Most homeowners use their garage doors every day to safely and easily leave and enter their homes, but temperature changes and extreme weather conditions can affect the overall quality of your hardware and the functionality of the system. These system failures can potentially cause property damages, hazardous conditions or leave you without the safe, convenient use of your garage door.
Preparing Your Garage Door for Winter
In many locations, winter can be one of the worst seasons for your home, including your garage door and opener due to frigid temperatures, excess moisture and heavy winds. To keep your garage door in proper condition and operating smoothly during the winter months, it’s crucial to perform garage door seasonal maintenance.
Neglected garage doors can experience regular hardware failures and breakages or place additional strain on your garage door opener. This can lead to your garage door refusing to open or close, leaving you stranded either outside your garage or trapped inside during cold days or inclement weather conditions.
Garage Door Seasonal Maintenance Tips
Due to opposite temperature extremes, you should apply many of your garage door winterization preparation to your garage door summer maintenance tasks, too. Extreme heat, direct sun exposure and heavy summer storms can negatively impact the quality of your parts and hardware and diminish the finish of your door.
Before the summer months, test the balance and safety features of your door, like the photo eye sensors and auto-reversing mechanism. Look over your hardware, checking for signs of corrosion and tightening pieces as needed. Also, apply a fresh coat of lubrication to any moving parts to ensure they function smoothly.
