Why is your Huntley garage door jammed and what can you do about it?

Garage doors are made to go up and down. They go up. Then they come back down. That pretty much sums up their responsibilities (along with keeping unwanted things, animals and people out). When your Huntley garage door gets stuck, it stops going up and coming down. That’s generally not part of the plan.

The first question is ‘Why?’ Why would your Huntley garage door abandon its responsibilities so flagrantly? 

There are several possible explanations, including: 

• The cable that lifts the garage door is broken
• The garage door is off its track
• You have a broken garage door spring
• Something has jammed or is blocking the garage door from moving
• The garage door opener is broken
• The power is out and the garage door opener won’t work
• The garage door is locked

The next question is, ‘What to do about the problem?’

First a word of warning: There are parts of the garage door that could seriously injure a person or worse. It’s okay to take a look at the garage door to see if you can identify the problem but approach with caution.

For instance, if you find that a broom handle has fallen into the door’s path and has lodged in place so the door won’t operate, as long as you’re careful, you may be able to extricate the broom so the garage door can return to it’s assigned duties of going up and down.

If you notice that the garage door is locked you can unlock it. If you discover that the power is out to the garage door you can check the fuse box or circuit breakers. But be cautious here, too: there may be a short that tripped a circuit breaker and shorts can cause fires.

You may notice that the spring that runs side-to-side above the garage door is broken. This is definitely something you want to leave to the professionals. Those springs come with such force that they can take off a finger in the blink of an eye, or worse, if someone doesn’t know what they’re doing.

The same is true if the cable is broken. It’s possible you can put the garage door back in the track, if you approach it with caution, but the question is, ‘Why did it come out of the track and will it come out again?’

The garage door opener often requires the technical skills and experience of a professional. 

If there’s nothing apparently wrong with your Huntley garage door and garage door opener, you may want to call in a professional to perform some maintenance. Timely maintenance is the pound of cure that could save you from the problems listed above.

Time for Spring Cleaning? Don’t forget the Garage

Spring is only about a week away, officially speaking (Saturday, March 20). As the last couple of years have shown, this is no guarantee that we’re done with winter-like weather. But it does mean we’re on the downhill slope of this particular winter. Warmer weather is just around the corner. Well, we’ve actually had a taste of spring-like weather already.

The first official day of Spring typically puts a spring in our step, if you’ll pardon the pun. Major League Baseball starts Spring training, Robbins start chirping in the trees and flower buds poke their heads through the crusty soil. If you really want to embrace the sense that seasons are changing, get busy doing some Spring Cleaning. 

Tips for Spring Cleaning your garage

By this time of year, most garage floors are covered with the dregs of winter driving – dirt and salt carried in from the roads. The first step in getting at this layer of winter residue is to clear the deck. Move things up on the shelves, where possible, and out of the garage, and out of the way, so you can blast that filthy film away.

You want to put things that don’t do well with water out of reach, such as salt for the driveway and walkways (hopefully, you won’t need anymore until next winter anyhow). Now gather your tools:

• A hose with spray adapter
• Stiff push broom
• A mop
• A bucket
• Floor squeegee or wet vac
• Detergent (might try some vinegar, too)

Start by wetting the floor. Add warm water and detergent (vinegar) to the bucket and dip the stiff push broom into the mixture. Then start scrubbing. Once you’ve broken the salty dirt from the floor, mop up the floor and dispose of the dirty water.

Clean out your bucket and fill it with warm water. Then mop the floor with the fresh water. Once you have the floor clean enough, squeegee the water into a drain, if you have one, mop up the water or turn loose the wet vac. You may have to repeat the first step several times, but you should find yourself with a clean garage floor ready for spring and summer.

Straighten and Organize your garage

We generally use different items from the garage with greater frequency in different seasons. You use a rake more in the fall, a snow shovel in the winter, gardening tools and lawnmower in the spring and summer. 

You’ll want to move the fall and winter tools back out of the way (but keep the snow shovel handy for a little while, just in case) and bring the spring and summer tools to the forefront. Often, this means bringing the spring and summer tools to the middle shelves where they’re easily reached and putting the fall and winter tools in back, up high or down low.

It’s a good idea to coordinate your tools so that, for instance, your gardening tools are in one area, tools used in the house another set of shelves and tools for working on the car and other equipment are in another. Then you want another area for those recreational items in the garage.

Switch out your motorized equipment and ‘toys’

We’re getting closer and closer to the day where you’ll want to put the snow blower away, while parking the snow mobiles. At the same time, we’re also getting closer to the day when you’ll need the lawnmower. You’ll also want to get the jet skis ready for the season, as well as the boat.

As you put gas-driven equipment and ‘toys’ away, you want to prepare them for storage – clean them off and put some stabilizer in the fuel so that it doesn’t go bad while in storage (read the instructions carefully). Then you want to check the powered equipment you use during the summer to make sure that it all runs safely and reliably.

This is a good time for some garage door maintenance

While you’re doing your spring cleaning in the garage, it’s a good time to perform some garage door maintenance. How did your garage door and garage door opener fare over the course of the winter that is starting to slip away? Do your garage door and garage door opener need some adjustments? Is anything broken or badly worn? 

You’ll also want to lubricate your garage door. There are different types of lubricants used for different parts of the garage door. You may want to bring in a garage door technician to lubricate your garage, inspect its condition, and make any necessary adjustments to the garage door and garage door opener. Then, get ready to enjoy spring and the summer that follows.