The garage door’s two main components are the opener and the door itself. We’ll show you how to repair both. Let’s start with the door itself. Read about How to Repair a Garage Door below.
Garage Door Repair
Spring tension is the key to overhead garage doors. They can be rolled up in sections or swung up in one piece. The garage walls provide the tracks and the door is powered by a spring or several springs. Repairs are usually simple if the door isn’t working. These are some useful repair tips as part of How to Repair a Garage Door:
Step 1 Examine the garage’s metal tracks. Check the mounting brackets holding the tracks to walls. If the brackets are loosened, tighten the bolts and screws.
With the garage door shut, inspect the tracks for any dents, crimps or flat spots. You can use a rubber mallet to pound out any damaged areas, or a hammer with a block made of scrap wood. You should replace tracks that are severely damaged.
Step 2 Make sure you check the alignment of the tracks using a level. Horizontal tracks should curve slightly towards the rear of the garage. Roll-up doors should have the vertical sections of track exactly straight. The tracks should be the same height as the garage walls.
You can align the tracks by loosening but not removing the bolts or screws that attach to the mounting brackets. Tap the tracks into place. Check the alignment of the tracks using the level. Then tighten the screws and bolts at the mounting brackets.
Step 3 Clean tracks with concentrated household cleaner. This will remove hardened grease and dirt. Wipe both the tracks and rollers dry after cleaning them thoroughly.
Step 5 Look for loose hardware and tighten them as necessary. Check the plates that support the spring on swing-up doors to make sure they are securely fastened.
Roll-up doors require that you inspect the hinges holding the sections together. Tighten any loose screws and replace damaged hinges.
Servicing the hinges can often correct sagging on one side of the door. You can correct sagging at one side of the door by servicing the hinges.
Remove the hinge if the wood cracks at the hinge. Fill the cracks with wood filler. Allow the wood filler to dry before replacing the hinge. Move the hinge onto solid wood if possible.
Be careful: A roll-up door with only one torsion spring at its center should not be repaired. You could be injured by the spring’s tension. Call a professional to repair doors that have this type of spring.
In some cases, the issue may be too complex or confusing to solve yourself. This is where you may want to reach out to experts who specialize in Garage door repair. Sometimes, the opener can cause problems with your garage doors. We’ll show how to replace your garage door opener in the next section.
Garage Door Opener Replacement
Garage door openers are one of the most useful gadgets that you can put in your home. You can also install it yourself by following the instructions provided and the detailed instructions included with the unit.
The typical garage door opener consists of a reversible motor that drives a carriage along a rail above the door. The carriage has a drawbar that allows it to be moved between the open and closed positions. Travel-limiting devices are attached to stop the door from moving precisely at the closed and fully opened positions.
Reverse switches, also known as relays, reverse the direction of your drive by switching between opening and closing. Modern garage door openers have a radio receiver, which allows you to open the door using a signal sent from your car’s electronic module.
How to install a garage opener
Step 1 Install the mechanism at the center of your door. Use a tape measure for measuring the width of your garage door to determine its location. The center is half of this distance.
Draw a vertical line from the center of your door to the outside. The door weight will be balanced at the lifting point when the drawbar is attached.
Step 2 Lift and lower the door while paying attention to the height of the door’s travel. This is important because the rail must be higher than the top of the door’s travel. If the door opens too fast, the rail could be struck by the door.
Step 3 Check the area above your garage door at the vertical dividing line. There must be a support there that can hold the rail’s front end. Install a front mounting board if your garage does not have a suitable structural member.
Securely attach a length 2 X 6-inch plank with lag screws to two wall studs above your mark for the highest door travel. Add your high-point marking to the plank and then extend the vertical center line of the door onto the plank.
Step 4 Attach the rail on the garage floor to the motor unit using the instructions. Lift the garage door and attach the rail to its outermost end to the front mounting board at about 2 inches above the intersection marks that you created for the door’s high point or centerline.
This rail bracket attaches to the front mounting board with lag screws. However, if bolts or nuts are supplied, you will need to drill holes through the front mount plank. To prevent the bolts from pressing into the wood, make sure you use washers underneath the heads.
Step 5 Lift the motor assembly until the rail is horizontal or parallel to the door track. Now, hold the motor assembly in place or support it. Move the garage door manually to ensure that the rail position does not affect the door’s movement.
After you have determined the right position and height of the motor assembly, attach it to the garage beams using the metal brackets included in the kit. If the position of your motor assembly is between two garage joists or runs in the same direction as the rail you will need to attach a length of 2X4 across the joists. The brackets can then be mounted to the 2X4.
You can mount a plywood panel of 3/4 inch to your garage ceiling. Attach it to the joists using lag screws. Use heavy-duty toggle bolts to attach the mounting hardware to your plywood panel.
Step 6 Attach drawbar to rail carriage and move carriage to closed position. Drill the holes in the garage door by marking the drawbar mounting holes. Once the drawbar is mounted, drill the holes and attach the hardware to fix it to the door.
Step 7 – Adjust the drive chain/lead screw as necessary, paying attention to the location of bolts that restrict the chain’s movement.
Step 8 – Install the radio receiver. For the push button, you can use regular bell wire. However, it is important to position it so that you can see the garage opener when you press the button. An optional key switch can be installed.
Step 9 Connect the drive assembly cable to an extension cord and then plug the extension cable into a suitable receptacle. Use the manual push button to set the garage door into motion. Pull the extension cord multiple times as the door rises. This will allow you to verify that there is no binding and that the lifting action of the door is working properly.
You can make any adjustments using the adjustment features built into your garage door opener system. Finally, verify that the radio remote module is working as intended.
Step 10 Disconnect extension cord and plug drive assembly line cord into permanent outlet. Connect the extension cord to the overhead light socket in the garage if possible.
You will now be able make basic garage-door repairs to the opener or the door.
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