Garage Door Safety: 7 Safety Tips around Your Garage Door
Many people don’t give enough attention to garage door safety, but 20,000 to 30,000 injuries take place each year because of them. That should highlight the need for some awareness around safety. The garage door ranks as one of the most dangerous parts of the home. Some of the most common injuries include fingers or body parts getting caught under the door, the door getting lowered onto someone and injuries to those who repair the door. Let’s have a look at some safety tips that can save you from an injury.
Garage Door Safety
In particular, many of the injuries occur with children, and you should never let a child hang onto the garage door because of how this can hurt them or damage the door. The consequences aren’t worth it.
Conduct a Monthly Inspection
For a lot of people, they may not even think of this with their garage door, but one of the best ways to improve safety comes from inspecting the door once a month. Look for signs of wear and tear. In this way, you can fix the problem before it has the opportunity to fully materialize into an injury. Look at the pulleys, the springs, the cables and the rollers to ensure everything remains in working condition and won’t malfunction.
Any damage to the cables, springs, rollers or pulleys shouldn’t be repaired via the do-it-yourself method because of how this requires the careful attention of a specialist to prevent injuries. These parts have been wound tightly, and they have a lot of tension behind them. Should one of the components break, it could cause serious injury to anyone in the vicinity. You must have an expert because they know how to do this safely.
Take the Garage Door Opener with You
One of the most common ways that criminals have broken into homes comes from them stealing the garage door opener. Once they have the opener, they don’t have to come in through the front door because they can use the garage door safety opener to enter through the garage. Because of its size, you can store this in a backpack, a purse or a pocket and lower the chances that it will get stolen.
Educate Your Family
Especially small children need an education not to play around a garage door in operation. Remind your children not to keep their hands or fingers near a garage door repair that is closing. In addition, they shouldn’t have loose clothing near it because this can have equally devastating consequences. A little awareness around this issue can go a long way to protecting your family.
Beware of the Garage Door’s Age
Garage doors over the age of 25 years old can start to endanger those who use it because of how the wear and tear can cause them to malfunction. If you have a garage door over 25 years old, you may want to contact Star Solutions Garage Door in Jenkintown, PA. They can inspect the components and bring your garage door up to date.
Never Depend on the Sensors
Even if your garage door has sensors on it that prevent it from closing if someone is underneath it, you should never rely on this. Technology can malfunction. Most modern garage doors will have a black box located closer to the bottom of the garage door. When the sensors don’t align properly, the garage door won’t operate.
Still, cases have happened where the sensors malfunctioned and the door closed on someone who thought they were safe. Every month or so, you may even want to inspect the sensors. You might clean the lenses with a soft cloth because dirt and spiderwebs can build up on them. This keeps the eyes from malfunctioning. If you believe that the sensors aren’t working, call a professional get the sensors because to work.
Prepare for Emergencies
Let’s say something happens and someone gets caught under the garage. How do you respond to this situation? You should learn the emergency release feature of your garage. It will usually be found in the owner’s manual of your product. People should always know this because of how you never know if someone would get injured by the door. The faster you can respond, the better their chances of survival and non-permanent injury. Understanding where the emergency release is at will keep you and your family safe.
One of the greatest safety measures that you can take for a garage door is to make sure that you have photo-eye sensors, and check periodically to make sure that they work. Many times, the injuries that come from garage door can be serious because people get crushed by them. Never let a child play games during an operating garage door, and don’t let them dash underneath an operating garage door. This poses a great danger to your child.
Garage Door Cable Snapped
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:
-
Tightening the bolts and screws
-
Lubricating the components
-
Garage Door Cable Snapped
-
Adjusting the spring tension as needed
Important to note: Never do anything with the spring tension yourself. A garage door springs holds a ton of pressure behind it. Someone unknowledgeable working on the spring could suffer a severe injury if it breaks.
