Most homeowners use their garage doors every day to safely and easily leave and enter their homes, but temperature changes and extreme weather conditions can affect the overall quality of your hardware and the functionality of the system. These system failures can potentially cause property damages, hazardous conditions or leave you without the safe, convenient use of your garage door.
With proper garage door seasonal maintenance, you can prolong the lifespan of your garage door system, improve garage door operations and prevent costly and inconvenient emergency repair needs.
Preparing Your Garage Door for Winter
In many locations, winter can be one of the worst seasons for your home, including your garage door and opener, due to frigid temperatures, excess moisture and heavy winds. To keep your garage door in proper condition and operating smoothly during the winter months, it’s crucial to perform garage door seasonal maintenance.
Neglected garage doors can experience regular hardware failures and breakages or place additional strain on your garage door opener. This can lead to your garage door refusing to open or close, leaving you stranded either outside your garage or trapped inside during cold days or inclement weather conditions.
Avoid unfortunate and inconvenient garage door issues by properly preparing your garage door for winter with these simple maintenance tasks:
Observe Door Operations: Any time you command your garage door to raise or lower, note any unusual performance issues like jerky movement or hesitation. Also, pay attention to any loud, odd noises coming from your garage door system or opener. Common sounds that indicate an issue with your system include grinding, scraping, screeching or grating.
Inspect and Tighten Hardware: Average homeowners use their garage doors more than 1500 times per year, and with constant movement and vibration, several pieces of hardware can become loose over time. To avoid performance issues or hazardous instances, look over all your garage door parts and tighten any items that have loosened. At this time, you should also inspect several crucial pieces of hardware that affect the operations of your garage door — the springs, cables and rollers. Check your springs for signs of corrosion or weakened tension, make sure the cables aren’t worn or fraying and look at the quality of your rollers, noting any chips or cracked pieces. If you see damaged parts, call your local garage door repair company to inspect your system and make repairs.
Test Garage Door Balance: A door off-balance can become off-track leading to safety issues and potential property damages. To test your door balance, release your door from the opener and manually lift it about halfway on its track. If the door stays in place, then your door is balanced correctly. If it sags and closes or quickly flies open, then it is off-balance. Have a professional garage repair company inspect it right away.
Replace Weatherstripping: The black, rubber weatherstripping on the bottom of your garage door keeps your space insulated and protects your door from air transference and excess moisture penetration. If your weatherstripping is cracked, brittle or damaged, then replace this part to ensure optimal garage door efficiency.
Regularly Lubricate Parts: Keeping your door’s moving parts well-lubricated will extend the lifespan of your hardware, prevent damages and ensure smooth, regular functionality. Consult your local garage door experts to find a spray lubricant that’s suitable for your garage door system, then apply a new coating to the appropriate parts, including the springs.
Clear Debris and Dirt Buildup: Make sure your garage door can properly move up and down by clearing the garage door tracks of any dirt and debris buildup. Also, keep your safety features working as needed by wiping away any buildup on your photo eye sensor lenses — these black boxes at the base of your garage door signal to raise the garage door if it detects an object in the path of the closing door.
Keep Garage Door Finish Pristine: Not only will a clean and maintained garage door improve your curb appeal, but it’ll also affect the quality and performance of the door. Make sure wood garage doors aren’t cracked, damaged or warped and check that steel and aluminum garage doors don’t have worn finishes and rust. If your steel door does show signs of corrosion, sand away the rust, prime the area and repaint that section to prevent additional damage.
Garage Door Seasonal Maintenance Tips
Due to opposite temperature extremes, you should apply many of your garage door winterization preparation to your garage door summer maintenance tasks, too. Extreme heat, direct sun exposure and heavy summer storms can negatively impact the quality of your parts and hardware and diminish the finish of your door.
Before the summer months, test the balance and safety features of your door, like the photo eye sensors and auto-reversing mechanism. Look over your hardware, checking for signs of corrosion and tightening pieces as needed. Also, apply a fresh coat of lubrication to any moving parts to ensure they function smoothly.
If you live in an area with frequent tropical storms or hurricanes, ensure your garage door is adequately reinforced, checking for any holes or openings that would be vulnerable to intense storms. Damaged or weak garage doors in a hurricane can negatively affect your home’s internal pressure, causing severe structural damages to your home.
To revamp the look of your home and let your garage door positively stand out, wash your steel or aluminum garage door with mild dish detergent and water, removing the built-up dirt and grime that accumulated on the surface during the winter months. Then, brighten the look of your door by repairing and removing any rust buildup and apply a new coat of paint.
Along with performing regular maintenance tasks at the beginning of each season — especially before harsh times of the year like summer and winter — you should have a professional garage door technician perform preventative maintenance services at least once per year. With routine maintenance, you can ensure the safety of your door, extend the lifespan of your system and avoid costly emergency repairs.
During annual preventative maintenance, one of our technicians will inspect all moving parts on your door for signs of wear or corrosion, lubricate hardware, check weather seals and locking mechanisms, perform a UL 325 safety reverse test and look over keyless entry systems and other electrical components. As needed, we’ll make repair recommendations to improve the efficiency and functionality of your door.
Schedule Seasonal Maintenance & Garage Door Installation With Cornwell Door Service
Don’t avoid or prolong performing regular garage door maintenance tasks — learn more about how to prepare your garage for winter or schedule maintenance services with Cornwell Door Service.
We’re a family-owned and operated company with more than 40 years of experience installing, maintaining and repairing garage doors throughout southcentral Pennsylvania, including the Harrisburg, Lebanon and Camp Hill communities. Our team of highly trained and experienced professionals can perform comprehensive annual maintenance services or recommend repairs that can add to the performance, ease and convenience of your day. We pride ourselves on providing affordable services and personalized door solutions, which is why we offer free service quotes and 24-hour emergency repairs.
