Lake Stevens Garage Door Repair: Garage Door Issues in Cold Weather

Although garage doors are extremely convenient in cold weather, there can be certain issues that you can face due to the weather. The door may not open and close properly and there are various reasons why that might be the case. There are certain steps you can go through to determine the cause of the problem before you call a professional for help. You might find that it is an issue that you can address on your own. Therefore, check for the following things to see why your garage door is giving you trouble when you operate it in cold weather.

If your door is made of metal, it is likely that it contracted during the cold weather. This means that the opener will not function correctly, making it hard for your garage door to open and close. This can be fixed by adjusting the force limit. You can do that either by checking the owner’s manual for the door or by getting in touch with a professional if you need help. If you do not lubricate the hinges, tracks, and bearings often enough then take care to maintain that aspect of the garage door since that can help in cold weather and a well lubricated door will not contract too much to cause trouble.

Talking about grease, you might find that the parts that you do lubricate have become stiff due to too much grease. Cold weather can cause grease and lubricants to freeze, and if you are having trouble in cold weather with a door that usually operates smoothly, check all the places you applied a lubricant or grease. You might find that that is the only reason why your garage door won’t open. You will also be able to tell if the door does not function smoothly. If you do apply lubricant and grease, do not be heavy-handed with it since it can cause such problems in cold weather.

As mentioned earlier, in colder weather, metal parts can become stiff or contract, causing them to break. This is the same for garage door springs. If your door is not functioning properly, take a look at all the springs in the garage door. You might find a broken spring which was causing the trouble, and these broken springs are usually very easy to spot since they will have a big gap in between the coils of the spring. You can replace the spring yourself if you are aware of how to do it. However, if you do feel like you need a professional to do the job, get in touch with a high quality service like Lake Stevens Garage Door Repair in Lake Stevens, WA. Our highly trained technicians can take a look and get such a job done in just a few hours!

Because of cold weather, your garage door might be difficult to open, and this could be because your garage door has frozen to the floor. Snow and ice can make it hard to budge, and in other instances, it might be difficult to close the garage door due to ice or snow in the way of the garage door. If you want to prevent the door from freezing to the floor, apply some cooking oil to the seal of the garage door. If you want to make sure that the garage door closes fully every time, make sure that no ice or snow is freezing in the place where the garage door meets the floor.

Either due to wear or tear or because of additional difficulty of operating a garage door in the winter, gears or travellers might break. The garage door opener will operate but the door will not move. It can be that the garage door opener is old so the gears and travellers have broken due to wear and tear. However, if your garage door has frozen to the floor and you are attempting to open your garage door, the garage door opener may be functioning and putting additional pressure on the parts of the opener to get the door to open. This pressure can cause the gears and travellers to break. Ideally, you will want to contact a professional to deal with broken parts since a qualified technician can get the job done in no time.

If the parts of the garage door opener are not the problem, you might find that the garage door opener itself is the root cause. Extremely cold temperatures can cause various parts inside the garage door opener to malfunction. The garage door opener’s motor might not work properly, amongst other things. In order to see if the opener is the problem, disable the opener and open the door manually. If the door is easy to open, the garage door opener could be the problem. Try changing the batteries for an easy fix. However, if that does not work, contact a professional to take a thorough look at the garage door opener.

Go through all of the steps above in trying to determine the cause of your garage door malfunctioning or not functioning at all in cold weather. Some problems can be taken care of on your own with ease. However, with more complicated or unidentifiable issues, it is always best to get in touch with licensed specialists that know how to tackle any problem quickly and easily. If hardware is the concern, again, let the professionals take care of it. You do not want to cause additional damage to the door or the parts of the door, and you do not want to put yourself at risk of injury by tackling a problem you are not entirely familiar with.

With that, professionals can also offer seasonal advice on how to maintain and take care of every component of your garage door in order to minimize the probability of these problems occurring on a frequent basis. Never hesitate to contact a professional in such cases since licensed technicians are always willing to provide the best tips and advice for such issues around the clock.