As the days start to get shorter and the weather starts to chill down, it’s time to begin preparing your home to take on the winter season ahead. While your first thought may be to schedule HVAC maintenance and clean out your gutters, those aren’t the only important tasks to complete. You want to ensure that you properly winterize your garage door so that everything in your garage can remain safe.
Schedule Professional Maintenance Service
One of the most important steps you can take to help winterize your garage door is to schedule professional maintenance service. A garage door technician will come out and lubricate moving parts with the appropriate lubricant to ensure longevity and resistance to corrosion. They’ll listen for any odd noises and recommend simple replacements to ensure that your door will continue operating efficiently throughout the winter months.
While you may be tempted to do all the maintenance on your own, it’s important to remember that most garage door manufacturers require that you get a professional technician to perform maintenance once a year. If you fail to do so, you can void the remaining warranty coverage on your garage door.
Inspect Door Seals and Weatherstripping
One of the most important parts of your garage door in the wintertime is its seal or weatherstripping. This helps to prevent unwanted cold air from seeping in around your door. It’s a good idea to run your hand around the entire seal to verify that it’s making proper adherence. If you notice any cracking or gapping around its edges, it’s likely time to replace the seal.
Most garage door seals will last for up to 2 years. However, it’s important to know that if you’re in an extreme climate, your seal may only last a year. It’s typically best to have a professional install the seal for you to ensure that it’s done correctly.
Insulate Your Door
Just as the walls of your house need insulation to prevent cold air from transferring inside your home, so does your garage. While you may have all your garage walls insulated, you don’t want to overlook your garage door. It’s typically best to invest in a garage door that already has a high insulation rating to match or exceed the recommended R-value in your area.
However, if you don’t have an insulated garage door or its insulation is below the recommended R-value for your area, you should consider adding custom-fit insulation to your door. This material is usually composed of a fiberglass material or foam that gets adhered to the inside of your garage door.
Clean Your Garage Door and Its Components
Another necessary step for properly winterizing your garage door is cleaning. You should use a mild soap to wipe down both the inside and the outside of your door. Make sure to use a good glass cleaner to help remove debris from any window panes so that you can get as much natural light in the door as possible throughout the winter.
You also want to wipe down the garage door components like its sensors. It isn’t uncommon for the door’s safety motion sensors to get dirty over time and malfunction. Simply use a clean cloth to wipe the photo-sensor eye to remove any stuck-on debris.
Oil Your Door Seal
Every garage owner’s worst nightmare is trying to open their door and realizing that its weather stripping has become frozen to the ground. This will not only leave your car stuck inside but waste your time trying to unfreeze the seal. One of the best ways to prepare your garage door so that it doesn’t freeze to the ground is to oil the weather seal. It’s best to use a silicone oil that will stand up to extreme weather conditions.
Replace Aging Openers
Garage door openers will have a typical life span of around 10 to 15 years depending on the care they receive. When your garage door opener nears the end of its life span, it may start to open slower than you’re used to, and eventually it simply won’t work. If you have a garage door opener that’s over 10 years old, you may want to consider replacing it before winter. This will give you peace of mind that you don’t have to worry about it unexpectedly breaking down during the cold winter season.
Consistently Lubricate Door Components
Keeping your garage door working great requires it to receive regular lubrication. While having your garage door professional lubricate your door during their yearly inspection is highly advantageous, you also need to keep up with regular lubrication throughout the rest of the year. It’s important to choose a lubricant that is designed to function in all weather conditions, such as a white lithium grease. If you use just any regular lubricant, it’s more likely to become thick and vicious in lower winter temperatures. This will make it much harder for your garage door to open and close.
Reseal Wooden Garage Doors
While wooden garage doors can provide a very unique rustic look for any home, they do require a lot of maintenance. Just before winter is the perfect time to go ahead and reseal your wooden garage door. This will give it a fresh chance to resist the elements that could otherwise lead to issues like rotting and warping. Plus, it will prevent the door from absorbing water and swelling, which could make it struggle to open.
Consider Using an Anti-Fog Solution on Your Door Sensors
One particularly frustrating issue you may find yourself dealing with in the wintertime is fog developing on the surface of the photo-eye safety sensors. While ensuring that snow and ice are consistently removed from around your door can help, sometimes that simply isn’t enough. A great way to help prevent fogging of your door’s sensors that can trigger its safety response is to use a simple anti-fogging solution. Just like a glass cleaner, this typically comes in a spray form that you use to wipe on the photo-eye sensor.
Consider Investing in a Backup Power Source
When nasty winter storms come through your area, they can cause unwanted power outages. Unfortunately, if your garage door opener relies on your home’s electricity supply, it won’t be able to function when your power goes out. This can be a real pain when you’re trying to come home and park your car in your garage. If you frequently experience power outages in the wintertime, you may want to invest in a backup power source. In the event that the power goes out, this will help to provide adequate power to your garage door opener so that it can still function normally.
Reliable Garage Door Maintenance Service
Door Pro America provides reliable garage door maintenance services to residents throughout the entire Baltimore, MD area. Our garage door pros can assist with all your spring replacement, door repair, and new garage door installation needs as well. Simply give our friendly office staff a call today to schedule a service appointment with one of our highly knowledgeable garage door pros.
