How to maintenance your garage door.

You get home, you pull into the driveway, you push the button on your garage door opener and you expect the garage
door to open. It did yesterday and everyday before that. Sure, sometimes it has audibly complained but it worked and
that’s what mattered but this time, it didn’t. So, you wonder why? Why, when you’ve used it everyday since the day
you moved in has it failed you? Maybe it’s because you’ve used it everyday since the day you moved in and haven’t
put any thought into maintenance. Yes, ladies, gentlemen, and everything in between.

The components of garage doors are made up of several things. An opener, you now that weird box on your garage
ceiling. The opener is a motor with a chain moves the garage door up and down.  There are springs and cables, a
highly tensioned giant spring mounted above your door and the cables that are attached that allow the door to be
raised physically with far less effort than the actual weight of the door should allow. Then there are the sensors,
those weird camera looking, laser light things. They keep you or anything that breaks the line from getting crushed
by the garage doors descent. These are the components you need to check and maintain to make sure your garage
door is working the way you need it to.

First off, your garage door isn’t supposed to be making more noise than the first time it opened. Those extra noises
your hearing… they’re not supposed to be happening. Your garage door moves every day, meaning the parts making
it move are shifting around as well. Check all the screws, bolts, hinges, etc. Look at all the small pieces and make
sure that they’re all in place. Doing that is the first step when something goes wrong with your garage door.

Next, you need to clean the track. There is literal brake cleaner you can get to do this, just use that and an old
raggedy cloth. Then you can use lubricant to coat the outside of your torsion spring. After that you should check
the garage doors balance. You do this by pulling the manual release, you know that weird string hanging down
from the ceiling. Then you pull the garage door up halfway. If it stays up it’s fine, if not… call somebody that’s
going to become a problem.

Then, Get something super solid, something that won’t break and put it under the door. Make sure it doesn’t
break the beam of the sensor. Close the door and if it stops then your good, but if it tries to keep moving… well
you know what’s wrong.

Finally, make sure your sensor is working properly. Make sure the two sensors are lined up properly. They
should be looking directly at each other. Close the door again and then break the infrared. Then if the door stops,
then and reverses, the sensors working properly. If not you definitely need to get that checked, that’s actually
a hazard.