Garage Doors can last for years as a critical part of your home. Most are designed for thousands of cycles of operation. Regular care and maintenance can extend this life. Longer life means less replacement costs for your home improvement budget. Neighborhood Garage Door Services of Houston, TX has a quick and easy DIY garage door inspection guide to help you protect your investment in your garage door.
Look for Gaps
Step 1 is to do a big-picture inspection. From inside your garage, stand back from your overhead door and look for any sunlight peaking through. Look all the way around the lower, upper, and side edges. Pay close attention at the corners.
Any gaps around the outer edges or corners may be the result of imbalance or misalignment. If you have gaps on the bottom edge, you may have a problem with the bottom seal. Check the seal for dry rot or pulling away from the door.
Also check along the entire length of each panel joint. Gaps here can result from dings and dents in the panels. Worn, damaged, or missing hinges can also cause gapping. Several gaps at the joints can be the result of misalignment.
Listen for Trouble
After doing your broad visual inspection, it’s time for engaging your hearing. Press your control switch to open the door. As it lifts, listen for any unusual sounds. This may be tricky if it has been producing noise for a while. You may have grown accustomed to the noise. Be sure to listen to the door on the way down as well.
Listen for all of the following
- Squeaking
- Grinding
- Scraping
- Rubbing
- Creaking
If you encounter any of these noises, try to locate the issue. It can be helpful to raise and lower the door several times to pinpoint the offending sound. Squeaking can come from the hinges. Listen to the wheels for grinding and scraping. The tracks can produce creaking and rubbing noises. You can also get squeaking and creaking from the torsion spring. You can also pay close attention to the sound of the chain drive of the opener.
Inspect the Hardware
If you honed in on any problem sounds, take note of any hardware problems they revealed to you. If there were no noises, it’s still helpful to do a visual inspection of the hardware.
Check the hinges for rust, cracking, bending, missing bolts/rivets, etc. Also be sure there are no missing hinges. Inspect the rollers looking for cracked, broken, or missing wheels. Make sure all the cables are nice and tight with no drooping or sagging. Check both the cables and the springs for rust.
See if you can spot any rust, warping, cracking, or bending in the tracks. It can be helpful here to open and close the door and watch the tracks for bending, twisting, sagging, etc. during operation.
Call for Backup
Neighborhood Garage Door Services of Houston, Texas has been in the garage door business for many years. We’ve seen the entire lifecycle of certain homes’ garage doors, from installation to repair to replacement. We can tell you for certain that those doors that receive regular inspections have longer lifespans.
If you discover major issues that you don’t feel equipped to repair yourself, give us a call. We have the trained service technicians you need to take care of any work you need done. We can be on site as quickly as today to perform a complete inspection, diagnose problems, and give you a quote for the work you need done. Don’t wait, call us today!
