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When it comes to prioritizing the home needs, garage doors are usually the last on the list. It doesn’t occur to us to take care of it until it’s too late. This is even when they give prior notice of failures, ranging from difficulties in opening to making squeaky sounds to grinding and stopping halfway.
Rather than buying a new garage door, you can do simple repairs. The part of the garage doors you can repair on your own are tracks, springs, pulley cables, and extensions. However, if you’re not confident of doing these things yourself, hiring a professional to do the job is the right thing to do.
Tools Needed to Repair Garage Doors
When working on the garage door, ensure that the garage door opener is unplugged. Observe all safety precautions, put on all safety equipment, including safety glasses, and use the right tools. Below are some of the common tools used in repairing garage doors:
● Two metal C-clamps
● Garage door anvil
● Pliers
● Flashlights
● Wrench sets
● Ladder
● Rubber millet
Instructions
1. Setting the Safety Clamps
To set the safety clamps, open the garage door. Make sure you fasten the C-clamp to the metal door. Make this as high as it can be, below the base of the door. Then, do the same on the other side of the door. The C-clamp prevents the garage door from falling while the repair is going on. These safety precautions should be taken whenever you’re working on an open garage door.
2. Examining the Metal Tracks
The garage door moves on metal tracks situated on both sides of the garage door opening. These tracks help the movement of the door from vertical to horizontal. When you open the door, check the steep part of the garage door metal track. Then, using a flashlight, run your fingers through the trails. This process will enable you to notice dents or damaged areas.
Afterwards, detach the clamps and close the garage door. Then, using a ladder, check the horizontal part of the tracks close to the ceiling for dents.
3. Repairing Metal Tracks
Pound out damaged areas in the garage door tracks using a rubber mallet, hammer, and woodblock. If the path is bent, straighten it with the millet. To fix serious dents, use a garage door track anvil. This tool can straighten dents or damaged tracks and form them back to their original state.
4. Examine Extension Spring
The extension spring can be found above the garage door and connected to the garage ceiling. If the door opens or closes slowly, then the spring may be faulty. When one or more part of the coil is popped open, you’ll need to replace the spring.
5. Setting Door for Safety
To set the garage door, make sure the garage door opener is unplugged. Set a leader in the opened door. Ensure the door is resting on the ladder, then set the C-clamps.
6. Removing Extension Spring
Lose the pulley with the wrench and push out the bolt. Allow the safety cable to fall to the ground. Remove the safety cable by untwisting it and remove the extension spring from the safety cable while it’s still hanging.
7. Replacing Extension Spring
Pass the safety cable through the extension spring. Adjust the safety cord and affix it. Affix the pulley by the other side of the spring while slipping the bolt through the pulley and fastening it with a wrench.
Conclusion
Repairing garage doors can be quite dangerous, especially when you’re doing it yourself at home. You need to be extremely careful of garage door tension springs because they can cause serious injury if they snap or become loose. It’s best to allow the professionals to handle it. Thankfully, you need not search so hard for this, Danny’s garage door is here to help.
