Never postpone repairs after the garage door cable snaps. The longer you wait, the more the damages can add up. Garage doors have cables on each side to lift and lower the garage door. Over time, wear and tear can take their toll. If you see fraying cables, you may want to replace them before they snap. Having the cables snap always feels traumatic because it makes a loud noise. Dealing with them before they snap keeps you from having a scare.
Don’t Use the Door
When one cable breaks, the full weight of the garage door goes on the other cable. The strain can make the garage door lift unevenly or not at all. Extra weight on the remaining cable can cause that one to snap as well. Hearing the garage door squeal or if it looks crooked could indicate that the garage door has had one of the cables snap.
Signs of a Broken Cable
You can spot a broken garage door cable because you will see a couple possible signs, such as:
All signs like this warrant calling in a garage door professional who understands how to operate on garage doors. They can replace a broken cable safely.
Why Garage Door Cables Snap
You have a few things that can cause garage door cables to snap like normal wear and tear, water damage, cold climate and issues with other working parts. Like any working part on the garage door, the inner mechanics start to wear down over time. They might break because of rust that forms on the cables. Replacing both the cables and the springs on the garage door will cost you anywhere from $175 to $450. In some cases, you may have to replace the drums and rolls of the garage door along with the springs and cables. However, that isn’t common.
How to Make Your Cables Last
Proper maintenance can go a long way to making your garage door cables last as long as possible. You have to oil parts like the springs and cables regularly to keep rust and corrosion from taking over your garage door. After some time, you will want to replace older parts with newer ones. When one part of the garage door doesn’t work well, the rest of it won’t do as well either. Inspect your garage door at least once a year.
Some of the areas where preventative maintenance can make a big difference include:
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Tightening the bolts and screws
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Lubricating the components
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Garage Door Cable Snapped
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Adjusting the spring tension as needed