What to Do if Your Cable Broke
Don’t open the garage door if you busted a cable. Leave it closed and call Star Solutions garage door in Jenkintown. We have the expertise and equipment to fix your garage door. Garage door springs usually last between seven to nine years, and the cables will usually go a little before that time frame. Many times, when a garage door professional replaces the cables on your door, he will replace the springs at the same time. The two go hand in hand. Don’t use the garage door if the cables have broke because it can cause further damage to the door. In particular, if the garage door was at full height and the last cable snaps, it can send the garage door slamming into the concrete, causing expensive damage to your garage door.
Why Do They Have Cables?
The cables on a garage door exist to open and close the garage door. They place the cables inside the springs to keep the spring in place if they snap, but the cables will often break before the springs. It serves as your warning sign. If the springs snap without the cable to hold them in place, they can shoot right through a wall. The high tension behind the spring has proven dangerous. Springs like this have to lift a 350 to 400-pound garage door, which puts their contents under extreme duress. You have had people who died when they didn’t install the spring correctly.
Garage Door Cables Critical to Health of Door
After you push the button, the cables will either move up or down through the pulley system. The cable gets wound or unwound through the pulley system. How the cable gets used will depend on the type of garage door needed. If the garage door uses torsion springs, then it will have torsion cables to loop from one end to the other.
The garage door cables keep the springs in place, but that doesn’t mean it will always do that. In some cases, the spring snaps and the cable was incorrectly positioned. The broken spring comes flying off without a guidance system. You should even take a damaged cable seriously because it means that the cable will soon snap. The cables used will depend on the weight of the door with stronger cables used for heavier doors. When you check your cables, look for frays or kinks. You should contact a professional as soon as possible at the first sign of damage. Beware of how lubricants can attract dirt to the cable and cause damage over time.
Don’t do anything with a garage door that has a broken cable. Leave it alone and contact a professional as soon as possible. One broken cable will transfer the burden of all the weight to a single cable, which increases the risk that it will break. You want to leave it as much as possible so that it doesn’t break before you can have a professional replace the cables. While small, they make up an integral part of the garage door.
Local Garage Doors Repair
Are you in need of garage door repair? Many issues arise with local garage doors repair after several years. The average garage door lasts between 10 to 15 years, but its lifespan depends on several factors, such as frequency of use and how well you maintain the door. Here at Star Solutions garage door, we remain a local garage doors repair company committed to the highest standards of repair for our customers. We can handle a variety of common issues that you might encounter, such as:
-
Noisy garage doors
-
Garage door not opening or closing
-
Garage door opens but not all the way
-
Your garage door closes way too fast
-
Garage door opens at a snail’s pace
Why Choose Us?
Fast, reliable, affordable and local, Star Solutions Garage Door understands how a garage door malfunctioning can cause issues for anyone. Our team of carefully handpicked experts have the knowledge and experience to resolve your garage door problems quickly and effectively. We have the necessary tools to local garage doors repair so that they stay fixed. All our staff receive training, bonding, licensing and insurance to guarantee top-notch garage door services.
You can fall back on our customer-backed guarantee that our technicians will perform the services to the highest standards of the industry.
Local Garage Doors Repair
Having repair work done by an experienced local garage doors repair company can make all the difference when it comes to the ROI on your property. Having a dysfunctional garage door can lower the home value. Realtors say that work done on a garage door can improve the home value by four percent. Not only that, but the garage door serves as curb appeal to potential homebuyers. The garage door looks like one of the largest things on the home, and people will see it. Newer garage doors can lead to energy savings because they don’t use as much electricity. One research study from Clopay Building Products learned how they could save 71 percent with new energy-efficient garage doors.
When Trouble Strikes, Call Us
Don’t work on the garage door yourself. In particular, don’t work on the garage door springs because the danger posed can lead to serious injury or death. Garage door springs have a lot of tension behind them. Someone who works on them without knowledge could cause the spring to break, which can cause severe injury. Unfortunately, we receive many calls after the fact that someone worked on a garage door spring and suffered a severe injury. You need to have professionals do it, and we understand how to work with the springs without getting injured.
