Keep Your Garage Healthy With These 3 Tips

Garage doors are often the lowest priority on the home maintenance checklist. After the lawns been mown, fence fixed and driveway swept there’s little time left to put a bit of TLC into your garage door. What will surprise most home owners is that keeping your garage door in optimal condition is not as hard as it seems. All it takes is a few minutes attention every few weeks and your door will last longer, and work better for many more years into the future. Garage door repairs can often be costly or a hassle. These 3 quick garage door maintenance tips will help you avoid unnecessary repairs or services while keeping your door in top condition.

1)    Wash your door regularly.

All garage doors are a large piece of moving equipment that must be cleaned on a regular basis to ensure they keep their aesthetic appeal and functionality. Coloured steel and colorbond garage doors can suffer from corrosion and should be wiped down with clean water and a cloth once every fortnight. Doing this regularly will protect the look of your door and prevent corrosion affecting the door’s operation. This is especially important if you live near the sea or industrial area as there are more corrosives in the air.

Wiping down your door is a quick and easy way to prevent unnecessary garage door repairs and complex maintenance.

2)    Keep It Running Smoothly.

Cleaning the guides, hinges or springs that allow your door to move is an important maintenance tip that can help prevent your door jamming and requiring garage door repairs. Guide tracks are popular on doors with garage door remote controls, and should be cleaned every 3-6 months with a cloth and mineral turpentine or mentholated spirits. These chemicals will clean the tracks allowing the door to slide smoothly along them, note that you shouldn’t grease or oil any garage door tracks.

If your garage door uses springs or hinges an all purpose machine oil or grease can be used sparingly to keep those parts moving properly. Keeping your door moving smoothly eases unnecessary strain on the door opener, helping to prevent garage door repairs.

3)    Check Regularly.

Checking the operation of your garage door is a straight-forward process. Every 6 months you should check your garage door is still operating smoothly and not putting unnecessary strain on parts or openers. To do this simply switch the door into manual mode and try to open and close it. A properly working door should take about the same amount of effort to open as it would to close. If this two movements are different you should contact a garage door repair provider quickly to stop further damage being done to your door.

This check should be done more often if you live in an area with extreme environmental conditions or you use your door more frequently than most.

Garage door maintenance should become a regular part of your home maintenance routine. If you garage door does break or have a machinery fault, it’s a good idea to call out a qualified garage door repairs specialist. Contact your local B&D Doors and Openers dealer for more information on garage door repairs and services.