Three Things to Include in your Garage Door Maintenance Routine
In order to prolong the life of a garage door and to avoid any emergency situations, the complete garage door system must be checked regularly. Inspect your garage doors once a month and make sure you include the following elements in your maintenance routine.
Visual Assessment
Start the inspection routine by visually examining the cables, pulleys, springs, hinges and other working parts of the garage door. If there are signs of potential trouble, then contact a garage door repair company to assess it immediately. Do not attempt DIY repairs as there is a high chance of injury.
Check the Balance of the Door
Ideally, one must be able to open the garage door without too much resistance. Hand operate the door to perform the balance test. To do this you will release the mechanism of the garage door opener, while the door is completely shut, by pulling the rope hanging from the opener down. Following this, you will lift the door about halfway open, and then it should sit there. If the door tries to continue going up or tries to lower to the ground, then the door is not balanced and needs the appropriate adjustments made by a trained professional.
Perform the Reversal Test
The UL Laboratories have established certain important safety standards that must be met by all electric garage door openers and the reversing feature is one of them. The garage door must be able to reverse its function when countered with an obstacle. In order to perform this test, you can simply place a 2×4 piece of lumber on the ground, under the door. Upon the door coming down on the 2×4, if it does not reverse and go back up, then it has failed the reversal test. In this case, it is highly encouraged to have a professional garage door repair company come look at the door.
If one has skipped regular garage door maintenance, then one is more likely to find an issue or two with the garage doors. Always call the experts to handle these problems as the repair may involve certain hazardous functions.
