Garage Door Opener Repair Tips

June 1st, 2012 Posted in Garage Door Companies, Garage Door Contractors, Garage Door Openers, Garage Door Repairs
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Is your automatic garage door opener malfunctioning and in need of repair? If so here are some great ideas as to how to choose a garage door opener repair company.

First of all don’t just go to the internet and start calling garage door opener repair companies, do some homework first. Walk into your garage and look up at the motor to see what brand of garage door opener you have, if you can determine what type of drive it is, chain drive, screw drive or belt drive. If possible locate the model number as well as the date of manufacturer code.

Try to make your own determination as to what’s wrong with your garage door opener and if you know how to pull the emergency disconnect, do so and operate the door manually. I recommend only pulling the emergency release when the overhead garage door is in the closed position; this is for safety’s sake.

Next look for a garage door opener repair company that provides service in your geographical area and before you call look at the first 8-12 websites, see if their site is well done, do they list your brand of garage door opener and do they look reputable. Now look for independent online reviews and make sure they have at least 100 favorable reviews, any company that has been around for more than a year should have at least 100.

Now call the first garage door repair companies that have met your criteria for locality, reviews and service your brand of door opener. If they simply want to schedule a service call with you and only want your name, address, etc. hang up and call the next company. A reputable garage door opener repair company will take the time to ask you questions about the symptoms you’re experiencing, if you trust them try them.

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Garage Door Repair Guide Part 1

June 1st, 2012 Posted in Garage Door Companies, Garage Door Contractors, Garage Door Openers, Garage Door Repairs, Garage Door Springs
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Here are some things you can check before you call a garage door repair company. These are simple things to check yourself and might save you some time and money.

If your garage door opener doesn’t work at all, no lights hum or buzz check your outlet for power. If you have power, unplug the machine for 30 seconds and plug it back in. Unplugging the machine will reset many models of automatic garage door openers and save you a garage door repair charge.

If your garage door is closed and your automatic garage door opener will only lift the door a few inches to a few feet, return your overhead door to the closed position and pull the emergency disconnect. Once your garage door is disconnected from the opener try to lift your door manually by hand. Be sure to lift with your legs so as not to injure your back. If the garage door is heavy or impossible to lift, stop, pull the plug and call our garage door repair company.

If the door lifts easily by hand find the manufacturer and model of your garage door opener, then call us for free advice or Google the owner’s manual. There’s a good possibility that a simple adjustment of your garage door openers sensitivity will solve your garage door repair problem.

If your garage door won’t open at all but tries to open, stop to avoid further damage and repair costs, disconnect the door and try to lift manually. If your garage door won’t lift manually check to make sure it isn’t locked, if not inspect the garage door springs to see if one is broken. When you have a broken garage door spring it will usually be visible and the spring will be in two pieces. If you discover the spring is broken pull the plug to avoid further repair costs and call our garage door repair company.

Look for part 2 and thanks for reading.

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Carriage Garage Doors 101 (What you need to know) Part 1

June 1st, 2012 Posted in Garage Door Companies, Garage Door Contractors, Garage Door Installation
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If you’re considering a replacement garage door for your home and you’re trying to decide whether or not to install a carriage style garage door here’s some useful information to help you make an educated decision.

First and this is a big decision, you’ll need to decide some kind of budget, the more elaborate the garage door the more expensive it’s going to be. Stamped steel carriage doors are going to be by far more reasonable than custom made steel carriage doors or custom wood carriage doors. We’ll talk more about this in a moment.

Next you’ll need to decide if your new garage door is going to be insulated or non-insulated, solid without windows or have some kind of decorative windows. Insulated carriage doors are offered in different overall thickness, R value and open back garage doors or finished sandwich style doors.

Sandwich style steel carriage doors are going to overall be the most durable and the strongest of the steel carriage doors, however your choice of designs will be more limited. Sandwich style carriage doors will also provide the best insulating qualities.

Stamped steel carriage doors will be the most reasonable and the most durable. Custom steel carriage doors are next in line, these doors usually start with a flush steel garage door, (insulated or non-insulated) and then have some type of composite overlay attached to achieve the carriage door look.

Steel carriage doors with an overlay will give you endless design possibilities; however there can be major drawbacks to this type of carriage door and the most important information you’ll need to know is whether the door is being built by a name brand overhead garage door company or is manufactured locally by your garage door installation company.

I’ll talk more about this in our next segment; remember doing your homework now will save you time, money and potential grief later.

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Why I Wouldn’t Purchase an Overhead Brand Garage Door

June 1st, 2012 Posted in Garage Door Companies, Garage Door Contractors, Garage Door Installation
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If you are considering the purchase and installation of a new overhead garage door you’ll find that depending on where in the country you are located you may have as many as 12-15 different overhead garage door manufacturers to choose from.

I’m a big believer in the ability to select and choose the brand of product I desire and garage doors are no different. I also believe in purchasing a brand of overhead garage door that I can obtain parts and service from the company I choose and not being locked into one company.

Now the Overhead Door Manufacturing Company won’t like what I’m about to say but I think you the consumer should pay close attention. Overhead Door has a network of dealers across the country. Usually there is one dealer per metro area which means they don’t compete against each other, they only compete against other brands of garage doors. Now initially that sounds ok but here is where the problem starts.

Each brand of overhead garage door makes their garage door sections or panels unique to their brand of door. The garage door hardware used to be generic industry standard hardware but much of it is now proprietary. Since Overhead Door Brand products are exclusive to one dealer in any given area, if you purchase their product and later need a replacement garage section or hardware your only choice is to purchase from them. NO COMPETITION, NO Mercy, meaning you are STUCK purchasing from them at whatever price they want to charge you.

Most other brands of garage door manufacturers have multiple representation in every city which means as a consumer you have overhead door companies competing against each other for your business. Competition keeps people honest and pricing fair. Furthermore if you purchase a garage door installation from a particular company and are later unhappy someone else can compete for your replacement parts if needed.

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Overhead Garage Door Rollers

June 1st, 2012 Posted in Garage Door Contractors, Garage Door Openers, Garage Door Repairs
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Garage door rollers are one of the most important moving parts on your overhead door. Your garage door rollers are what support the weight of your overhead door when the door is rolling up and down on the tracks. Residential garage doors today weigh as little as 50 pounds and as much as 700 pounds which really stress the garage door rollers.

Many of today’s garage doors come from the factory with nylon rollers without ball bearings. These rollers although initially very quiet, wear quickly and eventually bind rather than roll freely. This particular type of roller is ok for lightweight non-insulated garage doors but should never be installed on heavy insulated overhead doors or carriage doors. Although these nylon garage door rollers without bearings shouldn’t be installed on heavier garage doors, companies will use them anyway to save money. When these rollers start to wear and begin binding rather than rolling they will put extra stress on the garage door sections causing them to rip or tear and will also put additional stress on the automatic garage door opener.

Nylon bearing-less rollers will squeak as they become worn and also cause the overhead door to creak and groan. The additional drag will pre-maturely wear out your automatic garage door opener or at bare minimum necessitate opener service.

The best bet is to always use garage door rollers with bearings and the more bearings the better. Garage door rollers with bearings come in long and short stem steel rollers with either 7 or 10 ball bearings. In my opinion the 7 bearing garage door rollers are useless, you’re far better off with 10 ball bearings they’ll last 3-4 times as long as the 7 ball rollers.

Steel 11 ball bearing rollers with a nylon tire on them are the quietest and most durable residential overhead garage door rollers you can purchase and are suited for any weight or size of garage door.

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