It’s never too early to think about seasonal preparations for your garage door. Time flies by during our busy lives, and before you know it, several months have flown by. The team at Best Garage Door Repair encourages you to start prepping and planning early. While you can wait to start working until the weather cools down, gathering your supplies and equipping yourself with useful knowledge is something you should do now. Especially because once you start putting something off, you’re likely to continue doing so until it’s too late! Without further ado, let’s dive into fall maintenance tips for garage doors:
1. Start By Cleaning
It’s easy to toss overflow items into your garage and think, “Out of sight, out of mind.” Often we end up using our garage for storage so much that we can’t fit our cars in anymore! If you have so much clutter in your garage that you can’t fit your car inside, it’s time to make a plan to get rid of some of your junk—or at least find a better place to store your overflow. Not only is better for your car to stay sheltered during the colder months, but cleaning will also help you detect and prevent pest infestations during the fall.
Rats and mice are active year-round. However, they begin looking for shelter indoors when the weather starts to cool. Clutter is rodents’ best friend. It offers places for these critters to shelter and make nests. In some cases, clutter can also provide food sources. Bags of pet food and bird seed make especially tasty treats for rats and mice. If you need to keep these items in your garage, be sure to put them in sealed containers.
While you’re cleaning, you should check for signs of rodent infestation. Look out for greasy marks along the walls, small, dark droppings, and gnaw marks. Also, listen for squeaking, scratching, and scampering sounds. If you notice any of these signs, you’ll want to call an exterminator and have them take care of the problem. Then you should hire garage door experts to help you seal up the space to prevent another infestation.
Once the inside of your garage is clean and rodent-free, don’t forget to give the outside of your door a little love! Scrub it with a microfiber cloth and some soapy water. Then use wax or car polish to seal the panels and weatherstripping. This will prepare your garage for inclement weather during the colder months.
2. Check Your Opening System
Garage doors raise and lower using an intricate system that contains many components, such as springs, cables, rollers, and tracks. Each part works together to help your garage door raise and lower, and it’s essential that every component works properly for the health of the entire system. Here are the things you’ll want to do when checking your opening system:
Clear the Tracks
Have you ever checked your garage door to see if it needs clearing? It’s easy to overlook this part of your door, but it’s important to give it some attention. Dirt, debris, and oil tend to build up on the tracks, and this needs to be cleaned up in order for your door to open smoothly.
Lubricate Where Necessary
Frequent lubrication helps keep the moving parts of your garage door operating properly. The two main things you’ll want to lubricate are the springs and the rollers. Just make sure you don’t overdo it. A little garage door lubricant goes a long way. A great choice for garage door lubricant is white lithium.
Check the Auto-Reverse System
Your garage door’s auto-reverse system is what keeps you, your property, and your family safe from accidents. If the system senses something in its path, it will retract. Testing this safety feature every now and then is important. To make sure your system is working properly, place a small, solid object in your door’s path and hit the close button. If the door quickly senses the object and retracts, you’re good to go. If it takes too long to reverse or doesn’t retract at all, you need to call a professional to come fix it.
3. Replace Worn Parts
If you find anything wrong when you check your opening system, it’s important not to ignore it. Make sure to replace any worn parts so your garage doesn’t become a safety hazard. When something goes wrong with one part of your garage door, eventually it causes strain on the entire system. Thus, you need to take repairs and replacements seriously. And no, that doesn’t mean DIYing a solution. Make sure you hire an expert who knows what they’re doing.
We Can Help You Maintain Your Garage Door!
If fall rolls around and you can’t find the time to make sure your garage door is functioning as it should, we can help. Our trained professionals can make sure your garage is in peak condition to survive the colder months. We can help you with everything, from installation to repair and maintenance. Contact us today to learn more!