Garage Door Maintenance Tips for the Fall
As summer ends and cooler weather arrives in Chester County and Southeastern PA, start getting your home ready for Fall Garage Door Maintenance and the season ahead.
You may be checking your heating system, cleaning your gutters, and putting away your summer equipment—but don’t forget about one of the largest hardest-working systems in your home: your garage door.
Your garage door can open and close thousands of times each year. Springs, cables, rollers, hinges, tracks, bearings, and the garage door opener all work together every time you use it. Like any mechanical system, these components experience normal wear and eventually need attention.
Fall is an excellent time for Fall Garage Door Maintenance, as a professional annual maintenance visit can help identify worn components, keep your door operating smoothly, and potentially prevent an inconvenient breakdown in the middle of winter.
Why Should You Have Your Garage Door Serviced Before Winter?
Your garage door does more than provide access to your garage. It helps protect your home, vehicles, tools, and belongings from the weather while also contributing to the security and energy efficiency of your home.
Cold temperatures can be hard on mechanical components. If a spring, roller, cable, hinge, or other part is already showing signs of wear, a seasonal change can sometimes be the final push that turns a small problem into a broken garage door.
Having your system checked in the fall can help you get ahead of problems such as:
- Broken or weakened springs
- Frayed or damaged cables
- Worn rollers and hinges
- Loose hardware
- Noisy or rough operation
- Doors that are out of balance
- Opener problems
- Damaged weather seals
- Safety sensor problems
The goal of preventative maintenance isn’t simply to make your garage door quieter. It’s about making sure the entire system is operating properly, safely, and reliably.
6 Things Homeowners Should Check This Fall
There are a few simple things you can look for yourself. However, garage doors contain components under significant tension, so repairs and adjustments involving springs, cables, and other high-tension components should always be left to a trained garage door professional.
1. Listen to Your Garage Door
Has your garage door become louder than it used to be?
Listen for grinding, squeaking, popping, rattling, or other unusual sounds. Changes in the way your door sounds can be an early indication that something is beginning to wear.
A noisy garage door isn’t necessarily an emergency, but it shouldn’t be ignored either.
2. Watch How the Door Moves
Pay attention the next time you open and close your garage door.
Does it move smoothly? Does it shake or jerk? Does one side appear to move differently from the other? Does the opener seem to be working harder than it used to?
Changes in operation are worth having a professional evaluate.
3. Look at Your Rollers, Hinges and Hardware
Rollers and hinges are constantly moving every time the door operates. Over time, they can become worn.
Hardware can also loosen through normal use.
During a professional maintenance visit, a technician can inspect these components and identify wear that may not be obvious to the homeowner.
4. Check the Weather Seal
Your garage door’s bottom seal and perimeter weatherstripping help keep out rain, wind, leaves, insects, and cold air.
Fall is a good time to look for seals that are cracked, brittle, flattened, or damaged. Replacing bottom astragal is one of our most popular requests for this time of year because people are concerned with mice and squirrels coming indoors from the cold.
A properly maintained weather seal can help protect your garage and everything inside it from the elements.
5. Test the Safety Features
Your garage door opener’s safety features should be working properly.
Make sure the photo-eye sensors are clean, aligned, and unobstructed. The garage door should also respond properly when the safety reversal system is tested.
If your garage door doesn’t reverse properly or the safety sensors aren’t working as they should, have the system inspected by a professional immediately.
6. Pay Attention to the Door’s Balance
A properly balanced garage door should operate relatively smoothly.
If the door suddenly feels extremely heavy, falls quickly, rises unexpectedly, or seems to struggle when opening, there may be a problem with the spring system or overall balance.
Never attempt to adjust or replace garage door springs yourself. Garage door springs are under extreme tension and can cause serious injury if improperly handled.
Why Annual Garage Door Maintenance Is Important
Many homeowners don’t think about garage door maintenance until something breaks.
That’s understandable. When the door is opening and closing normally, it’s easy to assume everything is fine.
But many garage door problems develop gradually.
A roller wears down. A hinge becomes loose. A cable begins to deteriorate. A spring loses tension. Hardware loosens. An opener begins working harder which should never be the case because springs should be lifting, not the motor.
By the time the homeowner notices a problem, the worn component may have already caused additional damage.
Annual professional maintenance gives you the opportunity to catch normal wear and tear before it becomes a bigger problem. Fall Garage Door Maintenance can help you stay on top of issues early.
At Winfield Garage Doors, our technicians can evaluate the complete garage door system. We look at the components that work together to keep your door operating safely and properly.
Depending on the condition of your system, maintenance may include inspecting springs and cables, checking rollers and hinges, lubricating appropriate moving components, checking tracks and hardware, evaluating the opener, and testing the door’s safety features.
The Garage Door Opener Needs Maintenance Too
It’s easy to think of the garage door and the garage door opener as two separate things, but they are really part of one system.
Your opener has to lift and lower the door thousands of times over its lifetime. If the door becomes difficult to operate because of worn or improperly functioning components, the opener may have to work harder than it should.
During an annual service visit, your technician can evaluate the opener along with the rest of the system. If your opener is becoming unusually noisy, unreliable, or slow—or if it’s several years old—fall is also a good time to have it evaluated.
Preventative Maintenance Can Save You From an Inconvenient Breakdown
No one wants to discover a broken garage door spring when they’re trying to leave for work on a cold January morning.
While preventative maintenance can’t guarantee that a component will never fail, regular service can help identify components that are showing signs of wear and address problems before they become emergencies.
That’s one of the biggest benefits of annual garage door maintenance:
You don’t have to wait for something to break before you find out that it needs attention.
Trust Your Local Garage Door Company
For more than 45 years, Winfield Garage Doors has been helping homeowners throughout Downingtown, Chester Springs, Exton, Chester County, Delaware County and Southeastern Pennsylvania keep their garage doors operating properly.
As a family-owned local garage door company, we believe in doing things the right way: providing honest recommendations, quality workmanship, and dependable service to our neighbors.
We don’t believe you should have to wait until your garage door breaks to have it looked at.
If your garage door hasn’t been serviced within the past year, fall is a great time to schedule an inspection and tune-up.
Whether you need routine garage door maintenance, a repair, a new garage door opener, or simply have a question about how your system is operating, the team at Winfield Garage Doors is here to help.
Get Your Garage Door Ready for Fall
Don’t wait for the first cold morning—or the first garage door breakdown—to find out that your system needs attention.
Schedule your annual garage door service with Winfield Garage Doors and head into fall knowing your garage door is ready for the season.
