Garage Door Winter Maintenance

As the winter weather carries on, you need to be sure that you are doing everything you can to keep your home in good condition. Cold winds and blowing snows can wreak havoc on your home. In particular, your garage door can suffer from a lot of damage during these winter months. Being without a functioning door can dramatically increase your heating expenses while also putting your family’s safety at risk. Taking the time to ensure proper garage door maintenance during these winter months is the best way to keep it in perfect working condition when you need it to function the most.

How Does Winter Affect Your Garage Door?

The cold weather can cause numerous issues with your door. Cold causes metal to shrink, especially thin pieces of metal. This means that any metal part in your door, from the track to the springs, is prone to shrinkage, interfering with its opening and closing functions. Prolonged shrinking and expanding can cause your metal to warp or to break off, leading to serious issues.

Exposure to the dampness winter brings can also play a huge part in the early deterioration of your door’s seal, especially if it is made from plastic. Plastic seals can crack and break easily, letting frigid air into your garage and potentially your home. Water damage may also cause your garage door to swell, leading it to get stuck or become nearly impossible to move.

When Should You Think About Winter Maintenance?

Ideally, you should start thinking about garage door repair and maintenance in the early fall. This gives you a fairly large window to have your door professionally examined and to have any problems fixed before the snow and freezing temperatures begin. However, it is a good idea to check on your door periodically throughout the winter months. Even with preventative garage door service, you never know when damage may occur.

Spend sometime in September or October examining your door. Pay attention to the way it opens and closes, the sounds it makes, and how each individual part looks. If there are any chips or cracks in any component, have it replaced immediately. Look for warping or rust along the tracks as well. If you don’t have your door professionally examined in the fall, consider hiring a garage door repair company to come take a look at it in the spring. Technicians can assess any damage that may have occurred over the winter months, ensuring everything is fixed up before the extreme temperatures of the summer hit.

How to Prepare for Power Outages

Power outages are common in the winter months, so make sure you are prepared. In addition to inspecting your door in the fall, there are a few other precautionary measures you should take. First, make sure that you know where your garage door’s disengagement cord is located. Next, tidy or rearrange your garage so you can easily reach this cord in the dark. Consider attaching a battery operated push light to the wall near the light switch for added safety. Never start your car before getting the door open.

Specific Maintenance Tips:

To be sure that your garage door performs in peak condition, even when the weather outside is awful, keep the following maintenance tips in mind:

Moving Parts

As mentioned, the cold weather can interfere with your door’s moving parts – making it impossible to open or close. Inspecting your door on a regular basis is the best way to catch any small signs of damage, so it can be repaired before it gets worse. Another way you can test your moving parts is to disable your automatic opener, then try opening and closing the door a few times on your own. Make a note of any unusual movements or sounds.

Lubrication

Lubrication is how your garage door opens and closes so smoothly. Unfortunately, lubricant can solidify or become gooey in the cold weather, especially if you frequently open and close the door. Make sure you are using a high-grade lubricant on all parts – using one specifically designed for cold weather climates is recommended. You can often find these types of lubricants in spray bottles or aerosol cans, making it easy to apply it directly to the springs, hinges, tracks, and bearings.

Door Seal

You can easily check your garage door seal by doing the “light test.” Simply wait until dark, turn the light on inside your garage, and stand outside, directly in front of the closed door. If you see small cracks of light peaking through the seal, it needs to be repaired. If light can escape, cold air can enter.

Perform preventative garage door maintenance by cleaning your door’s seal once a month or so. You can use any all-purpose cleaner and a cloth to wipe down the plastic, getting rid of any grime or dirt that may have accumulated. Make sure you use a dry cloth after to remove any dampness or moisture left behind.

Door Balance

Homeowners should also spend some time checking the garage door’s balance. While balance issues can happen for any reason, not just cold weather, they can be particularly destructive once winter hits. A door that is not properly balanced may fall to the ground on its own, without provocation. This can cause a lot of damage, could potentially break your door, and is a major safety issue, especially when there is a lot of snow and ice around the door’s entrance.

You can test your door’s balance by disconnecting it from your automatic opener and pushing it about halfway up the track. If it only moves a little bit, it is probably balanced. If it falls down right away or quickly rolls all the way up, it is not balanced.

Clean Often

Finally, make sure you clean your door often. Regular cleanings give you familiarity with how it is supposed to function, making you more sensitive to minor signs of damage. Additionally, a clean door does run better. Keeping the seal and tracks clean ensure smooth operation and proper insulation.

Contact the Pros

While there are some routine garage maintenance tasks you can take on by yourself, like lubricating the moving parts, there are others that should only be done by a professional. Garage door service technicians are skilled at identifying and correcting problem areas, ensuring that your door works as intended throughout the coldest months of the year. These individuals are also the perfect people to call for your fall inspection. With their level of training and on-the-job experience, small imperfections are not going to escape their notice. As a result, the quality of their inspections and garage door repair work is something DIYers simply can’t match.

Neglecting your door during the winter months can cause damage to your home, your belongings, and may even compromise your family’s safety. Don’t leave any of this to chance and make sure you spend some time focusing on garage door maintenance this winter.