Not every project goes as well as planned. We would be happy to spend a few minutes answering your questions.
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That squeaking noise every time you press the garage door opener button may be telling you something. It’s time to lubricate the garage door and it’s hardware. You can buy a graphite spray made for garage doors. They also make garage door lubricant in a tube.
Before you start lubricating everything in sight, make sure all the hardware is tight. Loose hinges or brackets won’t benefit if they are moving as the garage door moves. So give your door an inspection and tighten the parts up. Also make sure the tracks are aligned so that the rollers travel smoothly.
Use the spray and spray the torsion spring above the door (it’s the black coil above the garage door). This has a lot of tension in it so don’t try to work on it, but you can spray lubricant on it. Go on to the moving parts of the door. Lubricate the hinges where they connect one section of door to another. Lubricate the rollers so that they don’t get hung up in the assembly or the track. You can also lubricate the tracks that guide the rollers but they do tend to collect dirt. Once you have lubricated up the door and it’s hardware, run it through a few cycles. You should notice a quieter and smoother operating door.
As a trustworthy handyman service, we are asked to work unsupervised in many vacant houses. This is convenient for everyone, as the customer doesn't have to waste their time babysitting us, and we can work in a more relaxed environment.
Recently, a new buyer had us do some work in a home she just purchased that had been bank owned. She was working full time and gave us a key to the property. We were done in few days and (since she carried a duplicate key) placed the key inside the house and left the house completely locked up. She couldn't understand how we were able to leave the house locked without using the key. It's actually very easy...if there is a garage door opener.
When you are ready to exit the house, simply lock all of the doors/windows from the inside as you would if you were going to bed. Press the garage door opener button to raise the door. Now here's where it gets fun...press the garage door opener button again to start closing the door and race out of the garage. The only thing is that you will have to step over the invisible sensor beam that reverses the door. It looks very strange: press the wall button, sprint to the door, and step over the invisible beam so as not to cause the door to reverse...all while you are bending down because the door is closing.
I told the customer how this is done and it was like a revelation. She had tried this before and the door always opened back up.
It sure is nice to have the luxury of hitting a button and the garage door opens up... No more having to clean & jerk the door open during bad weather. Garage door openers all serve the same purpose, but their methods sometimes differ.
On the low end of the price spectrum is the chain drive system. This resembles the old bicycle chain and it works well, but it is noisy. So when you are in the living room you can hear the "hum" of the chain drive operating the door. The chain drive is also a chore to install. You have to uncoil it and wrap it around the sprocket, getting your hands greasy in the process.
The next step up is the screw drive opener. These assemble easier and faster than the chain drive units, with each end screw section secured together to form the length of the rail. These are only slightly more expensive than the chain drive units, and they don't seem to have the vibration and subsequent noise that the chain drive's have.
Finally, there are the belt driven models. These run the quietest of all the styles and install very easily. The belt slips over the sprocket and is tensioned with a mechanism that makes quick work of the process.
My choice would be the belt driven model, because it really doesn't cost much more than the less expensive units, and over the life of the unit I don't have to worry about being awakened when someone opens the door late at night.
Have you ever been locked in your garage? You might laugh but it happens...you are late for work, you press the button to open the garage door so you can pull your car out and...nothing. Repeated pushes on the button are fruitless.
Your garage door opener won't open for a number of reasons. If the power is out, if the unit is broken, if the torsion spring is broken, etc. So how do you get out?
The garage door opener is connected to the front wall by a steel rail. Along this rail rides a carriage that attaches to the garage door by a steel arm. This carriage has a handle attached to a cord than typically dangles in the air. If you pull this handle downward, it will disengage the door from the opener and allow you to lift the door by hand. The door will be heavier than you think so you might have to put some elbow grease on it to lift it up. If the torsion spring is broken (the black coil/spring above the door), the door will be very difficult to move. This spring is under tremendous pressure and when it breaks, it will often disengage the cables on the side of the door that help it to move. The long and the short of it is that even if you disengage the door from the opener, you still may not be able to move it.
