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.