Good Maintenance Avoids the Need for Repairs
Proper maintenance lowers the need for a lot of repairs. You don’t have to worry as much about an expensive unscheduled repair. Taking good care of the garage door ensures that it lasts as long as possible. The things that you can do to maintain your garage door include:
-
Watch and listen
-
Tighten the hardware
-
Test garage door balance
-
Inspect and replace rollers
-
Lubricate moving parts
-
Check the cables
-
Replace the weatherstripping
-
Clear the tracks
Taking actions for maintenance will lengthen the lifetime of your garage door. You won’t have to call in the professionals as often to have it fixed. Untreated minor wear and tear can lead to bigger problems over time.
When Should You Replace a Garage Door?
How do you know when to replace your garage door? First, look at the age of the door. In some cases, you could benefit more to have the garage door replaced over using the older door. As we said, the newer doors have energy savings, but it even goes beyond that. A newer door may even cost less than having an old garage door repaired.
To determine whether you should replace or repair a garage door, first look at the extent of the damage. Do you have minor, moderate or severe damage? Minor damage means chipped or fading paint or a large crack. However, minor means the damage sustained is purely cosmetic. You can still get incredible value from repairing the door, rather than replacing.
Investment in the Home
Moderate damage goes beyond the cosmetics, and it could entail damage to the structural integrity of your door. This could mean that nature’s elements get inside, or it could mean that thieves and intruders can break in through the garage door more easily. In many cases, you can still repair moderate damage. Severe damage means that the damage caused has stopped the garage door from opening and closing like it normally would. In some cases, what looks like severe damage could stem from a simple problem. You may need to simply replace the springs or buy a new battery. Having a technician examine this will give you the best results because they can offer up solutions. If you wanted a replacement, you can still find many available options that won’t blow the budget.
Local garage doors repair cost ranges anywhere from $147 to $341, depending on the region and the type of repair needed. The national average sits at $223. Again, this varies depending on the type of repair needed. If you need an expert, call Star Solutions in Jenkintown, PA. Getting repairs done could be seen as an investment in the home. Even if the garage door only sustained minor damage, you could think of it as a type of maintenance to avoid bigger expenses when a major piece of hardware breaks. Many times, when you don’t fix the problem, it becomes a much bigger one.
How to Deal with a Dented Garage Door
If you have a large dent in your garage door, you will most likely have to replace it. This can cost you around $75 for a basic repair, but it can cost you anywhere from $150 to $400 total if you have to replace a panel. Steel and aluminum don’t require much maintainance, but they do dent easily. It could suffer a dent for any number of reasons, such as a bike bumps the door, or you have a basketball that bounces off the dented garage door.
Fix a Small Dent
You don’t always have to hire a professional to fix a small dent. How do you begin? First, you will wash the area surrounding the dent with warm water and soap. You let it dry. This ensures that you eliminate the dirt and grime in the region, which can present a problem as you go to get the door undented with sanding and other steps in the process. Next, you will place a wooden block over the dent and tap it with a mallet. This evens out the dent in the dented garage door.
You will sand the area to even out the surface of the dent and make it less visible. After the putty dries, you will sand it down to give it an even appearance. Finally, you apply the primer and let it dry. Next, grab a paintbrush and add a fresh coat of paint.
When to Call in the Professionals
You have cases where you might dial the number of a professional garage door company because you have too big of a dent in the door. With a bigger dent, you might try to first eliminate it with your own methods, but if it doesn’t disappear, call Star Solutions Garage Door in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania. With most dents in a garage door, you can repair them. However, you may need a professional to get rid of it.
