A garage door is one of the most used features in your home. In fact, most homeowners use the garage door as their front door — it’s the place where they leave and enter the home. This heavy use and importance are the reasons why you should provide regular maintenance services for your garage door. These services don’t have to be expensive, and they don’t have to take a significant amount of time, but they should be seasonally appropriate.
With the hottest months of the year approaching, take this time to prep your garage for summer. Extreme heat and extreme cold can really affect a garage door’s shape and performance, so here’s a rundown of how to ready your garage door for extreme heat and how to prepare your garage door for summer.
Cleaning
Think about how filthy items that are stored in your garage can become. All that opening and lowering of the door allows dust and debris to sneak in a created layer of dirtiness. Take this opportunity to clean your garage door inside and out to get rid of that layer of dirt.
Gentle soap and water will do the trick for light cleaning, but feel free to use some car wax for the dirtiest of jobs. As you clean, inspect your garage door for any warning signs, and some might be specific to your garage door material. For example, look for signs of rotting in a wood door, and search for rust in a steel door. Consider a rust-resistant paint or water sealer as part of your garage door prep for summer and to help protect your garage door into the future.
Lubricating
You want your garage door to run as smoothly as possible, and good lubricant will help. While many people are likely to reach for the WD-40, that’s not the product you want to use. Instead, find a lithium grease or silicone-based lubricant to cover the hinges, tracks and rollers of your garage door. There’s a balance to application, though. You want just enough lubrication that your garage door runs smoothly, but you don’t want so much lubrication that dirt and grime will cling to and build up on top of it. Any dirt and grime that gets in the way will counteract the lubrication and prevent your garage door from running as smoothly as it should.
Inspecting
You’ll want to search through your garage door and garage door opener’s many moving parts to check for signs of wear and warning. Start by checking the garage door hinges and cables. Do you see any signs of stress? Check the track bolts for tightness as well, then take a look at your garage door springs. Are they free of rust?
Each of these parts will break down eventually, but catching any issues early can help reduce the cost of repair and replacement. And always be sure to contact a professional if you see any warning signs during your inspection. A garage door’s parts are often under a massive amount of tension. This tension is what allows your door to work properly, but it can also pose a danger for novices who attempt to repair or replace parts on their own.
Sealing
If you’re like most homeowners, you want your garage door to be as energy-efficient as possible — and to remain cool during the summer. That means a focus on insulation and weather-stripping is necessary when you’re preparing your garage for summer.
Check along the edges of your garage door for any weather stripping that looks like it’s fraying or otherwise coming apart. Your insulation will be more difficult to examine as it’s often enclosed in a sandwich of panels, but look along these panels for anything that concerns you. As with any of these areas, an inspection from a professional can also help determine how your insulation is holding up.
At Custom Overhead Doors, we can help you get your garage ready for summer. Since 1989, we’ve been working with home and business owners in Raleigh, Greenville, Greensboro, Fayetteville and surrounding communities, delivering the quality products and exceptional services they want and need.
Our approach is simple: We do what we say we’re going to do, and we do it at the price quoted. This allows us to provide helpful, responsive service that’s designed to meet your needs. Whether you’re trying to get a garage door ready for summer or you’re searching the market for a new garage door at your home, you can count on the team at Custom Overhead Doors.
Contact us today about garage door maintenance and your other garage door needs.