In our last blog, we talked about maintenance chores for your garage door. But, garage doors are a lot like the front door of your home. It can operate flawlessly for years, but then wear and tear makes it begin to squeak or stick. You determine the door is misaligned and needs attention.
Since a squeaking or staggering garage door doesn’t leak water or appear to be a danger, many homeowners may put up with the problem. But it’s not a good idea, because these are signs all is not well. But, what causes a garage door misalignment in the first place?
But, let’s start with the most frequent causes:
Weather
Weather can hasten the settling of the structure or even affect the door directly. Hot, arid days will dry out the lubricants that make a garage door work smoothly. High winds or other poor weather conditions can beat mercilessly against a garage door. Weather is an excellent reason to keep a garage door well maintained.
Settling
Garages are built to last for the life of the home. But, in the process of aging, the building housing the garage may settle. Settling means that the frame (joists, headers, trusses) may gradually shift. That small shift may be enough to cause a misalignment in the garage door since the garage door and hardware is connected to the frame.
Boxes and Buicks bumping it
As the garage door is often inextricably linked to the use of the car, someone can hit the garage door lightly, and while it still works, it may be slightly out of whack. That someone who ran into it may not be willing to admit it, or may not honestly be aware that they did it.
The other thing is that people keep tools, boxes, and other items in their garages. If a shovel or box falls on the garage door or parts, that could be enough to cause a slight problem.
Mechanical
Since a garage door has many mechanical parts, there could be an issue with a spring, a track, or a jumped cable. The problem with any of these is that attempting to fix one could compromise another, for example, if you’re trying to put a cable back on the drum, sometimes one of the tracks will get bent in the process. It can get jammed so it won’t move at all, and this can happen in any position. When it’s down, it can be a problem if your car is stuck inside, and if it’s up, it can leave the garage contents open to theft. Some people don’t have a front door key or for the door adjoining the garage to the house. If it gets bad enough, the garage can even fall, leaving anyone under it subject to the potential for great bodily harm.
Tracks can degrade and get bent or fill with debris, any of which will result in poor operation. Screws and bolts can come loose or get lost, and any of these can also result in misalignment and necessary repair.
We are always available to the homeowner who needs a repair or maintenance for their garage door. If your garage door is misaligned, give us a call! We can have it working right again in no time.