Why Fix the Dent in a Garage Door
Think of what presents itself front and center with a home. When you go to look at a home, one of the first things that you will see is the dented garage door. Dents in a garage door can have a dramatic impact on the value of the home. Garage door springs replacement ranks as one of the highest returns on investment, according to Remodeling Magazine. With some dents, you can take them out, but you have others that you can’t take out, and this can lower the curb appeal and value of the home.
Steel vs. Aluminum
In general, you can repair aluminum far easier than what you can repair steel. In fact, you might approach getting rid of a dent differently, depending on whether you have a steel garage door or an aluminum garage door. You would use the method mentioned above to handle a steel garage door. How do you handle a dent in aluminum?
In general, these dents will usually be easier to fix. You begin the process in the same way as with the steel garage door. You will first wash the area with soap and water. However, you will use a heat lamp, a lighter, tinfoil and a can of compressed air. First, you scrub the dented area to clean the dirt and grime. This makes the rest of the process easier. You will wait 30 minutes to an hour for the water to dry. You will hold the heat lamp and the lighter flame over the tinfoil for around one minute.
Dented Garage Door
This puts the heat over to the dented area. Next, you will remove the tin foil, and you will spray it with a can of condensed air evenly. Because of a sudden change of temperature, this causes the aluminum material to reverse the dent. Eventually, you will see it return to its original position to look like new.
Important to Note: Doing either methods to get rid of the dent in the dented garage door may not work if you have too large of a dent. In cases like that, you may have to call in a professional.
What Works
Whatever method you choose, you want it to eliminate the dent. This depends on the intensity of the dent, and in some cases, you may find it worth the cost to call in a professional because they can do this with ease. A professional can look over the garage door to determine if further repairs are needed. For example, you might call in a garage door professional to fix an annoying grinding noise and have the dent repaired at the same time. In some cases, you might have them assess the garage door to determine if any further action is required.
Here at Star Solutions Garage Door, we can repair the dent that you may have gotten from a rogue baseball or a child’s baseball bat that struck the right place in the door. You don’t want this to have a negative impact on your home value because a garage door can add anywhere from $8,000 to $14,000 on a home. The better your garage door looks, the higher the value of the home. When you have dents in the door, it can also impact who comes in to see the home for the sale.
Garage Door Drive Openers: What You Need to Know
No matter what type of garage door drive that you choose, it will perform the same actions, but you might be wondering which garage door drive opener to choose. Should you choose the belt drive, or should you choose the chain drive? Maybe the screw drive or the jackshaft drive? Some of the ways that the they will differ include how they get built, their strength and amount of noise emitted. If you’d like to learn more, please check us out at Star Solutions Garage Door in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania.
Building of the Door Drives
Whether you choose the belt drive or another choice, all choices use rollers and the chain pulley system. That means that when you tap the button for the garage door, it will either open or close. You might say that in all cases, the drive will act like the transmission in the car. In other words, it’s essential to the working of your garage door.
Garage Door Drive Openers
The attraction to the screw drive opener comes from its simplicity. It has the fewest moving parts, and you can maintain this one the easiest. The one thing to understand with these doors is that they tend to be more sensitive to temperature fluctuations. In those cases, they will require more-not less maintenance.
On the other hand, the jackshaft garage door drive differs in that it has been mounted on the wall, right next to the garage door. As the torsion bar turns, it will either open or close. It uses springs to raise and lower the garage door.
The Strength of the Garage Door Drives
You may find yourself wondering which of the garage door drives will have the highest strength. In general, chain drive openers will rarely if ever fail. They’re some of the best garage opener drives because of the strength behind them. Because of its design, you have metal to metal, however, and you will need to oil it to keep it in working condition and ensure that it stays aligned. For those who don’t take care of chain drive openers, they may start to feed on the chain, which is a big problem.
You might also have other materials that run through the rubber as a way to reinforce it. The belts have also come a long ways in that they tend to be much stronger than what we had previously had for belt drives openers. Still, this type of garage door drive openers won’t lift a door made from heavy wood as easily as some of the other types.
