At Neighborhood Garage Door Services of Greensboro, NC, the garage door is usually the biggest and the heaviest moving part of you home. The door is not something that should be played with by a person of any size or age, your garage door is built to help keep you and your loved ones safe.
The Material Of Your Garage Door Is Not Relevant
No matter what kind of material that you garage door is made of or how thick it is or even if it has windows or not it can weigh about 130 pounds for a single door, the double door can can weigh up to about 350 pounds or more with windows. The contemporary style garage doors are made up of all glass with windows which can weigh well over the 400 pound mark. In order to be able to open and close your garage door manually the door has what is called a counter weight system, this system consists of one of the two either an extension spring or a torsion spring.
Your Garage Doors Life Expectancy
Springs can eventually lose their strength as well as their effectiveness also after years of use. A lot of garage door manufacturers will advise that you change the springs in the counterweight system after every 10,000 open and close cycles, so if you use your single garage door about 4 times a day this will give your door the expectancy of about 7 years. So if you have a double garage door and if you use the overhead door daily for two cars then your garage door’s life could be cut down by about 5 years or so.
You can prolong the life of your homes garage doors spring system by making sure to properly take care of it, be sure to keep the door lubricated on a yearly basis. You can use regular 10W30 car motor oil in order to lubricate the door, just apply some of the oil to the springs in the system. Keeping the springs lubricated will also help to keep the noise down while the springs are contracting.
Last but not least if your system contains extension springs, you will need to have them fitted with a safety cable. In the case that a spring were to break the safety cable will keep it in place which will prevent the spring from causing any kind of damage or from causing injuries to anyone.
It’s Ok I Have An Electric Garage Door Opener
Your electric garage door opener can help to compensate if somehow your counterweight system doesn’t do its job or if the balance of the garage door becomes off. However your garage door opener can open a door of up to 200 pounds without the counterweight system being used, this method can also create so much noise though that it will really worry you.
By performing a complete spring system check at least twice a year you can prevent this situation. To check your spring system pull the emergency cord on the garage door and gently pull up the door, if the door is correctly balanced it should weigh about 10 to 15 pounds which you should easily be able to lift with one hand. There are a number of reasons why your garage door won’t open, do not attempt to fix this by yourself due to safety reasons.
Preventative Maintenance Yearly
Neighborhood Garage Door Services of Greensboro, North Carolina recommends having maintenance performed on the garage door every 12 to 18 months. For preventative services done on your garage it is best to call out a professional that is trained and experienced to maintain your garage door safely and properly.
