Many homeowners prefer to use the garage door as the primary entrance to their home. In one month like this, the garage door goes up and down hundreds of times. You may have noticed that after using the door for at least a year without any maintenance action taken, it becomes exceedingly difficult to open or close the door. Being the largest moving part in your home, failure to maintain it can result to injury or result to greater problems.
If a garage door opener or another part of the garage door fails, it is an indication that most other parts of the door have failed. Even the best Hormann doors are subject to frequent use, abuse and are exposed to elements. To this end, an annual tune-up comes handy.
Where Do You Start The Tune-Up?
First off, disconnect the electrical components of the door such as the door opener lest they turn on accidentally when working the door. Next, audit the door system to check parts that need replacement and those that need repair. Check the garage door springs, check that the rollers are in good shape, ensure the weather-stripping is still pliable and take note of any other problem spot you may see. Lubricating Rollers and Replacing Weather-stripping Metal rollers should be lubricated with WD-40 while non-metal rollers should be lubricated by any other appropriate lubricant but not WD-40. WD-40 can spoil non-metal rollers. Check if the weather-stripping is broken or brittle and replace it. The weather-stripping that sits at the bottom of a door (called U-Shaped Astragal) is susceptible to breaking given its position.
It is important that you measure the length of the door to ensure you buy the exact size of weather-stripping required. When locking bars are misaligned due to incorrect sizes, it becomes difficult to close a garage door. It can also cause more problems to the garage door. Any garage door brand, including Hormann doors, is prone to this problem.
To align the bars, loosen the screws that hold the bars together and tap the bars gently with a hammer to bring them back to their position and line them up with the slots. Tighten the earlier loosened screws. Check Moving Parts A garage door has many moving parts. Check that all the nuts, hinges and any other hardware are working as they should be. Tighten loose bolts and screws. Clean hardware in mineral spirit. The trick here is removing one piece at a time and then fixing it back to avoid confusion.
Check that the tracks are oriented vertically using a level. If not, you need to seek the services of a professional for adjustments. Lubricate the springs and the chains Lubricating springs and chains keeps the garage door opening and closing smoothly. Homeowners can lubricate the springs but any springs replacements should be left to a garage door specialist. Note that the springs are in high tension and can cause injury if they break.
The chains should be lubricated with white lithium grease. Make a final check by opening the door half way and leaving it at that; if the door stays there, then you are good to go, if it does not, there are still issues with springs and cables balance.