A bent or misaligned garage door track can cause the garage door to become difficult to open and close. A homeowner may be able to take care of some minor adjustments to their garage door tracks, but if you decide to try to handle it yourself, be very careful and only small adjustments. Garage doors are very heavy and if the door comes off the track, it could fall and damage your car or cause a serious injury.
If you have any concerns, it’s far better to call a professional garage door service. They have expert garage door repair technicians who have the training and experience to safely repair garage doors.
Overhead garage doors move using rollers on metal tracks. When the garage door tracks become misaligned, it can cause binding and sticking that can cause further damage to the door and lead to a prematurely worn out opener.
Garage door tracks are usually assembled in sections held together with nuts and bolts. Similar hardware is used to hold the tracks in position and attach them to the wall and ceiling. Over time, the nuts and bolts can loosen allowing the track to shift position.
Start by inspecting to see if any hardware has become loose. Tightening the loose hardware may fix the problem, but it’s important to make sure the track is in the right position first. Otherwise, the track would be secured in the misaligned position. If the door still binds, loosen the hardware slightly and make small adjustments by tapping the track into position with a mallet.
If aligning the tracks does not help with the binding and sticking problem, you may have a broken spring. When one spring breaks, there is uneven tension on the door which can cause it to bind or jam. Never try to repair a broken spring yourself. Spring replacement and repairs are dangerous and should only be done by a trained garage door service technician.
