Garage door tune-ups are inspections that ensure that all parts of your residence’s garage door are in proper working order. After a professional looks over your home’s garage door, the next step is to care for the door’s opening mechanisms. This includes lubricating the rollers and springs as well as replacing any parts that show cracks or other signs of damage.
Frequency of Garage Door Tune-Ups
To maintain both functionality and safety, regularly scheduling garage door tune-ups is crucial. It is ideal to do so at least every six to 12 months. Since you use your home’s garage door nearly every day, you subject it to a significant amount of wear and tear. Although many residents may not notice visible indicators of such wear, the consequences can be serious. A failing garage door would be frustrating to deal with, especially if it happened without warning.
Signs a Tune-Up Is Necessary
Hearing an abnormal sound coming from your garage door will alert you to a problem. Don’t let any scraping or grinding noises continue without calling a professional to inspect. You must also address your garage door if you notice any unsteady or jerky movements while it is in motion. A properly functioning garage door should open and close smoothly. Poor lubrication and loose bolts are a couple of factors that can result in these undesirable garage door movements.
The wear and pressure of daily operation can also cause a garage door’s parts to lose effectiveness. From rollers to weather stripping, be sure to look out for cracks, chips, and wear.
Finally, you cannot ignore any breaks or bends that you discover in your garage door’s tracks. Not getting them repaired creates a safety hazard for you and the rest of your household.
What Happens During a Tune-Up?
A visual inspection is typically the first stage of a garage door tune-up. Your garage door professional will examine the rollers, chains, sensors, counterbalance systems, weather seals, tracks, hinges, and door. They will then search for any indicators of wear or damage. Whether it is dry rot, rust, bending, or fraying, each of these problems requires attention. If any issues are present, they will inform you of the problem.
The next thing that your technician will do during a garage door tune-up is ensure that all screws and bolts are secure. Daily garage door use can loosen these screws and bolts. This, in turn, affects a door’s hinges, brackets, and rollers.
The lubrication of your garage door is very important. A residential garage door system requires several moving components to function smoothly. If they do not have enough lubrication, then premature failure, friction, and unpleasant noises all become more likely to occur. Some components that receive lubrication during a garage door tune-up are the springs, opener chain drive, bearing plate, tracks, hinges, locking mechanism, and rollers.
Safety settings also require attention during a garage door tune-up. Your garage door’s opener has a switch that corresponds to the point at which the door will no longer lower or raise. Issues with this switch can result in a residential garage door failing to fully open or close. If you’ve experienced problems with your home’s garage door stopping along its tracks, some minor adjustments will often resolve the issue.
The balance of your garage door is yet another important variable that your technician must take into consideration. Poorly balanced garage doors can lead to serious damage and even injuries without the proper adjustments.
Inspecting the sensors and electric eye during a garage door tune-up is also vital. This safety feature utilizes the sensors on either side of your garage door to prevent the door from lowering if it detects an obstacle, such as a car, pet, or child. Misalignment of these sensors is a common cause of malfunction. Therefore, the technician must ensure that both sensors are well-aligned and clean.
Additional items that a garage door technician investigates during a tune-up are motor gears, wires, and force limits.
When it comes to wires and cables, keeping these parts clean is a must. In residential environments, a standard lift cable is the most prevalent. Some other types your door may have are low headroom cables, safety cables, high lift cables, and extension spring cables.
Without proper cable maintenance, your door’s spring may end up overcompensating for a cable that isn’t carrying the weight of your home’s garage door as well as it used to. In addition to cleaning off debris or dirt, your garage door specialist will test both alignment and tension. If cable adjustments are necessary, they will perform those as well.
Are you familiar with the terms “limit” and “travel” as they relate to garage doors? If not, then it is important to recognize that they regulate your garage door’s motion in either direction. “Limit” refers to the distance your home’s garage door can move in the opening direction. “Travel,” on the other hand, controls how far your garage door moves in the closing direction. When a garage door specialist performs adjustments to these settings, they will deal with the garage door’s opener.
While many modern door openers use a simple button-based system for travel limit adjustments, this is not the case for older openers. If your garage door’s opener does not include those buttons, the technician will need to turn its screws. A test of your door’s current limit and travel settings is necessary during a tune-up. That is how your technician will determine whether they must perform an adjustment.
Advantages of Garage Door Tune-Ups
One benefit of regular garage door tune-ups is that they are remarkably effective at preventing severe garage door problems later. Neglecting proper maintenance is a key contributor to garage door failures. From springs snapping to motors burning out, there are many expensive issues that a thorough inspection can help prevent.
There are also some long-term monetary advantages to scheduling routine garage door tune-ups. The small fee for a garage door tune-up pales in comparison to the significant expenses you’ll face if you fail to keep up with these inspections. Without proper garage door maintenance, the likelihood of costly repairs later increases dramatically.
The weight of the typical garage door is enough to cause injuries and even fatalities if it falls on you or someone who lives with you. If a garage door cannot fully close, then it presents another danger: an entrance for criminals. Ill-intentioned people can more easily access your home in this situation. Thankfully, routine garage door tune-ups protect the door system’s functionality and the safety of your household members.
Contact Us Today
Door Pro America provides expert garage door services in several states, including New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Maryland, and Virginia. In addition to tune-ups, some other services we offer are spring replacements, garage door repairs, and garage door installations. Door Pro America is an EPA lead-safe certified firm with Better Business Bureau accreditation.
If your home’s garage door needs a tune-up, contact Door Pro America today!
