Garage door maintenance is an essential aspect of homeownership. For many, their garage door is the biggest moving part of their house, closing and opening several times a year. This makes garage door maintenance proper maintenance essential for it to correctly, smoothly, and effectively function. Homeowners can follow a few tips to ensure their garage doors keep working properly.

When you take care of your garage door, it’s not likely that you will have to spend money on unnecessary repairs or garage door replacement. Ideally, you should carry out proper maintenance on your doors every three months or when necessary.

Moreover, maintaining your garage door is pretty easy. You only need to know a few tricks and tips on garage door maintenance lubrication, garage door opener maintenance, garage door torsion spring maintenance, and so on. 

What Maintenance Does a Garage Door Need?

To ensure that your door operates smoothly at all times, you should perform regular preventive garage door maintenance. Here are a few areas of maintenance that your garage door needs.

1. Observe Your Door

The first and most important thing to note when considering how to maintain a garage door is observation. Is your garage door noisy? Is it jerky in places, or is it moving smoothly? Does the door look symmetrical?

2. Tighten the Hardware

Your garage door hardware can become loose because of how much movement and vibration it goes through yearly. Therefore, go over all bolts and roller brackets with a socket wrench carefully.

3. Ensure It’s Balance

When your garage door is not balanced properly, you will require more garage door opener maintenance. To check the balance of your door, disconnect the door opener by pulling on the release handle. Afterward, move the door halfway up manually and watch to see if it stays put. If it doesn’t, the springs are not balanced properly.

Adjusting your garage door spring is best left to Toronto garage door repair experts and professionals.

4. Check Your Rollers

No matter what kind of rollers you have, you should inspect them at least twice a year. Also, have them replaced every five to seven years, depending on how regularly you use your garage door.

If you notice that your rollers are cracked, chipped, or worn, you should replace them as soon as possible. You can do this by reinstalling and removing roller brackets that are not attached to the cable system directly. If you are unsure how to replace the rollers, you can call a Toronto garage door repair.

5. Check Garage Door Weatherstripping

If you notice that the weather seal strip found just at the bottom of your door is cracked or brittle, you should get it replaced right away to keep elements out of your house. You can find weather-strip at home improvement and hardware stores and hire a professional to help you with garage door weatherstripping.

6. Lubricate the Moving Parts

Using lubricant on your garage door parts will make it work a lot more seamlessly and for a much longer period. Coat all the important areas such as the overhead springs, door opener, and do on with garage door lubricant. However, if you are unsure of where to get lubricant, you can ask your Toronto garage door repair company.

7. Inspect Your Cables

Avoid tampering with the cables that lift your door, even during garage door torsion spring maintenance. These cables are high tension and are strong to cause serious injury or even cause death. However, you should check their condition, so you know whether to hire a professional Toronto garage door repair. Look out for damage near the bottom roller bracket and check for broken cable strands.

8. Clean Your Tracks

Ensure that the tracks on both sides of the door are dirt and debris free. Avoid tampering with your tracks; and you need any garage door maintenance done on them, contact a Toronto garage door repair expert.

9. Take Care of Your Garage Door

Ensure you take a good look at your garage door itself. Inspect wood doors for warp and water damages, including peeled and chipped paint. If your door is steel, you might have to deal with the occasional rust spot that requires priming and painting. It would be best if you tried to clean your garage door whenever you wash your car.

How Often Do Garage Doors Need Maintenance?

Garage doors consist of multiple parts that work together – often resulting in friction causing wear and tear. Therefore, lubrication and proper maintenance are key for your garage door parts to be protected from shearing and grating.

Although requirements might vary, most doors require maintenance every six months. The most required is garage door lubrication maintenance. If you live in areas with harsher weather conditions, your door might require maintenance more frequently than every six months.

Other procedures such as garage door opener maintenance, garage door torsion spring maintenance should be carried at least twice a year.

What is the Best Way to Lubricate a Garage Door?

When you do not lubricate your garage door regularly, it can become difficult to open, noisy, or stop working altogether. Lubricating your door properly and regularly makes it easier to open and close, freeing up the door’s range of motion.

If you are wondering how to lubricate your noisy garage door, keep reading!

Before you begin lubricating, you should do the following:

  • Ensure that every part of your garage door is tightened. All the bolt and nuts on your door should fit snugly; this doesn’t mean you should over tighten them.
  • Check the rollers’ bearings as most of them are usually unsealed and can collect dirt, causing them to break down over time and become noisy.
  • Inspect the hinges as worn hinges can make your garage door bind at each section and cause loud noises
  • Take note of worn parts such as hinges, nuts, bolts, and the likes for replacement.
  • Ensure that the garage door opener chain is tight as a loose chain will cause the door to jerk around and make slapping sounds.

Garage Door Maintenance Lubrication

When you finish the above steps, you can begin your garage door maintenance lubrication. Here are the steps to follow:

  • Begin by closing your garage door and turning off the power to the door opener (if present)
  • Using a damp rag, wipe the outside and inside the tracks to remove debris and dirt. Avoid lubricating the tracks because it makes it difficult for the rollers to move, forcing the door opener to work harder. Automotive brake cleaner can help to loosen the grime on the tracks,
  • Open your garage door and lubricate the point where the hinges meet.
  • Lubricate the rollers thoroughly; make sure you cover the tiny ball bearings in the rollers. Wipe out the excess lubricant to prevent the door from becoming unbalanced; however, nylon rollers should never be lubricated.
  • YouThe bearing plates and torsion springs at the top of the garage door should be lubricated. Open and close the garage door so that the grease goes around evenly.
  • Lubricate the lock, keyhole, and armbar to make locking the door manually a lot easier.
  • Spread some lubricant on the top of the rail where the chain rides in. Avoid greasing the chain directly.

 If you live in harsh weather environments, your garage door lubrication maintenance should be done more frequently. Ensure you use a product that’s suitable for all weather conditions because low temperatures can make lubricants viscous. This will make it harder to open and close your garage door.

It would help if you lubricated the springs of your door during cold weather because low temperatures can cause them to become brittle. This situation can result in breakage, which can be dangerous and costly to repair.

What is the Best Lubricant for Garage Door Rollers?

When purchasing lubricant for your garage door, you want to get something that is weather friendly. You do not want your lubricant to become too dense that impedes your rollers’ movement in the cold weather.

If you wonder how to lubricate your noisy garage door, you should know the type of lubricant to use. Ideally, use a Teflon spray or silicone – avoid using oil, grease, WD 40, or lithium.

Some examples of the best lubricants for garage door rollers include:

  • Blaster garage door lubricant
  • Professional 3 in one lubricant
  • CRC White Lithium grease
  • Lubriplate aero multi-purpose grease
  • DuPont Teflon non stick dry film lubricant

Conclusion

Garage door maintenance does not have to be difficult. If you need a Toronto garage door repair, you can save yourself the stress of looking for what works by contacting an expert.

If you are in Toronto, you can check out TBC Garage Doors. We are a reputable company that provides garage door maintenance, garage door maintenance lubrication, garage door opener repair, and garage door torsion spring maintenance.

Our services include garage door spring installation/repair, garage door framing, new garage door installation, garage door opener belt installation/repair, among many others. We also handle different doors, from over/tilt-up canopy garage doors, sectional, roll up and side hinged garage doors.

All our technicians are licensed and insured, and we offer you affordable pricing with a 90-day guarantee on all services offered. We are available 24/7 and offer emergency services. Contact us for the best garage door repair/servicing experience.