Making Sure Your Garage Door is Safe

Your garage door and its parts wear out over time. Worn or broken garage door parts usually result in you not being able to open or close your garage door.  Below are three of the most common garage door problems with safe solutions to repair them.

Fatigued or Broken Torsion Springs

The springs on your garage door are perhaps the most important, yet most hazardous component of the door. These torsion springs eventually wear out. And, they can cause serious injury when they break. 

You should have your garage door’s springs inspected and examined by a professional garage door repair company.  Some garage doors have one spring, while others have two. If the inspection reveals that one of your springs is worn or broken, then have it replaced, as well as the second spring if you have two. 

Replacing the second torsion spring will not only make sure your door works properly, but it will prevent any possible damage from occurring if the second spring breaks in the near future.

Frayed and Worn Cables

You can do a visual inspection of the cables, attached to the spring system, on both the right and left sides of your garage door. Frayed and worn cables are a hazard because they are likely to break, resulting in injury.  Do not attempt to replace your garage door’s cables on your own. Contact a professional garage door repair company that has been trained to replace these cables, which happen to be part of the dangerously high-tension torsion spring system.

Squeaky Springs

Your garage door springs can become squeaky and terribly noisy from normal use. Such sounds don’t always signal that there’s a problem with your garage door. You can purchase a silicone-based lubricant to spray on your springs. You should call a garage door professional to inspect and service your door if the noise persists after spraying on the silicone-based lubricant.

Replacing Broken Torsion Springs

Depending upon the weight, type, and size of your garage door, it might have one or two torsion springs.  Over time the torsion springs, which raise and lower your garage door, experience wear and tear. Because of them wearing out, torsion springs begin losing their ability to adequately counterbalance your garage door’s weight. Eventually, your garage door’s torsion springs aren’t able to move your garage door at all. 

Occasionally, people with two torsion springs will opt to replace only one of them.  This is not recommended. Here are two reasons why it’s better to replace both torsion springs rather than simply replacing the broken one. 

  1. When one torsion spring breaks, the other spring then has to bear the weight of your entire garage door by itself. Replacing only the broken torsion spring and having the system reset will not result in a properly balanced garage door. Seeing as how the unbroken spring has been bearing all the weight, it won’t be able to fully do its job after the broken spring is replaced.
     
  2. You’ll have to call your professional garage door company again (perhaps sooner than expected) so that they can replace the other torsion spring when it inevitably breaks. This results in you having to spend more money and time dealing with your garage door. Replacing both torsion springs at the same time is typically less expensive than having one torsion spring replaced at a time. 

It’s important that your torsion springs be inspected periodically to make sure they are not too worn or fatigued to bear the load of your garage door. Attempting to tinker with or replace torsion springs on your own can be dangerous. A professional garage door repair company is highly recommended to complete the inspection and replacement of broken torsion springs.