesville, VA and surrounding areas. We offer maintenance agreements for routine servicing to keep your garage door in great shape. Our garage door experts can provide tune-ups, door spring replacement, door opener troubleshooting, and general repairs. If your garage door is outdated and you would like an upgrade, we also offer new installation of a range of traditional or modern garage door types. No matter the issue, we have it covered. Contact Door Pro America today for all your garage door needs.
