A couple of tips for at-home garage door repair

Today we took a break from our travels to visit mu nephew and his wife in Fresno. They live in a lovely little cottage home on the outskirts of the city proper. We having lunch with them when he mentioned that their garage door was having some issues and not closing properly. Good thing I used to work for a garage repair service in my younger days and was able t impart some wisdom on him. This got me thinking about making a blog post about a few tips and tricks that have picked up over the years of repairing garages and driveways. I thought that this would be a good opportunity for me to impart some wisdom on a younger generation about how they can go about fixing their own garage door when the situation calls for it. So here it goes. Here my top tips for garage repair.

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1.If the Door Doesn’t Work the First thing to check is the sensor

One of the first thins to malfunction in a garage door that has an electric door opening mechanism is the sensor. Sometimes in a dusty garage, this sensor can get covered in dust and simply not work because it senses something is in front of it (dust) and therefore will not shut the door. Or if this is the first time setting up the sensor it could be a simple misplacement issue. Sometimes these sensors have very delicate set up processes and if they get knocked or moved accidentally they could become misaligned and stop working

2. It Might Be the Garage Door Opener

Sometimes things that seem difficult are actually quite simple. Like changing the batteries out in the garage door remote. I can’t tell you how many times I was called in to repair a person garage door thinking that I would be doing some heavy lifting for the day, only to discover that their garage door remote simply had run out of batteries. This is a simple solution that should probably be checked first, hence why it is on the top of my list.

3. If you do need to lift something heavy get help

This one is super important. If you don’t want to call a professional garage door repair service, then at least have someone come over and lend you a hand. People can get seriously hurt trying to lift heavy garage doors all by themselves and if you are planning on unscrewing anything or taking anything apart, then you definitely want to call over one of your more burly friends to help you out before you get yourself in over you head

4. Lubrication always helps

Another important detail that might be overlooked, especially if you live in a dry climate like my Nephew in Fresno CA is the lubrication of your moving parts in the garage door mechanism. If you don’t have a proper lubrication, you might be hearing al sorts of terrible noises when you go to open or close your garage door.