Having a garage door makes life a lot better. In addition to keeping your vehicle out of the elements, you can rest easy knowing that your car and belongings are safe and secure. The only problem is that garage doors can be loud and annoying when opening and closing.
You can do the following things on your own to ensure you have a quiet garage door:
- Tighten nuts and bolts: All of the nuts and bolts connecting various pieces of your garage door get loose over the years—and the looser they get, the more noise they make. Use a screwdriver and a small wrench to tighten any loose nuts and bolts you can find. If the noise persists after tightening everything up, you may need to bring in a garage door specialist.
- Lubricate components: The metal rollers, springs, hinges and tracks need to be well lubricated to perform their best. As they get dry, they scrape against other metal and cause a racket. Spray any metal component with an oil designed for use on metal. After you spray everything down, wipe the excess off with a rag.
- Inspect the rollers: Those rollers can also cause quite a bit of noise if they’re misaligned. Get up on a ladder, and see if the rollers look out of place. If so, you should call a garage door specialist to align them—this can be a dangerous job to do on your own. You might also want to consider upgrading to nylon rollers, which are much quieter than metal ones.
- Add noise insulators: You can also put noise insulators between the motor block and the slotted metal brace that attaches the motor to the ceiling. These rubber pieces buffer the vibration between parts that cause loud and obnoxious noises. While you can install these yourself, it’s a job best left to the pros.
When should you call a professional?
Sometimes a noisy garage door is a sign that your door needs to be repaired. Watch out for these signs and call a garage door specialist ASAP:
- Louder noises: If the noises don’t go away or even get louder after performing all of our maintenance tips, something more serious is clearly wrong with your door. A specialist will perform a full inspection to see what the true cause of the problem is.
- Shaking or rocking: A door that shakes as it opens and closes is a safety hazard (and it causes a lot of commotion!). If your door doesn’t remain steady, we recommend bringing in a professional to make all necessary repairs.
- Slower operation: Your door might start to get slower over time. This is typically caused by a failing motor, but it may have something to do with other door components. We’ll perform an inspection to see what’s wrong with it.
If your garage door shows any of these signs or if you’d just like a quiet garage door, call our team at Action Door Service. We’ll send someone out right away for a free in-home consultation to see what repairs can be made or if you need a new door.