Garage Door Openers
Many jackshaft garage door drive openers have become favorable because of the security. They’re strong in terms of security, and many times, after closing, it will automatically use a deadbolt for additional security. In addition, their computerization tends to be some of the most robust out of all the opener types. The one thing about jackshaft garage door drive openers, however, is that they tend to cost a lot more.
Screw drive openers are strong because they use fewer working parts. Especially when you use fewer moving parts, that will have the advantage in that it doesn’t break down as often. That is one of the things that homeowners have favored with this type of garage door opener is that it can last longer than many of the other choices. Still, you shouldn’t neglect lubrication for it because all doors require some level of maintenance if they will continue to work properly.
Heavier garage doors, however, can be a disadvantage when it comes to the screw drive because of how this can put too much strain on the screws and cause some problems. Screw drive openers have one noted advantage in that they can open the garage door faster than many of the other choices because of how you have fewer moving components to get from point A to point B.
Which Garage Door Opener Operates the Quietest?
If you had to say the quietest garage door openers, it would most likely be the belt drive openers. That one is often considered the standard choice, and it doesn’t generate as much noise when you open it. Especially if you have someone in the house who works late hours, you may not want them waking you up as they come in.
Meanwhile, the chain drive opener works fine as long as you maintain it well, and it can also depend on the brand. With any of the openers, you will find that they open and close more quietly when well maintained. Screw drive openers aren’t as quiet as belt drive openers, but they do a decent job of remaining silent.
Garage Door Springs
Continue with the garage door maintenance inspection by activating the garage door openers. The garage doors springs replacement should be stretched now. Approach them with caution. Verify if anything looks unusual, such as an imbalance between the sides. If you notice any issues with your residential springs, work with professionals on a solution. These springs are under constant pressure.
Local Garage Door Reapir
Now, on to the subject of the jackshaft openers. You have a top-notch choice here that ranks right up there with the belt opener, but you’d most likely still choose the belt opener over the jackshaft. With that said, the jackshaft still opens quietly enough if your garage door connects closely to another bedroom. You might still find this choice valuable.
Hopefully this highlights the type of garage door drive openers available to you as a customer. You should choose one based on the purpose and your requirements. Our staff at Star Solutions Garage Door can help you to identify a good choice through looking at your budget and requirements. Understanding these things can ensure that you get matched up with the right garage door that will fit your needs.
Garage Doors Springs Replacement
If you have a rollup door in the garage, there’s a huge spring that hangs just above the assembly. Referred to as the torsion spring, this part takes on the weight of the door as it lifts and lowers several times a day. It makes sense that the spring will fail at some point. The tension involved is extreme, especially with garage doors weighing 200 pounds or more. Learn what to do if the torsion spring fails so that everyone is calm and collected.
What to do if the Torsion Spring Fails
There are practical reasons why a garage door springs would break though none of them seem to be O.K. First, wear and tear. Either the spring was made from poor metal or the quality of the garage door spring was weak. A torsion spring operates on spring tension and when the spring cannot withstand the tension then the spring usually gives.
This kind of break of a tension spring is normally a problem in large industrial garage doors that need to withstand repeated high amounts of tension thousands of times a year. Secondly, as mentioned earlier if the amount of tension found in each garage door springs on the door is in an unbalanced state then this may be a cause of the spring breakingsooner than it would under normal conditions.
Garage Doors Springs Replacement
When the springs on your garage door springs are damaged in some way, the use of your garage door may become very difficult or even impossible. The items that are currently in the garage, including your car and other essential items, may remain trapped inside the garage. If the springs broke and left the garage door openers, the security of all garage contents may be at risk.
You can see how important your door’s springs are and how critical it is to let a skilled repair professional tackle this project for you. If you believe that your springs are broken or if you are not sure why your garage door is not working properly, we are available to help. We provide a fast response, competitive rates and quality work, so contact us today for the repair work that your garage door needs.
