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Your garage door is one of the most significant exterior parts of your home.
How the garage door functions and looks will have a big impact on the appeal of the property.
Maintaining and keeping your garage door in top shape is essential to increase its lifespan and help improve the value of your home.
The garage door is one of the most complicated equipment at home.
Unlike the usual doors in houses that move on basic hinges, controlling and lifting the garage door’s weight needs specialized tracks, hinges, rollers, cables.
Brackets, motors, electronic safety sensors, and opening devices. Here are some helpful ways on how you can increase the life span of your garage door.
Tips to Improve Garage Doors Life Span in Pittsburgh
1. Know your garage door
A lot of people are not familiar with how a garage door is constructed and how it operates.
If you think you’re like this, start knowing the basics of the door and how the whole mechanism works.
The garage door and the opener are two different products.
There are several types of garage doors and opening systems.
Familiar yourself with the garage type you have at home.
The most common types are the overhead doors. They open upwards towards the garage’s ceiling.
There are also those that open outwards in carriage-house door styles.
While roll up garage doors are not common in homes, they are widely utilized in a commercial setting.
Garage doors that open upwards have different models, but the most common ones are the fixed panel models and sectional models.
Each of these uses a distinct type of mechanism for lifting the door.
The sectional garage doors come with hinges secured onto the inside of the door.
It holds up to 6 horizontal panels. It folds as the door lifts.
Fixed doors, on the other hand, do not fold.
The simply tilt and slip upward to the garage ceiling.
2. Test the door balance and safety features of the door regularly
Checking the balance of the garage door takes only a few minutes.
Improperly balanced doors are generally not safe, plus it adds more stress to the motor as it will have to work harder.
This results to a decrease on the life of the garage door opener.
When you do a door balance test, it will tell you whether the tensioner, springs, or cables need adjusting.
If they do, a garage door repair in Pittsburgh should be called.
You can also do a door balance test. Just close the door and pull the emergency release handle.
This is the red cord that hands just right above the middle part of the door.
When you pull the cord, you can manually open the door. Lift the door halfway by hand, then let go.
The door must close or open slowly, or that it should stay put.
If it goes up or closes quickly, contact a specialist in fixing garage doors.
3. Tighten the fasteners and inspect the rollers.
You can find the rollers inside the tracks.
Usually, they are made of steel or nylon and can last about 8 years under normal use.
Visually check it at least twice a year and check for chipping, crackings, or excessive wear.
Close and open the door, keeping a close eye on the rollers.
Furthermore, garage doors and openers are secured to the house frame with hex-head bolts.
Small bolts are attached to the hinges of the sectional doors.
When these bolts loosen, it causes a vibration when you close or open the door.
You can just tighten these with a socket wrench.
Stay away from those red-painted bolts as these are high-tension screws that only the professionals should deal with.
4. Maintain weather stripping, insulation, and caulk.
Just like windows and doors, garage doors need caulking on the door frame.
When the caulking is discolored, cracked, or when it falls outs of place, it needs replacement.
You can also find rubber weather stripping at the bottom of the door.
Check that they don’t get brittle or broken, same with the door’s insulation.
Keeping long-lasting garage doors in Pittsburgh is relatively easy.
We are a team of garage door repair in Pittsburgh professional that can help you with all your garage door concerns: from door repair to garage door adjustment and rebuilding, we are just a phone call away.
