How To Choose A Garage Door Repair Company

When you search on the internet for garage door repair you’ll have hundreds of choices to choose from and many repair companies advertising can be very misleading. So here’s a little help.

Add a city or location to your search term such as “garage door repair Lawrenceville”, next look at the entire first page to see what catches your attention. Look for duplicate advertisements for the same garage door repair company so you don’t unknowingly call the same company twice.

Beware of the offers that sound too good to be true because they most likely are, not very many things in life are free so pay attention. Reputable garage door service and repair companies will list access to their online reputation and look for at least 85 favorable reviews from an independent source not just what’s posted on their website it could be made up.

If you contact a garage door repair service and they don’t ask very many questions of you and just want to send a technician out for free or not stay away. An experienced garage door company can ask a few questions from you about the problem your garage door or opener is having and can make a general assessment of what’s wrong and a pretty firm estimate right over the phone. If they’re unwilling to provide a phone quote keep shopping.

Make sure the garage door repair company you are calling actually has a home office nearby and not across the country, if they don’t skip them and move onto a company with hometown roots they have the most at stake.

One final note remember big name advertisers build those expensive advertisement costs into your garage door repair, so like it or not you’ll be paying for more than you bargained for.

Repairing Garage Door Tracks

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.

 

Garage Door Opener Horsepower

If you are in the market for a new garage door opener, you will find that you have many options to choose from.  In addition to choosing between chain drive, belt drive, and screw drive, garage door openers, you will need to decide what horsepower you need.  Garage door openers are available in 1/3 hp, 1/2 hp, 3/4 hp and 1 hp.

Most homeowners are under the impression that a larger door needs an opener with more horsepower.  There is some element of truth to this, but opener horsepower has less to do with the size of the door that with noise level and durability.  It is true that larger garage doors weigh more than smaller doors, but garage door have lift assistance springs that handle most of the weight of the door.

A properly adjusted garage door of any size will be easy to open by hand and can be opened by the smallest garage door opener.  With that said, garage doors tend to fall out of adjustment over time and even change in a large garage door can result in overloading a low horsepower opener.

The main advantages of larger garage door opener motors is that they operate more quietly and they will last longer than a low horsepower opener because they do not work as hard to open the door.  In some cases, a higher horsepower motor will also open the door a little faster.

Most garage door openers have instructions for DIY installation, but for best results you should spend the money to have the opener professionally installed.  Garage doors are heavy moving objects and it is easy to get hurt working with a garage door.  Professional garage door opener installation will also ensure that your new opener is properly installed and adjusted for peak operation.  When you need garage door repairs including installation of a new garage door opener, call a garage door service professional.