4 Reasons You Really Need Garage Door Repair

After all our years in the business, we’d like to say we’ve seen it all in commercial and residential garage doors when it comes to repairs.  At Overhead Door Company of Lansing, we pride ourselves on the best service and parts in the business, and we’re proud to serve the greater Lansing, MI area. Here are some of the most common problems we see when a garage door suddenly won’t work.
 
Transmitter Suddenly Stops Working.
You come home late at night, and it’s raining (because it’s always raining when things go wrong), and when you point your transmitter at your door, nothing happens. The first thing you want to check are the batteries in your transmitter.  If you can still open the door from the transmitter inside your garage, there’s a good chance that it’s just the batteries, and we just saved you a service call. Change out the batteries using two fresh new batteries and if that doesn’t take care of the problem, give us a call.  Helpful Tip: If you have more than one transmitter, change out the batteries in all of them at the same time. If one has failed, the others aren’t far behind.
 
Something Blocking the Photo Eye.
The Photo Eye mechanism is what prevents your garage door from closing if something is blocking it. For those of you who remember the game when we were kids of dashing under the garage door before it closed the photo eye now prevents this. This important safety measure on all garage doors was made mandatory in 1993 and probably has saved countless lives because of it. Located on either side of your garage entrance, the eyes can sometimes get dirt, bugs or other debris in front of them and that can cause your garage door to fail to go all the way up or down. If clearing the eyes does not work, then they are most likely out of alignment, so give us a call to make sure they are calibrated correctly.

Your Track is Out of Alignment.
The metal track that your garage door runs on can move if it is bumped, or even just because of the aging and shifting of the building. Once it is out of alignment, it affects the entire mechanism including, the rollers, hinges, and springs. If your door slows down at a certain point when it is opening or closing, or makes a grinding or rubbing noise your tracks may be misaligned. Our trained repair technicians can safely realign and repair your tracks to get your door working smoothly again.

Torsion Spring Failure.
The heavy lifters in a garage door are industrial grade springs called torsion springs, and depending on the size and make of your garage door there are one or two of them. As with any repetitive movement, the springs begin to wear, and when they go, you’ll know it as it sounds like a shotgun blast. Any garage door that is more than 20 years old risks a torsion spring failure and should be replaced. When a torsion spring breaks, the cables that lift the door will snap as well and fly out and could cause serious damage to your vehicle or anyone in the garage.

How Putting off Garage Door Repair Can Backfire

Sometimes procrastination saves money. For example, putting off impulse purchases at a store for things you don't need can save money. Once the items are out of sight, they're also out of mind and the desire for them fades. The same can't be said of garage door repair. It's common for people to put off a garage door repair when the door continues to function. The usual outcome of this is that the delay ultimately causes the owner to spend more money. This can happen in a number of ways. Here are two:

A Delayed Broken Garage Door Spring Replacement Causes Further Damage

The two springs on a garage door are adjusted to balance out the weight of the door. The garage door motor supplies the remaining lifting/lowering force to open or close the door. When one spring breaks, the motor must lift about half of the door's weight. However, the motor isn't meant to do this over the long-term. This reduces the motor's service life or causes damage, which may require repair or replacement in the near future.

A more devastating scenario can play out if the second spring breaks while the first is still broken. If both springs were installed at the same time, they have the same number of usage cycles when the first spring breaks. Because the second spring has the same usage rating as the first, it's ready to break at any time. When this happens, the door may fall down in its tracks or pop out of its tracks and possibly cause severe injury or property damage.

An Improperly Closed Door Causes a Home Break-In

A door that's cocked, doesn't close all the way down, or has popped from a track requires repair ASAP. It's a home break-in waiting to happen. Break-ins aren't limited to high crime areas. Criminals often case homes in affluent neighborhoods. The more "experienced" of these people are good at spotting security weaknesses, and a poorly closed garage door is practically an invitation sign. Even if your insurance covers all of your losses, the emotional trauma, inconvenience, and increased insurance premiums make the experience an ordeal.

The saying, "never put off until tomorrow what you can do today," especially applies to garage door repair and maintenance. If you have any problems with your garage door, get it fixed promptly by contacting Overhead Door Co. of Lansing.