Garage Door Springs
When a garage door maintenance issue arises and the homeowner doesn’t have the DIY knowledge or skills to repair the garage door it is safer to call in the experts than to put someone in the family at risk of being harmed or hurt. If it is critical that you need to access your garage or your car, then many professional garage door repair have 24 emergency services, since they understand being locked out of a garage or needing to get in is essential to hoe safety and would respond as needed.
Lastly, a garage door repair expert has all the tools and experience to repair any type of garage door and you can have confidence in their professional help when a garage door need arises.
Avoid Panic
A failed spring in your garage produces a loud bang when it finally snaps. On carriage-style doors, there are relatively small springs that line up vertically along the sides. Torsion springs are much larger, however. They’re confined within a housing so that a break doesn’t cause damage to the surrounding environment.
You’ll hear a loud “bang” when the torsion spring fails. Don’t panic when you hear this sound. It’s startling so carefully look in the garage after the sound occurs. The spring may look bent or even cracked. Every failure produces a different reaction.
Inspect the Garage Door Springs
Older properties have garage door springs that are stretched in a vertical position on either side of the opening. Take a look at these springs when they’re in a relaxed position. Examine them for these features, such as:
• Broken spring sections
• Rust
• Bent components
Continue with the garage door maintenance inspection by activating the garage door openers. The garage doors springs replacement should be stretched now. Approach them with caution. Verify if anything looks unusual, such as an imbalance between the sides. If you notice any issues with your residential springs, work with professionals on a solution. These springs are under constant pressure.
Ask About the Torsion Springs
From rollup to carriage garage doors, every opening has unique mechanisms to move the heavy objects. You might be familiar with a modern part called the torsion spring. This large spring hangs above your door in a horizontal position. It pulls your door up and down through high tension cables.
This spring has a relatively short lifespan of around seven years. Don’t attempt to perform your own garage door repair in this instance. These garage doors springs replacement are even more difficult to install when compared to the old-fashioned, vertical designs. A local professional can install the spring and adjust the cables as necessary when garage door maintenance.
Contact the Professionals
Contact garage doors springs replacement specialists who understand torsion springs. Modern doors have this construction, which requires training and experience on the part of the service personnel. Professionals who’re unfamiliar with torsion springs may not have the tools or technique to safely install the new assembly.
The best way to ensure a safe repair is by hiring the company that installed the door. They’ll be familiar with the model, parts and your physical property. Remember that you won’t be able to use the garage until the spring is replaced. Any items within the space, including vehicles, will have to wait for the professionals.
Garage Door Broken Springs
Broken springs are a common problem on many garage doors. Garage doors springs replacement and repairing it can be dangerous for do-it-yourselfers. Garage door spring are under a great deal of tension. When it comes to broken garage doors springs replacement, the team of professionals at Star Solutions Garage Door have the training, years of experience and all the right tools to quickly, safely and easily remove the broken springs from any brand of garage door.
Local Garage Door Expert
If you have any concerns about garage door repair, contact Star Solutions Garage Door today. Our staff is thrilled to answer your questions and schedule appointments. Put your household and family first so that the door is always safe to let you in and out of the property.
Garage Door Maintenance
A standard, garage door might pull 200 pounds of weight several times a day across 365 days a year. When you stop to think about this mechanism, the garage doors is actually an engineering marvel. Taking care of it is typically put on the back burner, however. Prioritize the door as you maintain the rest of the house. Homeowners should have a solid, comfort level with the door’s operations so that any future issues don’t become overwhelming problems.
Inspect the Door’s Operations
Before you start with any maintenance tasks, take a close look at the door’s operations. Stand outside of the door. Activate the opener. Watch the door open and close. You’re looking for these features, including:
• Smooth movement in both directions
• Door remains level throughout the travel
Garage Door Maintenance
Repeat this process while standing inside of the garage too. Maintained door should only require minimal adjustments.
