Servicing your Garage Door & some helpful tips

by West Coast Overhead Door

The garage door is often the largest moving object in a home. Unfortunately many  people do not take the time to periodically inspect the door. The components of  a garage door must be in good working order for the door to operate correctly.  Servicing your garage door twice a year helps ensure that your door is operating  at peak performance, and allows you to make minor adjustments before they become  big problems. Some parts of the door are under extreme tension and should be  serviced by professionals like us at WEST COAST OVERHEAD DOOR... Here are some tips on servicing your garage door.

  • 1

    Close the garage door. Pull the emergency release rope to disconnect the  opener from the garage door, if you have a garage door opener. The emergency  release rope is the rope you pull when the power goes out to operate the door  manually.

  • 2

    Tighten all nut or hex bolts securing the door hinges to the door with a  socket wrench. Replace missing nuts or bolts. Inspect each hinge for damage.  Each hinge has a number stamp on the face. Replace damaged hinges with a hinge  of the same number. Do not replace the bottom corner brackets. This is where the  cable connects and it is under extreme tension. Call a us at West Coast Overhead Door if the  bottom bracket has damage.

  • 3

    Turn the stem of each roller in the hinges. The stem should rotate freely.  Spray silicone lubricant on each hinge and into the seam in the roller sleeve.  If you have steel rollers, spray the ball bearings of the rollers. If your  rollers are plastic, do not spray the roller in the track. Replace rollers that  are seized or broken.

  • 4

    Open the garage door and check for binding as the door is going up. Place a  cold chisel against the side of the track bracket and hit the chisel with a  hammer to adjust the tracks, if necessary. Avoid loosening the track bracket  from the wall.

  • 5

    Spray the spring with the silicone lubricant. If your springs are above the  top of the door, spray the springs with the door closed. If you have springs  that stretch on each side of the door, open the door to relieve the spring  before spraying. Coat one side of the spring and operate the door up and down  twice to distribute the lubricant.

  • 6

    Close the door, and reconnect the door to the opener. Jerk on the pull rope  as the trolley goes over the carriage until the trolley locks into  position.