Chances are you don't think too much about your garage door until it starts to give you problems, like making an unusual noise or failing to work altogether. However, even with all their current safety features and improvements, garage doors are still extremely heavy objects that require regular and careful maintenance in order to prevent injuries to people, pets, and the contents of the garage.
The doors themselves may be extremely durable, and anyone who has ever bounced a basketball against one or dinged it with a car bumper knows they can withstand a great deal of abuse. Despite their relative toughness, garage doors are held in place and operated by a series of small, precise parts. These include metal springs, wire cables, aluminum pulleys and nylon or rubber rollers. Each of these parts can be damaged by moisture, rust, corrosion, dirt, friction, and the passage of time. When this damage happens it increases the risk of breakage or failure. Fortunately, there are usually some warning signs before this happens, such as excessive noise or the door moving roughly, failing a balance test (drifting upward or downward when opened halfway), or failing to automatically reverse when it should.
Sometimes the problem is simply dirt or dust on the "electric eye" of the garage door opener, which can be removed with a paper towel or lint-free cloth. When the problem persists your first impulse may be to oil all the moving parts, but this can sometimes do more harm than good. Most garage door manufacturers recommend using only silicone lubricant sprays on these important mechanisms, so an all-purpose household oil or lubricant won't do. This is because some lubricants actually contain other ingredients that clean through corrosion, but will eventually create a dirty, sticky buildup. Most lubricating oils are petroleum-based, and these ingredients will quickly degrade the rubber or nylon rollers, creating much more expensive repairs in the future.
Even when garage door parts seem to be moving smoothly, a problem opening or closing can be due to loosened bolts, screws, or hinges. Most of these can easily be tightened with a wrench to bring everything back into alignment. However, some bolts may be marked with a warning sticker. Even if you are an avid do-it-yourselfer, it's best not to ignore these warnings. Many of these bolts or screws are specifically designed to prevent adjustment by anyone other than a trained technician. They usually require tools that are not available to the public in order to prevent and detect alteration and to make sure they are adjusted to the proper specifications.
This should not scare you away from checking and caring for your garage doors, though. Scheduling annual maintenance with a professional, cleaning the tracks, keeping the parts dry by fixing roof leaks, and undertaking frequent inspections for rust, obstructions, and broken parts are all important to keeping your garage door properly tuned.