If there’s considerable problems with the door moving into position, calling the professionals for an appointment is the best course of action. A broken spring or other issue might be involved.
Adjust the Sensors
Your garage door openers comes with sensors that are typically installed on either side of the door’s opening. Take a close look at each sensor. They should have LED lights that tell you if they’re properly positioned. If the door has issues with consistent lifting and lowering, the sensors may be slightly out of position.
Follow the opener’s instructions for sensor adjustments. Ask a friend to help you with one side of the door. Most garage door maintenance adjustments require you to point the sensor in a particular direction in order to calibrate the system. The electronics tell you when the alignment is ready.
Inspect the Garage Door Springs
Older properties have garage door springs that are stretched in a vertical position on either side of the opening. Take a look at these springs when they’re in a relaxed position. Examine them for these features, such as:
• Broken spring sections
• Rust
• Bent components
Continue with the garage door maintenance inspection by activating the garage door openers. The garage door broken springs should be stretched now. Approach them with caution. Verify if anything looks unusual, such as an imbalance between the sides. If you notice any issues with your residential springs, work with professionals on a solution. These springs are under constant pressure.
Ask About the Torsion Springs
From rollup to carriage garage doors, every opening has unique mechanisms to move the heavy objects. You might be familiar with a modern part called the torsion spring. This large spring hangs above your door in a horizontal position. It pulls your door up and down through high tension cables.
This spring has a relatively short lifespan of around seven years. Don’t attempt to perform your own garage door repair in this instance. These springs are even more difficult to install when compared to the old-fashioned, vertical designs. A local professional can install the spring and adjust the cables as necessary when garage door maintenance.
Tune up the Mechanical Components
One of the simplest tasks that you can perform as a homeowner is lubricating the mechanical components. Every few months, use approved lubricant on chains, rollers and other moving parts. By lubricating these items, you prolong the system’s lifespan. Paying to replace garage doors otherwise is a waste of your hard-earned money when lubrication adds years to the parts.
Ideally, use a spray lubricant so that it can find its way into the tiny crevices. The lubing session also gives you a chance to look at the parts on a regular basis. If a screw is slowly pulling out from a hinge, you can quickly tighten it. Tightened and lubed parts will keep your door operating at peak levels.
Garage Door Openers
Garage door repair processes should also include a look at the opener. Use a ladder to access the opener. Tighten it into its socket. It tends to vibrate out over time. Little bit of warmth is normal, but hot conditions mean that the motor is working too hard. A professional may need to verify the situation.
Try out the Emergency Release
Most garage door installations, including carriage garage doors, have some form of emergency release. This release is typically in the form of a pull cord between the door and opener. During your inspection, follow these steps to check the release, including:
• Pulling on the cord
• Watch the disconnect from the opener
• Reattach the disconnect
• Test the opener with the door
This entire scenario should be seamless. No loud noises or issues with disconnection should be apparent. If the mechanism doesn’t work as well as it should, contact your garage-door professionals for a service call.
Clean With WD-40 Tracks
If you have a rollup door, it has metal tracks for the rollers to move with seamless ease. These tracks can build up dust and debris over time, however. Take some time out of your schedule to garage door maintenance wipe the tracks. With the help of a ladder, carefully inspect the metal and rollers. Don’t place any strain on the tracks by leaning your weight on them. If there’s been problems with a smooth motion, the professionals will need to adjust the metal as necessary.
Local Garage Door Expert
If you have any concerns about garage door repair, contact Star Solutions Garage Door today. Our staff is thrilled to answer your questions and schedule appointments. Put your household and family first so that the door is always safe to let you in and out of the property.
What to do if the Torsion Spring Fails
If you have a rollup door in the garage, there’s a huge spring that hangs just above the assembly. Referred to as the torsion spring, this part takes on the weight of the door as it lifts and lowers several times a day. It makes sense that the spring will fail at some point. The tension involved is extreme, especially with garage doors springs weighing 200 pounds or more. Learn what to do if the torsion spring fails so that everyone is calm and collected.
