Automatic garage doors are one of modern life’s convinces that most of us miss when they are not working correctly, when a garage door stops working properly, you might initially convince yourself that it will be an easy fix. While preventive maintenance of these doors is with out a doubt, simple, when it all goes wrong be careful not to kid your self. A modern garage door is controlled by micro boards and electric motors that are prone to all sorts of problems, further to that, the door it self can weight up to 420 pounds and when that comes flying off the tracks, you do not want to be anywhere near it. Many people have been crushed to death or trapped under these doors when trying to fix them.

Garage doors that either roll or swing from the garage ceiling use very strong high tension springs and counter weights to help the door moved effortlessly, these can also inflict serous personal injuries to the unsuspecting repairman. By all means, DIY preventative maintenance is to be encouraged, but dealing with these monsters when they break is a job for trained garage door installers.

There are some steps you can take your self through out the year to help avoid a costly service center call-out to fix the broken and dangerous door. Throughout the year, simply clean the door, the main component is the tracks on a drop down rolling-door. These tracks are prone to getting a thick sticky layer of filth built up on it, this is often a combination of door lube grease and and dust that is compounded by suspended soot if you live in a high pollution city environment. Clean this crud off with a spatula from inside the track and on the edge of the door it self as the black crud can jam the door when it is selected to go down and then back up and fall off its tracks. The other by product is that it will prematurely were out the electric motor with extra friction.

Garage Door | CC Attribution Generic Commercial -EgoAnt

Every six months, you should check the safety reverse mechanism, these do fail and can cause immense injury and property damage when they do. The easiest way to test it is simply place a rolled up newspaper or a tightly rolled towel under the door, if it does not automatically retract, call in a experienced serviceman straight away to correct this potentially serous situation.

You should also check and become familiar with the manual emergency release leaver, if you need it in real life, you will not have time to learn how it function during a crisis. In a more likely scenario though, you will need to use this feature if you wish to open or close the door in the event of a electricity failure, as each system is slightly different, consult your operating handbook to learn this before you need to do it in real life, that will probably be at night in the rain.

QHI builds garages in Brisbane, Rockhampton, Gladstone, Bundaberg and Townsville. Queensland Home Improvements address is 320 Adelaide St, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia