Easy Tips on Garage Door Repair

If you're looking to DIY your garage door repair, you have come to the right place! In this article, we will teach you the basic troubleshooting guidelines and helpful tips in getting your garage door up and working again.

A garage door has two basic parts: the door and the door opener. The doors can either be a roll-up, sliding or tilt-up type, built within the garage door frame. All of these types operate through spring tensions and metal tracks attached to the garage walls. Meanwhile garage door openers are typically the same - they consist of a carriage and a drawbar powered by a reversible motor. Garage door openers are activated by an open and close switch or via a remote control device which allows the driver to open the garage door while inside the car.

If your garage door repair is not too massive, chances are you can probably fix it yourself. However, detecting which part of your garage door is malfunctioning can be difficult so you will need to test and retest and follow these troubleshooting guidelines with their corresponding solutions:

Check for any loose or missing bolts and screws on every possible location on the mounting brackets. The mounting brackets should hold the tracks to the walls. If you find any loose screws, tighten them. For any missing screws, replace them immediately.

1. There have been a lot of security concerns raised about a universal remote for garage door openers, and there is some semblance of truth in it. But then, like we said, one remote cannot open every garage you come across. Most of the garage door openers will need to be individually programmed with the universal remote, and the more advanced options will also need the user to press a key on the motor house. So it is wrong to assume that every single garage door can be opened just because one universal remote is purchased!

2.Closely examine the physical shape of the metal tracks. Sometimes dents, flattened areas, or even a small pebble stuck on the ridge can be detrimental to your garage door. A quick fix for a dent or crimp is to pound it back in shape with a hammer or any similar tool. If the damage is beyond repair, then it is time to replace the track.

3. The tracks should be aligned correctly. Inspect the horizontal and vertical sections of the tracks to see if they are well-positioned and of the same height. Without proper alignment, the entire garage door mechanism will malfunction. First, you must loosen the screws and position the tracks properly before tightening the screws again.

4.Are the tracks rusty? Do they produce a creaking sound when the garage door is opened or closed? This part of your garage door repair will have the easiest solution: oil the tracks, pulleys and rollers with a garage door lubricant spray. You can also use household oil on the rollers and the pulleys in the absence of a commercial garage door lubricant.

5.Are there any other loose parts? Make a random inspection for any wobbly or unfastened hardware and tighten them as needed. Hinges on roll-up doors, mounting plates for springs are just some of the possible problem areas. Proper and thorough garage door repair dictates that you replace broken or damaged hinges.

6.Lastly, check the springs but do not attempt to make a DIY garage door repair immediately on this one. First make an assessment as to the extent of the spring's damage. If you have a swing-up garage door, the springs are clipped on to a metal frame holding a series of notches. Adjusting spring tension will require you to simply move the hook to the next notch. Roll-up doors can be more complicated to fix and if this is your problem, it would be wise to call a garage door service company. Tension for roll-up garage doors can sometimes be too great that the spring can cause you injury.

However, there are some models of garage door openers which cannot be opened with universal garage door remote controls. For instance, there are some models of Genie and Chamberlain garage door openers, which don't work with universal remotes. That is why we mentioned earlier that about 80% of the garage doors in use can be operated with a universal opener.

The first models of these door openers were quite bulky, and it was quite difficult to lug them around. However, the recent models are very small, and can be hung from the visor inside your car, so you can use them as a normal door opener - albeit with additional benefits of opening both your office and home garage doors. Check them out.

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