The Many Benefits of Garage Door Openers

If you don't have a garage door opener or have an old one that has fallen into disrepair, opening a garage door by hand or by pressing a button may not matter much to you. If the springs are doing their job, opening a door manually doesn't exactly break a sweat. However, a garage door opener is more beneficial than merely sparing you some physical effort. This is especially true if there are others in your life you care about. Here are five reasons why you might reconsider:

They Protect You and Your Family from the Weather

If it's exceptionally hot or cold outside, opening the garage door from inside your car, minimizes your exposure to enervating heat or to bone chilling cold. You can get out of your car after you're inside the garage and have shut the garage doors. A garage door opener allows you to keep your clothes dry instead of unlocking and opening the door by hand in a pouring rain or hail storm with lightning flashing overhead.

They Prevent Injury or Re-Injury

Even a young athletic person will find a garage door opener useful such as when recovering from an injury. If you're suffering from pulled muscles in the back, whiplash, a broken rib, or just sore muscles from a hard workout, manually opening the garage door is literally a pain. Perhaps others in your household with medical problems, lower back pain, or possibly arthritis would appreciate a working garage door opener.

They Enable Independent Living for the Elderly

Everyone values their independence including your grandparents or your parents. They may not be capable of manually opening the garage door, or perhaps doing this risks a debilitating injury. Automation, including that of your garage door reduces their dependence on others and increases their sense of dignity.

They Enhance Your Home's Security

A garage door that automatically closes as you drive away guarantees you'll never leave your garage door open all day when no one is home. Garage door openers are controllable via smart phone apps. These apps can warn you at work that your garage door is still open, and allow you to close them remotely.

They're Green

Garage door openers consume little energy and therefore have little impact on the environment. How is this possible with a two hundred or three hundred pound door? Every time you close your garage door, it stretches extension springs or twists coil springs. These springs store mechanical energy that is later used for reopening your door.

If you're ready to install a garage door opener, or wish to repair or upgrade your current system, contact Overhead Door Company of Lansing today!

3 Common Garage Door Problems

The garage door is one of the hardest working devices in the home, even if it is sometimes under appreciated. For a garage door to continually run efficiently, a homeowner must keep up with its particular ways, working around and fixing its little quirks, so that it performs as expected.

Do you know when to call a professional for your garage door repair? In this post, we'll outline 3 incredibly common garage door problems that you can fix yourself.

1. Sticking: When a garage door sticks, it's a problem that is easily sorted out. First, if you have an opener, check the batteries. Then, ensure that the sensor isn't obscured. From there, look at the wheel track and verify that the wheels are aligned. Lubricate the tracks as needed. If you find that your garage door is hung unevenly, contact a professional for assistance.

2. Uneven Movement: Less than ideal movement from your garage door means that the track is full of debris. If your garage door moves from side-to-side when in use, it's best that you check the track for bits of grit and dirt. If you find upon inspection that your tracks are bent or that the wheels need attention, put in a call to a professional to clear up your issue.

3. Loud Noises: After years of consistent use, garage doors will begin to make abrasive noises. While this type of sound doesn't mean a garage door will fail, it is a sign that something worse is going on. Try greasing the track with special garage door track oil (or WD40). If that doesn't work, consider discussing your problem with a professional garage door repairman.

While many garage door problems are fixed by the homeowner, it's important that you know when to contact Overhead Door Company of Lansing to help you out.

Is Your Garage Door a Lawsuit Waiting to Happen?

A potential safety liability on many home owners' radar is the backyard swimming pool. Swimming pools have been the scene of many serious injuries and fatalities. The victims are often unsupervised children, or children who wandered onto the property and made their way to an un-gated pool. However, there is one overlooked item that is equally dangerous to children and adults alike: the garage door.

Unlike the backyard swimming pool, people often underestimate the danger of their garage door. This is likely because it's used so frequently that complacency sets in, and its danger becomes hidden in plain sight.

What makes a garage door dangerous? It's a three or four hundred pound object that moves up and down a vertical height of over 7 feet several times a day. If it's well maintained and frequently inspected, then it's reasonably safe. However, that can change with owner neglect. Safeties that prevent the door from closing on someone can stop functioning. A door with a broken spring can drop down its track, and a door that hangs unevenly may pop out of its track and land flat on the garage floor.

