Three Common Garage Door Problems
For many of us, our garage door is the most used entrance to our home, but we tend to take its operation for granted. Generally, garage doors are very reliable and function without any problems or issues. However, as relible as they are, one day you are bound to push that button and the prudent as you may be there’s no guarantee that you won’t run into trouble; so to help you out we’ve compiled a list of three common garage door problems along with a few suggested solutions.
Door Won’t Close
The number 1 call garage door companies receive is “my garage door won’t close.” In about 80-90% if these cases the cause is the safety eyes are blocked or have been bumped out of alignment. The safety eyes are located by the tracks on each side of the opening, usually about 6” off the floor. The sending eye sends an invisible beam of light across to the receiving eye. If the receiving eye doesn’t receive the beam of light from the sending eye it will not let the door close. This is a safety feature required by national building code to prevent the door from closing if someone or something is in the way. This is a simple issue most homeowners should be able to fix themselves. Simply remove whatever is blocking the eye or, if there isn’t anything blocking the eyes, make sure they are pointing directly at each other. There are no tools required. It is as simple as looking at each eye to see which one is crooked and move it till it points directly at the other eye. If you can’t figure out how to line them up you will need to pay for a service call to have a professional come out to straighten them. You can temporarily bypass the eyes by holding the button on the wall in with constant pressure until the door is completely closed.
There are several other things that can cause a door not to close including a lift cable not wrapping properly, poor track alignment or other failed components. For any of these a professional door company should be contacted.
Door Won’t Open
The most common cause of a door not opening is a broken spring. Garage doors are very heavy and the springs do all the work in balancing the door, making it feel light. When a spring breaks the garage door will become extremely heavy and the electric opener will usually only lift it about 6” and stop. You can confirm whether you have a broken spring by looking about a foot above the door in the center. You will see one or two big black or silver coiled springs (about 2-3 feet long each). If a spring is broken it will be obvious it has split into 2 pieces. Springs are considered a consumable and it is normal for them to break. The average life of a set of springs is 8-10 years but this is dependent on how many times the door opens and closes. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO WORK ON THE SPRINGS For this repair you will need the help of a professionally trained door service person as these components are under extreme tension and serious injury or death can occur when working on them.
Inconsistently Opening and Closing
This common garage door problem has a few potential causes. One being the battery in your remote or transmitter is nearing the end of its life – this can cause your garage door remote to work inconsistently and intermittently. If you’re facing this issue with your garage door, it is advisable to first replace the batteries in your transmitter as this easy fix could solve your problem. Another possible cause is that one of your neighbors has the same type of opener using the same transmission code. Although rare, this can happen if your garage door opener was manufactured in or before the early 90s. The easiest fix to solve this garage door problem is to simply change the code your remote uses.
Opening or Closing with a Bang
If your garage door opens or closes with a bang or clunk the problem could have several different causes including a worn out roller, poor track alignment or an issue with the hinges among other things. In this case it would be best to call a professional door company for service before the issue becomes a bigger problem.
Serving the Calgary area for over 20 years, our experienced team at The Door House is confident that we can help you diagnose and repair any garage door issues you may be facing. Contact us today to schedule an inspection or repair.