Door garage repair is almost always an emergency – you either need to get in or get out, and all of a sudden there’s no way of doing it. Fortunately, the range of problems that you may encounter with your garage doors is fairly limited.
OK, so here you are, stuck with your good ol’ garage door that has served you for years with no problems to speak of suddenly acting up. What can you do and how can we be of use?
What are the most frequent problems?
Noisy garage doors – these can usually be fixed by routine maintenance steps (i.e. lubrication) or replacement of minor parts. You do need to be able to figure out which parts to replace, or else call in the pros.
Frozen garage door – often happens on the coldest and most humid days, when you need to get in or out quickly. Sometimes the frozen connection will break at once when you try to open the garage door, and if it doesn’t, you can use a heat gun, a hairdryer or any standard de-icing product. Any hand tool to chip away the ice may also work, but be careful not to damage any parts.
Replacing broken glass – depending on the type of door, may be a DIY job or require professional attention.
Before and instead of panicking, you can try a few simple steps that may bring your garage door back to life.
Take a close look at rollers and tracks, and give them a good cleaning, especially if you haven’t done any maintenance work on them lately. Then take the steps listed below, and please keep in mind that these actions should be on your annual to-do list if you want to keep that rolling door… well, rolling and keep door repairs to a minimum.
- Lubricate all the rollers, tracks, latches and hinges generously with WD-40 or a citrus-based solvent, and then oil them lightly. Extension-spring opener pulleys and torsion-spring opener bearings need attention also.
- Oil the cleaned parts lightly. The torsion spring needs to be oiled if you see rust or if it binds up even slightly.
- Soak stuck rollers or hinges in kerosene, remove rust with steel abrasive and lubricate.
- Lubricate the full length of the door-opening chain or drive screw.
- Adjust or replace weatherstripping along the sides and the bottom of the door.
We are one of many companies that offer garage door repair in Chicago, please don’t hesitate to call on our professional team for advice or cost estimates!