Door due for a check? Call now and tell us what the door is doing.
✆ Call 845-535-1141Most garage door breakdowns give warning. A door that has grown louder, slower or heavier is telling you something is wearing out. The routine below takes a few minutes, needs no special tools and catches most problems while they are still small. If any check fails, call 845-535-1141.
A Simple Schedule
| How often | What to do | What you are looking for |
|---|---|---|
| Every month | Watch and listen to a full open and close | Jerks, scraping, new noises, a door that hangs unevenly |
| Every month | Test the safety reverse and the sensors | The door must reverse on contact and refuse to close when the beam is blocked |
| Every 3 months | Look over cables, rollers, hinges and springs (look, do not touch) | Broken strands, cracked rollers, loose hinges, gaps or rust on springs |
| Twice a year | Lubricate moving metal parts | Quiet, smooth travel |
| Twice a year | Balance test | A door that stays put halfway |
| Before winter | Check the bottom seal and weatherstripping; clear the threshold | Cracks, gaps, a seal that sticks to the floor |
| After winter | Rinse salt from the floor, bottom section and lower track | Rust starting at the bottom corners |
Three Tests Worth Knowing
- Balance. Close the door, pull the red release, and lift the door by hand to waist height. Let go carefully. A balanced door stays where it is. If it drops or shoots up, the springs need adjusting or replacing. That is a technician's job; re-engage the opener and call.
- Safety reverse. Lay a length of 2×4 timber flat on the floor under the door and close it with the opener. The door should touch the wood and go back up. If it does not, stop using the opener until it is corrected.
- Sensors. Start the door closing and wave a broom through the beam near the floor. The door should stop and reverse at once.
What to Lubricate, and With What
- Use a silicone or lithium spray sold as garage door lubricant. Ordinary WD-40 is a cleaner and water displacer, not a lasting lubricant.
- Lubricate: hinge pivots, the bearings of steel rollers, the springs (a light coat along the coils), the bearing plates at each end of the spring bar, and the lock mechanism.
- Do not lubricate: the tracks. Wipe them clean instead. Grease in the track collects grit and makes rollers slide.
- Nylon rollers with sealed bearings need nothing on the wheel.
- Opener rail: follow the opener's manual. A chain needs a little chain lubricant; a belt needs none; a screw drive needs its own low-temperature grease.
Leave These Alone
Do not tighten, loosen or remove anything on the springs, the cables, the drums at the ends of the spring bar, or the brackets at the bottom corners of the door. Those parts hold the tension that lifts the door and are the cause of most garage door injuries. Hinge and track bolts can be snugged up with a socket; anything painted red or attached to a cable is off limits.
Hudson Valley Conditions
- Road salt carried in on tyres attacks the bottom section, the bottom brackets and the last few inches of each cable.
- Freezing: a seal frozen to the slab will tear, or strip the opener's gear, if you force it. Free it by hand first.
- Cold thickens old grease and makes worn springs brittle. Lubricate in late autumn, before the first freeze.
- Humidity swells wooden doors and jambs in summer; a door that binds in July may need its stops adjusted.
Signs to Call Before It Breaks
- The door fails the balance test, or feels heavy by hand.
- Broken strands or rust on a cable. See cable repair.
- Stretched or gapped spring coils. See spring replacement.
- Rollers that wobble, crack or slide. See roller replacement.
- The opener strains, slows or reverses. See opener repair.
Prefer to have it done for you? See what a professional garage door tune-up covers. A fuller walk-through is in our garage door maintenance guide.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where and When We Work
We are open Sunday to Thursday 7 AM to 11 PM, and Friday 7 AM to 1 PM (closed Saturday). In Rockland County that includes Monsey, Spring Valley, Suffern, New City, Nanuet and the surrounding communities, and we also serve Orange, Westchester, Putnam, Dutchess, Ulster and Sullivan counties. Call 845-535-1141 to confirm availability for your address.