Broken garage door spring is a repair for a professional

Garage door spring replacement is not for the faint of heart or for the amateur

When the spring of your garage door breaks, you've got a problem and it's a problem that can get worse. The garage door spring is an essential part of your garage door and garage door opener. Most garage doors weigh in at between 150 and 250 pounds. The garage door spring takes the weight off so you, or your garage door opener, can easily open the garage door.

But, if the spring breaks, all that weight is on you. Or, all that weight is on your garage door opener. If it's on you, better eat your Wheaties before you go to open the garage door. If you're relying on your garage door opener to open the garage, without the assistance of that spring, all that weight is bearing down on the mechanisms of the garage door opener and outcome is bleak.

Parts will break. Garage door opener motors will quickly expire. It's not a pretty picture. In fact, you're better off disconnecting the garage door opener and opening the garage door by hand until the broken spring is replaced. And, considering the weight of the garage door, if you don't have the garage door spring to help, well, you've got a workout opening the door and you need to be careful when it comes flying back down.

You can get hurt trying to catch the garage door as it plummets downward. But, you can also get hurt if you try to replace the garage door spring yourself.

Replacing a garage door spring can be fatal

That's not an exaggeration. A garage door spring can take a finger off. It can take your arm off. It can take your head off. That's how much tension there is on a garage door spring.

Even if you are handy around the house, this is not the job for you. The process of installing a garage door spring has to be done correctly. And, if someone gets the doo together, if the spring isn't installed correctly, the garage door can still cause serious injury or death.

Fortunately, garage door repair technicians know the proper way to install a garage door spring. They can do the job efficiently and without injury to themselves or to you.

Why is the garage door opener in your Island Lake garage beeping, squeaking or making a racket?

If your Island Lake garage door opener is making noise,
you may want to have a professional check it out.

Garage doors are seldom absolutely quiet, as it went up and down, but you may notice that your Island Lake garage door is making more noise than it used to make. The garage door opener may beep. The garage door, itself, may make more noise while going up and down. Why is this? Should you be worried? Should you do anything at all?

Beeping: If your garage door opener is beeping, depending on what brand of garage door opener you have, it can mean several things, such as:

1. The garage door opener has a battery backup and, if it beeps every 2 seconds, the garage door opener is operating on battery power. If it beeps every 30 seconds and has a flashing orange LED light, it means the battery is low and requires replacement. 
2. Your garage door has Wi-Fi, in which case a single beep means it’s going into Wi-Fi mode while a single continuous beep means that the unit is trying to connect to the router. Two beeps mean it's trying to connect to the server, three slow beeps mean the garage door opener is connecting to the network and three fast beeps are confirmation that you’ve erased the opener from Wi-Fi. Ultimately, you should ask your garage door technician and/or check your Owners Manual.

Squeaking: With a garage door that squeaks as it goes up and down, the problem is usually insufficient lubrication. The sound isn’t the only problem. If it’s squeaking, it means the door is putting more drag on the opener and parts of the garage door. Things will wear out faster.

Grinding: This is a metal-to-metal sound that could indicate a problem with the chain or belt drive. They may require adjustment or replacement. Once again, you should take care of this problem before it spreads and causes other problems.

Clinking: If you hear a clinking as the door is raised or lowered, this often indicates that you have a problem with your springs. It could also be a problem with the rollers.

Whatever the noise, you shouldn’t ignore the problem. Your Island Lake garage door is trying to tell you something and you should have the problem looked at before it gets worse. However, you don’t have to wait for your garage door to make noise. Bring in a qualified garage door technician for annual maintenance and you may never hear your garage door, or garage door opener, making unwanted beeps, squeaks or a racket.