You may not use your garage as often as the rest of your home, but it still needs regular maintenance. One of the components of your garage that you need to be careful about is the garage door. Statistics show that garage doors are responsible for about 30,000 injuries every year.
So you need to know what signs to look out for to help you determine whether you need to contact a garage door repair company in nearby areas like Salt Lake City. Here are some signs you should watch out for:
Excessive vibrations or shakes
Whenever you feel excessive vibrations or shakes when your garage door moves, you need to be careful. Take a closer look at the garage door parts. Determine if there are any loose screws or hinges. It may also be a case of the rollers about to come off the tracks. Or maybe one of the lift cables is partly broken or about to break.
Whether you spot the cause of shakes and vibrations, you need to contact a professional. They will help you figure out the problem and repair the garage door before it can cause injuries or worse.
Increase in noise level
Your garage door should not make so much noise when it is either closing or opening. That shows that each part works properly. So when you notice an increase in noise level, that means there is a problem. Some of the sounds include squeaking, banging, grinding, or grating noises. Some issues that can cause an increase in noise level include a track that is no longer level, moving devices that need lubrication, and torsion springs that have problems.
Difficulty opening or closing
There may be instances in which you accidentally got locked in your garage and the door refused to open for a while. There may also be instances when you struggled to open your garage door so that you could get in. When there is difficulty in opening or closing a garage door, it means that the components responsible for the door movement are faulty in some way.
Some of the reasons why your door may not close or open correctly include worn-down or broken cables, a malfunctioning garage door opener, faulty door springs, etc. All these things may seem minor, but they can prevent you from securing your garage fully, which may make it easier for thieves to steal your vehicles or whatever else you store in there.
Age-based wear and tear
How old is your garage door? The average automatic opener lasts ten to 12 years. Other kinds of garage doors can last for 30 years. During the time your garage door is in use, you will open and close it 1,500 times a year on average. And it will be exposed to the elements. Over time, the door undergoes wear and tear. The older the garage door, the more wear and tear it undergoes.
Some signs of wear and tear include rust, dents, broken glass, handles and hinges, and faded colors. Others include rot and sagging of the doors. All these are signs that you need to buy a new one. Additionally, when you realize that the door needs excessive repairs, it may mean the door is too old and needs replacing.
You need to maintain your garage doors well. Doing so will prevent injuries and fatalities and extend the lifespan of your garage door. But a time may come when you have no choice but to buy a new door. When that happens, you can call a garage door repair company, knowing that you have done everything to fix what can be repaired.
