It’s tempting to fix garage door problems on your own. Isn’t it? You don’t have to wait for a technician. You don’t have to pay for the garage door repair. You will fix the problem all on your own this following Sunday.
And the Sunday comes and you spend the whole day trying to figure out what’s wrong and your instinct tells you that the garage door is noisy due to the tracks. And you approach the tracks and cannot understand what may be wrong. But you still get your tools out and try your best, only to hear the overhead garage door making an even louder noise. Or, a worse scenario! The garage door binds. Or, it hurts you.
Safety is always the reason why garage doors should NOT be fixed by non-trained people. Then again, if you think you could do some fixes, there’s a small list of things you can do. And there’s a bigger list of things you should NEVER do.
Garage Door Repairs You CAN Do
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Adjust garage door limits
You need to adjust the travel limits when the garage door won’t close or open all the way. Not that this is a safe task, but if you have some knowledge and the right tools, you can adjust the travel limits on the garage door opener. You need to turn the UP limit clockwise once for 2” travel, to increase the up travel. Or, decrease the UP limit by turning the screw counterclockwise. To increase the down travel, you need to turn the DOWN limit counterclockwise. To decrease, you need to turn it clockwise. But it’s best if you consult the opener’s manual too.
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Lubricate garage door parts
You can lubricate the garage door springs, the hinges, the pins, the opener chain, and the rollers – unless they are nylon rollers. Then, you can run the garage door up and down a couple of times and wipe excess lubes, if needed.
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Inspect & clean the garage door
You can also inspect the garage door, run it up and down while paying attention to strange noises. Examine (from some distance) if the garage door cables are frayed, the springs and the rollers are rusty, the tracks are damaged and dirty. What you can do is carefully remove debris that’s most likely found in the garage door tracks. But if you notice any other problem, it’s best to call a technician. You can also wash the door panel, clean the windows, or apply wax on steel garage doors.
Garage Door Repairs You CANNOT Do
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Fix garage door springs
This is a forbidden area. Never ever attempt to fix the torsion spring. Or, the extension springs – these are even more dangerous, unless there are safety cables laced through them. Springs are wound under enormous tension which if suddenly released, it can cause a fatal accident.
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Repair garage door cables
Cables are tense too. After all, they are connected with the springs. The cables attached to the bottom feature are extremely tense. Fixing cables and springs is not only dangerous, but difficult. And then again, you cannot be sure what caused a certain problem – for example, the cables to come off, and so, you may cause more harm than good.
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Install garage door openers
No garage door opener installation is easy. Openers are different. Even if you choose the simple ceiling mount model, you need to know exactly where to place the box, how high to install the photo eyes, how to set the travel limits, what to do with the reverse system, the force…Wouldn’t it be best if you called a pro?
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Troubleshoot garage doors
Fixing springs or replacing rollers is difficult, and not recommended. But when you don’t know what caused a specific problem to happen, things are more complicated. In such cases, you need to first diagnose and then fix the problem. Making a mistake is very easy and that won’t only make the problem worse, but might also put you at stake.
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Align garage door tracks
Tracks are harder to fix than you may think. Bent tracks are impossible to shape without the right tools, without knowledge. What’s even more risky is adjusting tracks. They must be aligned to perfection and that would require keeping them at a certain distance from the garage door – not too close, not too far. If not, the garage door might get jammed or it might bind. Why risk it?
