Three Most Common Garage Door Problems
Garage doors are fantastic pieces of machinery until they stop working. When that happens, you'll probably be quick to call for garage door repair services, but in the meantime, there are a few things you can do to help diagnose the issue. Most garage doors have very common problems, and if you're able to give the repair company even a little bit of a hint as to what's going wrong, they'll be much more equipped to repair it once they arrive.
Below are some of the most common garage door problems. If you see any of them during a visual inspection of your garage door, let the repair company know.
Garage Door Won't Close
Depending on how far your garage door actually moves when you press the button, the reason for it not closing could be one of any number of issues. If it goes a few feet and then stops and reverses course, there might be something blocking the sensors. Even something as fine as a grass blade can stop the sensors if it's close enough to the eye. If it goes part of the way and then stops completely, you might have a problem with the tracks. If the track is out of alignment, it'll feel resistance and the safety sensors will shut the process down. These are easy fixes, but if you need assistance, don't hesitate to call for garage door repair services.
Grinding, Metallic Sound
If your garage doors themselves are made of metal, you'll need to check to make sure there's nothing scratching them as they open or close, most likely right next to the track. If your door is made of some other kind of material, check the tracks themselves. Your rollers might be going bald or scraping down the tracks instead of rolling smoothly. While the sound is annoying, the bigger issue is it wearing down the tracks and necessitating a major repair job.
Door Doesn't Move at All
The whole point of having a garage door opener is to make it move when you press the button. Failure to move can mean either that the batteries are dead, the connection between the sensors and the motor is severed, or the opener itself has faulty electronics. Replacing the batteries is easy and changing out the guts of an opener isn't too hard either, but if you're unable to fix it within a few hours, you'll need to hire garage door repair services. They'll have the parts and the expertise to help you navigate these problems.