One of the most overlooked items in a home is your garage door. Often people go years without performing any kind of maintenance or routine inspection of their door or its working parts such as the motor, springs or rollers. One of the simplest of things you yourself can do right now and today is acquiring some garage door lubricant.
When a door goes months or years even without any lubricant at all, one of the first things to get destroyed are the rollers. With nylon rollers we experience a locking up affect. With tire and ball rollers and metal rollers, without regular lubricant applied, we can get quicker destruction to the ball bearing inside the roller which can lead to many problems like a door that jams on its way down, binding itself, and slipping out of the frame of the tracks.
Another worry are your springs. Without lubrication we may see rust and build up that can cause the coils of the springs to work against each other. The binding of the coils can make an older torsion spring break sooner then anticipated. Accumulation of rust is another concern.
Hinges without proper lubrication can also experience cracking.
It’s really not difficult to manage. There are many brands in your local hardware store such as : 3-1 Garage Door Lubricant and PB Blaster Garage Door Spray.
Another thing to consider is noise. If you notice your door is grinding, screeching or creaky…. It most likely needs to be lubricated. Often I will suggest putting the door in manual (if it’s connected to a motor) and lift it by hand to get a feel for the door. If it acts stubborn in any way, realize that you may have a potential repair coming up soon if it’s not resolved and often it can be resolved with just some lubricant. If not, a door that doesn’t move well is something you should call us for before it potentially turns into a bigger repair.
If door lubricant is something you’ve been skipping out on, door yourself a favor (maybe even potentially save yourself some money) and go down to your local hardware store to pick you up some garage door lubricant. Often this makes some of the biggest differences to my customers door. Too often my customers were unaware (prior to a visit) that they were even suppose to be lubricating their door 3-4 times a year. It is a must, and will potentially cause damage to your door (wearing out parts sooner then normal). So if your someone who hasn’t lubricated their garage door in sometime, now would be a good time.
The Garage Door Guys 