Malfunctioning Door? See How You Can Get It Fixed

There are two major components of a garage door; the actual door and the garage door opener. Due to continuous usage of the garage door, these parts can develop a fault. Are you wondering why it’s important to keep your garage doors working? Do you wish to get your malfunctioning door fixed? Then you are on the right page. Here we will discuss various ways you can fix your garage door.

How to Know If Your Garage Door is Malfunctioning

A malfunctioning door can put you and your family at risk and expose you to external factors like pests, bad weather, and thieves. So as a homeowner serious about safety, you must be able to identify a malfunctioning garage door.

Here are some of the common signs to look out for.

Difficulty in Opening or Closing the Garage Door

When the door refuses to respond to the control button or remote, it is an indicator that you need to inspect your door to note the faulty part. It could be a minor disconnected switch, or it could be a major disconnection between the door and the panel or some other malfunction.

Sagging Garage Door

An off-balance or sagging door could be a result of worn tension springs or dulled tracks. You can carry out a balance check to see if your panels are well balanced.

Noisy Garage Door

You can detect the problem with the garage door from the kind of sounds it makes when you’re operating it. Grinding noise indicates that the rollers are worn out, or the moving parts are poorly lubricated. Grating noise indicates bent coils, and rumbling sound indicates loose spring tension. Squealing noise indicates that the garage door is out of balance.

5 Steps to Repair a Malfunctioning Garage Door

Garage doors operate on spring tension. The door moves on metal tracks, and the springs provide the power. In most cases, when the door doesn’t function properly, the repairs might be fairly simple and not as expensive as installing a new door. 

Here are some of the steps to fixing a malfunctioning door.

Examine the Door

Check all the parts of the door to identify the faulty area. Inspect the metal tracks, bolts, mounting wall brackets, hinges, and other places. Tighten the loose bolts on any part of the garage door. 

Check the tracks for dents and crimps. In case you notice a bulge, you can smooth it out using a hammer or rubber mallet. If the tracks are extensively damaged, they should be replaced.

Horizontal tracks should slant slightly down, and the vertical tracks should be plumb. Both tracks must be at the same height on the garage walls. When the tracks are not properly aligned, slightly unscrew the bolts used to hold the mounting brackets in place and carefully adjust the tracks back into position. Double-check to see if the tracks are properly aligned, then tighten the bolts on the mounting brackets.

Clean the Garage Door Rollers and Tracks 

Clean the tracks with a household cleaner to remove dirt and tough old grease. Also, clean the rollers with a towel or an old rag, wipe both tracks and rollers to remove the excess oil. Lubricate the tracks to ensure smooth operation of the door.

Check If the Garage Door Opener Is Working Properly

Examine the garage door opener to see if the malfunctioning is linked to it. When the tracks have been properly cleaned, and all the mechanical systems are fine-tuned, and the garage doors aren’t working well, the fault may be from the garage door opener.

The garage door opener is one of the hardest things to repair. It is advisable to contact a garage door repair service.

Check for Loose Hardware

Tighten all loose hardware components. On swing-up doors, check and tighten the bolts of the plates where the spring is fixed. Check the hinges that secure each section of the door together; tighten any loose bolts, and replace any cracked hinges.

Check for Sagging Doors

Sagging doors can be repaired by servicing the hinges. In case of an enlarged screw hole, a longer screw with the same diameter should be used to replace the screw. Use a hollow fiber plug soaked in the carpenter’s glue together with the new screw. In case of cracked wood at a hinge, detach the hinge and fill the cracks and the screw holes with wood putty. Wood putty or wood filler fills the imperfections and gives a good finishing to your job.