Garage door maintenance and a very Happy Thanksgiving

You’ve made your grocery list for Thanksgiving dinner, and you head out to the garage and, without giving it a thought, you push the button to open the garage door. Of course, it will open. Its reliability is something you’ve come to take for granted.

You run out to the car to pickup the kids from their last day of school the Friday before Thanksgiving week. Once again, the garage door opens upon demand. You drive to the school, pick up your children, and drive back without giving the garage door so much as a passing thought.

It’s Saturday night and you and your spouse are heading out to meet some friends for dinner and some drinks. If it’s chilly, hopefully, the car is winterized, and it will start just fine. You may worry about that but what are the odds you’ll worry about your garage door? And why should you?

Garage doors are extremely reliable. They’re so reliable that they’re easily forgotten. Homeowners and business owners tend to let them go far-too-long between maintenance procedures. That may not seem like such a big deal, at least, not until you push the button for the garage door to open and nothing happens.

It’s also a big deal if the garage door rollers fall out of the track, possibly falling on your car – or you. It’s a big deal if the garage door opener stops midtrack and randomly reverses the direction of your garage door.

Garage door maintenance is a big deal when the condition of the garage door deteriorates to the extent that you have to spend the money for a new garage door.

Maintenance is not a big deal. Have it done once a year and you should be in good shape – your garage door and garage door opener should be in good shape. With proper and timely garage door maintenance, you should have no reason at all to think about your garage door this Thanksgiving.

Thinking about your garage door is our job. And we thank you for giving us the opportunity.

Here at Garage Doors and More, we are very thankful for, what we consider, the best customers in the world. You’re special to us because you give us the opportunity to earn your trust every time you call on us for help with your garage door and/or garage door opener.

And, so, we would like to take this moment to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving.

Maintenance is the key to defending your garage door from another Antioch winter

A funny thing happens to water when it freezes, which is a place to start considering what winter will do to you Antioch garage door. If you heat air in a balloon, it expands. The balloon gets larger. The same is true with water, that is, until it freezes. 

As a solid, water crystals take on a different structure. While cold water contracts, frozen water expands. This is why you want to do a good job of applying weather stripping around your garage door. You want to keep the water out before it freezes, expands and puts pressure on parts of you garage door. But winter requires more than just weather stripping to protect your Antioch garage door.

There are metal parts in the composition of your garage door. It’s possible that the door is made of metal. Metal is also affected by extreme cold temperatures. Not only does the metal contract with the cold but it is often far more brittle with extremely cold temperatures.

Every time the garage door goes up and down, the rails, the hinges and other metal parts are under stress. In the case of the springs, that stress is extreme. Just imagine if the metal parts of the garage door were made of fine China. Under that kind of stress, they would shatter in no time.

Of course, metal isn’t as fragile as porcelain. But, with the cold we can expect in Antioch during the winter, that metal is significantly more brittle. They won’t shatter the first time you run the garage door up and down but, over time, it is possible that they will break.

Other materials used in the construction of garage door are also affected by frigid temperatures, some more than others. Wood and fiberglass, two other materials commonly used in the construction of garage doors, are affected by freezing temperatures.

There isn’t much you can do about the cold. If you live in Northern Illinois, you can count on it to get cold during the winter – sometimes colder than other times. But you can do something to alleviate the effects of the cold on your garage door.

The key is maintenance of your garage door. If everything is properly aligned and lubricated, there is less stress on the parts of your garage door. In other words, having your garage door maintained before the coming Antioch winter arrives can go a long way toward extending the life of your garage door while avoiding unnecessary repairs.

Even the garage door opener will benefit from proper adjustment and lubrication.