Avoid Panic
A failed spring in your garage produces a loud bang when it finally snaps. On carriage-style doors, there are relatively small springs that line up vertically along the sides. Torsion springs are much larger, however. They’re confined within a housing so that a break doesn’t cause damage to the surrounding environment.
You’ll hear a loud “bang” when the torsion spring fails. Don’t panic when you hear this sound. It’s startling so carefully look in the garage after the sound occurs. The spring may look bent or even cracked. Every failure produces a different reaction.
Clear the Area
After you verify that the spring is the cause for the sound, clear the garage area. The door will probably be closed at this point. The spring supports the door’s weight so most failures leave the garage in a stagnant position.
If the door was in motion when the spring failed, the panels may have hit the ground with blunt force. Extensive damage might extend from the spring and into the entire door assembly. Ideally, stay away from the area. Contact professionals to evaluate the situation. The door and spring won’t move any further, but you don’t want children or pets around the area for safety purposes.
Contact the Professionals
Contact garage door specialists who understand torsion springs. Modern doors have this construction, which requires training and experience on the part of the service personnel. Professionals who’re unfamiliar with torsion springs may not have the tools or technique to safely install the new assembly. What to do if the Torsion Spring Fails.
The best way to ensure a safe repair is by hiring the company that installed the door. They’ll be familiar with the model, parts and your physical property. Remember that you won’t be able to use the garage until the spring is replaced. Any items within the space, including vehicles, will have to wait for the professionals.
Understand the Repair Solution
Your garage door specialists will look over the damage when they arrive at your property. If the door panels are damaged, they’ll remove them first. They remove the old spring and replace it with specialized tools. The spring must be positioned with a certain amount of tension so that the door can open with ease. Lubrication and testing will complete the service.
If you have any questions surrounding your garage door, contact Star Solutions out of Jenkintown, PA. Our team can evaluate your property and suggest improvements. Your garage door does a lot of work for the household. Treat it right for years of reliable service.
Commercial Garage Door Services
Star Solutions Garage Door can install and repair garage doors for all your commercial, industrial, or business properties – loading docks, warehouses, schools, showrooms, municipal buildings, car dealerships, storage facilities – wherever you may find yourself in need of a trained Garage Door expert, we can provide assistance, anywhere in the Jenkintown, PA area. We offer a full range of styles and brands, so we can get the garage door that is perfect for your needs, in both design and performance. We offer a wide variety of sizes, options, and custom configurations to ensure that we meet the specific requirements for your business.
Local Garage Door Services
Star Solutions Garage Door offers the fastest, most reliable, and most affordable repair services on commercial doors to be found in the Jenkintown area. We offers:
-
Adjustments and maintenance on springs, hinges, rollers, safety cables – the entire operating system of your door
-
Re-balancing doors to eliminate annoying squeaks and hesitance
-
Inspection of doors to locate potential trouble spots, such as dirty or jammed tracks
-
Replacement of the opener to ensure smooth operation
-
Removal and/or replacement of existing doors and mechanisms
-
And so much more!
With our twenty four hour response teams, you can rest assured that your property will be well protected and your problems solved quickly when you trust Star Solutions Garage Door.
Call us today! 1 (800) 517-5377
We offer a wide variety of door options to help ensure perfect operation, including:
-
Fire doors, which automatically close when triggered by fire alarms and smoke detectors to help protect the contents of the garage in question, and are rated to withstand fire damage
-
Insulated sectional doors to help with climate controlled environments – highly durable, and long lasting, as well
-
Sectional doors, for a durable option that won’t stress your budget
-
Traffic doors, made out of heavy duty fabric that are quick to open and can withstand constant use.
-
Rolling doors, which are great for small spaces where sectional doors would not have enough room to be installed; very durable, highly secure, and made out of either aluminum or steel
-
Garage door opener for commercial garage door.
-
And so much more!