How Do I Keep My Garage Door In Good Shape?
Garage door replacement can be an expensive proposition, so you may be wondering how you can protect a new garage door purchase. Here are some of the parts of excellent garage door maintenance.
Keep the Tracks Clean
For one, you can extend your garage door's lifespan by keeping it clean. It may sound too simple, but the tracks can easily get damaged when the garage door's rollers have to run over the same rock or other piece of debris over and over again. Keeping the tracks clean is a simple matter of taking a soapy washcloth to them every month or two. But make sure that you have some garage door-approved grease on hand to replace their lubricated surface after you clean.
Keep the Tracks Aligned
Another thing to look for is the alignment of the garage door's tracks. Over time, they can get misaligned when the action of the garage door tugs on one side more than the other. If the tracks aren't straight, it puts some strain on the rollers and the fasteners.
You might need to take down the whole garage door in order to straighten the tracks, so grab a friend who can help you handle the door without damaging it. Look at the fasteners to make sure that they are all holding tension and aren't damaged. Then, loosen the nuts and bolts to straighten tracks and rehang the door. If you don't want to go through all of these steps on your own, you could include this as part of a yearly garage door maintenance inspection.
Clean the Photo Eye
Keeping the photo eye clean is another simple step that will help protect your garage door by placing less wear on the laser within the photo eye. Clearing away the gunk that has settled on the surface of the photo eye allows the laser to make excellent contact with the processor within.
Repair Damage Right Away
A final word of wisdom is that you will want to repair issues right away with your garage door. What seems like a small problem could quickly snowball out of control when it affects the operation of your entire door. For instance, a ding in one of your tracks may be fairly inexpensive to repair with the help of a garage door repair specialist. But if you leave it alone, it could affect the performance of your garage door opener's motor as well. It never hurts to ask a garage door repair company for their opinion if you need some help on knowing how to improve how your garage door opens and closes.