3 DIY Garage Door Maintenance Tips

In the hustle and bustle of everyday life, many homeowners can overlook a myriad of things involving the maintenance of their property. One thing you don't want to overlook is the maintenance of your garage door, or they  will soon fail to work properly. With that simple thought in mind, here are 3 garage door maintenance tips that every prudent homeowner should follow:

Keep Everything Lubricated

An automated garage door assembly – while quite complicated to engineer and manufacture – operates on some pretty simple mechanical principles. This single fact means that it must be maintained on a regular basis or it will fail to operate efficiently and properly. Most importantly, regular lubrication must be applied or the system can fail entirely. In particular, WD-40 or some other graphite lubricant should be applied directly to the chain, the casters and the motor assembly to keep everything running as smoothly as possible.

Maintain the Springs Properly

While some garage doors will use a counterweight, most modern ones function with a set of finely tuned springs. Typically, these springs exactly counter the weight of the door and allow the electronic mechanism to work with a minimum of effort. Keeping them in tip top condition only requires a little bit of effort and pays off big time. Most garage door springs are tightly sprung and – if there's a major problem – should only be dealt with by a professional. Still, maintaining them is merely a matter of keeping them clean and lubricated once per year.

Adjust the Electronics Regularly

One of the most common places for a garage door system to fail is in the electrical system. The wires and the sensors comprise not only a convenient method for controlling the system but also a highly developed safety net. In terms of maintaining the system, the sensors that control the emergency recoil system are the most sensitive. These sensors – usually located at the bottom of the garage door – can easily be knocked askew by a inattentive guest, a careening child or even by an overburdened delivery person.

A Final Thought

As you can see, keeping your garage door in the best physical condition does not take a whole lot of time, energy or money. Instead, a little proactive maintenance like the ones mentioned above will go a long way towards keeping your garage door in the finest of conditions for many years to come.