Having regular maintenance on your garage door can save you hundreds of dollars over the years, by lubricating the tracks, the springs, and the hinges and inspecting the rollers and garage door bolts.
Basic tune-up of an overhead garage door
The spring
A torsion spring is a single spring located just over the top of the garage door, it can be seen when the door is closed. If you notice rust on the top spring on your garage door stray down with a garage door lubricant, avoid the bar itself. Using WD-40 is good to spray on nuts and bolts for rust prevention before putting a project together, but it’s not ideal for lubricating garage doors and opener parts.
Now that you are in a ladder, check any loose screws under the overhead door opener bracket, and tight those screws as you perform the maintenance.
The hinges
Garage door hinges allow the door to move smoothly up and down the track. Spray all the hinges around it with a garage door lubricant on the edges and the center edges.
The track
Over time, dirt and debris build up on the tracks, spray lubricant all around. Avoid any grease contact with the drum itself this will potentially lose the grip of the tension cables.
The chain
There are 2 types of chains; chain drive and belt drive. Chain drive garage door openers use a metal chain for operation as belt drive garage door openers are plastic and move the trolley, resulting in quieter operation. You don’t want to lubricate belt drive chains the lubrication applies to the chain drive.
Conclusion:
All American Doors can advise the homeowner on the proper service for their garage door. However, the torsion spring systems and cables on overhead doors have an incredible amount of tension on them. Any malfunctions in your garage door can cause serious injury or possibly death, so we suggest leaving this to a professional garage door repair service. We are a local company serving the Miami, Broward, and West Palm Beach areas.
