Extending the lifespan of your Garage Door
Extending the lifespan of your Garage Door is important for your safety and security. Crazy things can happen when you need to get in or out of your house quickly, so read on below to learn how to make your Garage Door last a lifetime. If your garage is used as the main entrance of a house, it can be a scary thought to think about not having access to it in the event of a power outage.
Maintenance tips
Garage doors can develop squeaks and other noises as time goes on. If you have a squeaky garage door, it tends to be one of three problems: loose screws, misaligned tracks, or warped panels.
Check all the doors in your garage for any screws that are loose. If you find any, tighten them up and see if that fixes the problem.
If your doors are misaligned, it is best to have a professional handle the situation. It can be dangerous if you work on them yourself. If that’s not an option, you can purchase a kit to do the repairs yourself.
When your garage door has warped panels, it does not pose a safety risk. However, you can purchase replacement panels and install them yourself to get rid of the problem.
General Maintenance Tips:
The track of your garage door acts as the main support and moves along rollers that are mounted onto the walls of your garage. As time goes on, tracks can become bent and worn out.
Check the tracks to make sure they are straight and not bent. If they are, you can use a rubber mallet to tap them back into place.
If you have a drill, you can also use it to tighten the screws that hold the tracks in place. This will prevent them from moving around and causing damage.
It is also important to keep your garage door lubricated at all times. Every so often dust can build up inside bearings, causing them to not spin as smoothly as they once did.
It is easy to lubricate the tracks and bearings of your garage door with a spray-on lubricant.
How to pick a Garage Door
A garage door doesn’t have to do so much with what it is made out of, but rather how strong and secure it is. The following specifications are important when choosing a garage door:
-The thickness of the steel (most doors range from 17 to 14 gauge)
-The type of steel used
-Proper reinforcement
-Type of hardware used to hold everything in place
Most garage doors are going to have a thickness of 17-14 gauge steel. This is much thicker than your average residential door, which tends to be 16-14 gauge. The extra thickness allows the door to better withstand any force that is applied to it. The type of steel used can make a big difference as well, and you want to avoid any door that has an interlocking top bar. This is because the bars do not provide reinforcement, so they can easily be cut or broken.
For any garage door needs, contact us at Top Choice Garage Doors
