Useful Tips for Dealing with a Malfunctioning Garage Door
Your garage is meant to protect your car from thieves and the elements, but you may at times run into problems with your garage door. It might fail to open or close for one reason or another, or warp as a result of wear and tear. Having it repaired can be expensive, but with these tips, you can handle some of the issues that may arise yourself.
No power to the garage door
The power in your home is out and your garage door is shut. How do you open it and get your car out in time to head off to work? Find the cord (which typically has a red handle) hanging from under the guide track used by the opener to retract open and push shut the garage door. This cord manually overrides the system, allowing you to manually open and close the garage door.
Jammed opening mechanism
Extremely low temperatures can make your garage door opening mechanism stiff, causing it to become less powerful. Fortunately, many of the openers in modern garage doors are fitted with mechanisms for adjusting the pressure upwards or downwards. To ensure that your door is working smoothly, tweak the pressure settings depending on the season.
Sagging door
Your garage door has become increasingly difficult to open due to sagging. Garage doors, especially the older wooden models, are prone to the effects of aging and gravity. If a little sagging occurs on your old garage door, use the tension rods at the door’s posterior to square it up.
Positioned diagonally from one corner to another, the tightness of these rods can be adjusted at a turnbuckle to eliminate the sagging. Adjust the tightness incrementally to give the garage door time to adjust. If your door doesn’t come fitted with these rods, visit the nearest home center and buy them.
Hiring professionals
You might be able to repair minor damages using store-bought products. However, you’ll need to call in the experts to do the major garage door repair work. Hire a well-reputed company with plenty of experience and reasonable prices. You should be able to find one after doing some online research on a few prospective home repair companies.
Locking the garage door
You park your car inside your garage in order to keep the elements out. The car is, however, not safe from thieves because the locking mechanism of the garage door is malfunctioning. A number of garage doors come equipped to with two bars positioned horizontally and moving out from the center into slots found in the door tracks on the sides. They’re used to lock the door.
These bars tend to become misaligned with the slots over time, meaning the garage door can’t be locked. To realign the bars, go to the door edges and unscrew the guide brackets, loosening them up to allow movement. Thereafter, reposition them in a way that allows the locking bars easy entry into the slots. Keep the locking mechanism lubricated.
Bio:
Don C. Obrien has worked as a technician in the home repair and maintenance industry for 13 years. He has written numerous articles and blog posts on topics related to home repair, including DIY garage door repair and identifying the best home repair company.