In addition to being concerned about the safety of yourself and your family, you must also think about the welfare of invited guests to your home. If they are injured by your garage door because of a known problem that wasn't fixed, and you didn't warn them of the danger, they would have a good liability case against you in court. Even friends sue friends if the injuries suffered are sufficiently debilitating or the injury happened to their child. Three or four hundred pounds of garage door can cause serious harm.

Although giving guests sufficient warning gets you off the liability hook, it does nothing for your family's safety if they continue to use the door. If you have a problem garage door in a house that you rent out to others, you're required to keep it in good working order. Otherwise, it's also an injury and lawsuit waiting to happen. We suggest you have your garage door regularly inspected and maintained by Overhead Door Co. of Lansing.

Help! My Garage Door Opener Won't Work

Pulling into the driveway, you grab the garage door remote, push the button and nothing happens. You try again with the same results. Several more attempts, you finally give up and begin searching for what could be the problem.

When any electrical device is not working the first thing to consider is the power source. Is the unit plugged in? Take a look at the circuit breaker and reset if necessary. Did this take care of your problem? If not, try plugging another electrical device into the same outlet as the garage door opener. If that device works, the power supply is not the problem and we need to try a few other tests.

Next, try pushing the opener control button on the wall unit and note whether either the small green light or the overhead light blink or come on at all. If the light is blinking check to see if there is anything blocking the sensors from communicating with each other. These are the two sensors located on the track on both sides of the door, about a foot off the ground. It could be a tool, a trash can, spider webs, dirt or anything. Either something is blocking the two sensors or the tracks are misaligned. The sensors are installed for reasons of safety. They prevent hazards by keeping the doors from closing when something is blocking them.

If the garage door labors to open, then stops, suspect a broken torsion spring. If they appear broken in any way at all call a professional garage door repair service. Do Not Attempt To Repair a malfunctioning torsion spring. It is a difficult and risky repair and could cause serious injury. Leave it to the professional garage door contractor.

If the garage door opens and closes with the main control button on the wall but does not open or close when using the remote or keypad, change the batteries in the remote and keypad and try again.

If that didn't resolve your opener problem, the unit may be in lock mode. If it is in lock mode the light on the main control would be blinking. Your wall unit comes equipped with a button that you press for a few seconds and release. If the light is not blinking any longer than you have solved the problem.

If the door still does not respond, the garage door opener itself may have a bad component. If the door sounds like it wants to open but does not and the torsion springs are intact, it's probably a bad capacitor which can disable the motor entirely. It could also be a bad power board or control board. Once again, we recommend you leave these types of repairs for the experts.

If you're experiencing issues with your garage door opener, contact the experts at Overhead Doors of Lansing!

Maintaining Your Garage Door

Garage doors tend to grow louder and creakier with age. While in some cases these symptoms point to the need for a new garage door, in others they simply indicate that some basic maintenance efforts are required. If you would like to learn more about how to keep your garage door in good working order, read on. This article will discuss two of the most important strategies to employ.

Keep your rollers lubricated 

Your garage door moves up and down along two parallel metal tracks. Running inside of these tracks are bar-mounted roller wheels whose opposite ends are attached to the door itself. Over time, the rollers tend to accumulate gunk, dirt, and debris that impede their movement. This often causes the door to become much noisier when it is opened and closed.

Fortunately, you can do wonders to restore smooth functioning to your garage door simply by lubricating the rollers. First, however, it is vital that you remove as much grime as possible using a clean rag. Then carefully apply a small amount of silicone-based lubricant to each of the rollers. Try not to get any on the tracks, as this could lead to the door slipping.

Tighten loose hinge bolts 

The chains and pulleys of a garage door opener tend to produce a lot of vibrations. As time goes on, these vibrations often act to loosen the bolts that hold the roller hinges to the door. Thus it is a good idea to inspect and tighten these bolts using an appropriately sized wrench. This will help to cut down on annoying clattering and other unwanted noises.

For more information on how to maintain your garage door and to ensure that yours is in good working order, give us a call today!