What to do if your Antioch garage door opener is possessed

Some of us are old enough to remember 1982 when the movie “Poltergeist” was playing at the Antioch Theater. Or, maybe you’re younger and you went to see “The Conjuring” in 2013. Whichever haunted movie you prefer, you probably shrieked with delight when the movie’s specters began moving things mysteriously through the air. It’s not as much fun, however, when apparitions apparently take control at your house, such as when your garage door opener seems to have a mind of its own.

Yes, it’s possible that your Antioch garage door opener is possessed. It goes up even though you haven’t pressed the button and asked it to. You find it open in the morning knowing full well it was shut the night before. Or, as you begin driving into the garage, the garage door opener suddenly decides to close. It gives every indication that phantom spirits are in control. But, whether you believe in ghosts or not, there are other possible explanations.

What, other than a ghost, could cause your garage door opener to act irrationally? Here are some considerations:

• You could have a problem with your garage door opener’s wiring. Rather then poltergeist, this could be the result of other entities living in your garage, such as mice. Mice can chew through the wires, or partially chew through the wires. Whether mice are the cause of your garage door opener’s wiring issues, this problem can cause ghostly self-operation of the garage door.
• You can also have a problem with the circuit board in your garage door opener. As with almost everything else electronic these days, garage door openers have circuit boards to assist with operation. But, if there’s a problem with the circuit board, odd things can happen with your garage door.
• Your controller can also have issues, whether you have a more traditional controller or if you’re using your cell phone to operate your garage door.
• The sensors at the floor could be out of alignment causing erratic behavior with your garage door opener.
• Your neighbors could have their wireless controller set to the same code as your garage door opener.
• You could have a practical joker afoot. 

Whatever the problem with the garage door opener in your Antioch garage, you may want to call a qualified garage door technician to take a look at it. If that doesn’t work, well, you can always call a paranormal investigator or exorcist.

Is the rubber supple and strong at the bottom of your Park City garage door?

Your garage door goes up. Your garage door goes down. But, when your garage door goes down, does it have an effective rubber strip at the bottom to seal with the concrete entryway to your Park City garage?

Garage doors are designed to have a weather strip at the bottom of the garage door. On the one hand, it absorbs the shock when the garage door hits the pavement. On the other hand, it seals out some of the cold, rain and snow from coming into

the garage.

Let’s suppose you’re out in the garage one Saturday during this upcoming Park City winter. Outside, it’s cold. It’s snowing. The snow is blowing. And if you don’t have a good weather strip at the bottom of your garage door, there’s a good chance the snow is blowing under your garage door.

A rubber weather strip is attached to the bottom of your garage door before it’s installed. In other words, it’s there from the beginning.

New rubber is soft and supple. It flexes well. It rebounds when the garage door comes down to the concrete. But, rubber is a petroleum-based product. Over time, the petroleum degrades. Adverse weather conditions, such as those that are common around Park City, spur along the degradation of the weather strip at the bottom of your garage door.

In time, the weather strip is no longer soft and supple. In time, it becomes hard and rigid. Then, it cracks. Its useful time is passed.

The solution is to replace the weather strip at the bottom of your garage door with a new weather strip. Your new weather strip will be soft and supple again, and ready to keep those Park City winter conditions outside of your garage.