Stuck in your Pleasant Prairie home waiting for pandemic to pass? Good time to tackle To-Do List including garage door maintenance

You and others in Pleasant Prairie may want to catch up on your garage door maintenance while you’re stuck at home waiting for the coronavirus pandemic to break. Garage door maintenance?

Yes, that garage door does require maintenance though, of all the mechanical devices we use in our lives, the garage door is often the last to receive a touch of care. One reason is that garage doors are reasonably well built and, even if you don’t maintain them, they’ll generally run for years. But that isn’t too say they run at their optimum efficiency.

Anything mechanical requires due diligence to keep it in good operating condition. This includes the garage door on your Pleasant Prairie home or business.

For garage door maintenance, call in the pros

A qualified garage door technician will generally complete the maintenance of your garage door in relatively short order. It’s not a significantly expensive process either. It simply requires an understanding of what parts require lubrication, what kind of lubrication, what adjustments are necessary and the ability to identify significant wear or problems.

The garage door weighs more than the garage door opener would suggest; the garage door opener makes raising and lowering the garage door look so easy you may be fooled into thinking the garage door is much lighter than it really is. To make the job appear so easy, the garage door comes with a substantial spring or springs that bear substantial tension. The tension is sufficient that, if something went wrong or came loose, serious injury or worse is possible.

In other words, knowing how to maintain the garage door properly includes knowing how to maintain the garage door without anyone getting hurt.

What happens if you don’t maintain your Pleasant Prairie garage door?

Failure to adequately maintain your garage door and garage door opening system may not cause the door to breakdown tomorrow. However, left without maintenance long enough, a breakdown is inevitable. Garage door maintenance will reduce strain and wear on your garage door.

In the long run, this means that garage door maintenance will save you money on future repairs. And, in the meantime, it will keep the door operating smoothly, efficiently and quieter. Yes, the door will slow down over time. It will become louder as it gets older and, particularly, if proper maintenance isn’t performed.

Proper garage door maintenance is something you should have done on your Pleasant Prairie garage door and garage door opener about once every year. And some of the more established garage door companies are available, even during this crisis, to perform that maintenance. You’re stuck at home anyhow – might as well have garage door maintenance performed today.

In spite of coronavirus, garage door repair techs are safely still available for service

Beau, Dave and Craig are still on the job to safely repair
your garage door during the COVID-19 pandemic. And
Tracy is in the office to handle scheduling and payments.
In this way, Garage Doors and More is maintaining
appropriate social distancing while responding to
your garage door needs.

This is not the right time for your garage door to get stuck, not when the world is shut down over coronavirus. With the door sitting half-open, it’s like an invitation to any prowlers who aren’t following the Illinois governor’s order to ‘Shelter-In-Place’ or is otherwise taking advantage of the situation on either side of the state line. If only there was someone who could help.

You’re in luck. There is. Some of the more dedicated garage door repair companies, such as Garage Doors and More, are still available to assist people in Southern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois who have garage door needs. But even they understand this isn’t business as usual.

At Garage Doors and More, they want to help people who have garage doors that require repairs. But they refuse to endanger customers with COVID-19 while helping with their garage doors. In fact, they refuse to take these concerns for granted.

They will perform service with little or no one-on-one personal interaction. In other words, they’ll take appropriate precautions.

Customers don’t need to come out to the garage while the service is performed. They can indicate what they need by email, text or with a phone call (847-917-3039). They can even make arrangements for garage door service by contacting Tracy Bristol in the office using the Garage Doors and More Facebook page.

When the work is done, the garage door repair technicians, who will wear nitrile gloves during the servicing of your garage door, will wipe down any surfaces they’ve come into contact with. All invoicing and payments can be handled electronically.

For the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, some garage door repair companies may but back their hours if they do remain open. That includes Garage Doors and More, where they have reduced hours and their service area. But what they haven’t reduced is their commitment to join the fight to end the pandemic or their commitment to ensure that your garage door is operating properly when you have so many other things on your mind.

What is your garage door repair technician’s goal: fixing your garage door or selling you something?

Your garage door is stuck. Wisely, rather than trying to fix it yourself, you call a professional garage door repair service. Hopefully, a technician arrives in a minimal amount of time to take a look at your broken garage door. But, once they show up, what is their priority?

Some garage door repair companies look at service calls as opportunities for sales. They probably have a column on their financial ledgers for these upsells. The technicians may even receive a commission from products and services they sell when they come out to a service call. Is this what you’re looking for when you need your garage door repaired?

Sometimes, the technician will discover worn parts or equipment that should be repaired or replaced sooner than later. But it’s all a question of their focus.

A quality garage door repair company doesn’t build its business on upselling parts, equipment and services to customers who merely want their garage doors to operate properly again. These garage door repair companies focus instead of building their business based on reputation and customer satisfaction.

They know that, when the time comes that a garage door has outworn is service life, the customer would rather call on a company they can trust to replace that garage door. If a garage door opener can’t do its job efficiently any longer, customers will know that a trusted garage door repair company will give them the garage door opener that best meets their needs rather than the garage door opener with the highest markup.

The difference in focus isn’t just about whether to upsell or to build a business based on reputation; it’s also a question of how long the company plans to do business in the area. A garage door repair company that is in the business for the long haul knows that reputation is everything. They know that focusing on upsells will harm their reputation over the long haul.

Garage door repair companies that worry about how much they can make on upsells when making service calls aren’t worried about what their customers will say to other prospective customers. These garage door repair companies don’t plan to be around that long anyhow.

How established is your garage door repair company?

Leave garage door repair off the Antioch ‘Honey-Do List’

As the Antioch weekend approaches, Brad prepared for the Honey-Do List that Lisa always used to welcome him to his two days off work. There was always plenty to do: replace the dryer vent, paint their daughter’s bedroom, clean the bugs out of the light fixture over the kitchen table, install the sliding shower door in the basement bath, etc. But there are some jobs better left to professionals, assuming you don’t your spouse to suffer a grievous injury.

If your spouse knows nothing about electrical work, you may want to hire an electrician to fix the light switch with a short. If your spouse has never worked with a garbage disposal before, you may want to call a plumber. If they don’t have experience working at heights, call a roofer to patch the roof. And, unless they truly know what they’re doing, calling a garage door technician to fix the garage door.

The risk of electrocution is all you need to know to justify relying on an electrician. The risk of falling says it all when your unqualified spouse starts to get out the ladder. The level of tension on the springs and cables used for your garage doors are enough to seriously maim or kill someone.

People have lost fingers and hands trying to fix their garage doors themselves. People have died because they didn’t call in the pros.

When a garage door technician comes out to fix your garage, if you’re using a reputable company, you can take heart that the job will almost certainly be done right. And it will be done safely. But don’t wait until something is broken to call in the garage door pros.

Garage door maintenance is the key to avoiding most garage door repairs. Unfortunately, however, when it comes to maintaining the mechanical equipment they use, garage doors are the most frequently neglected.

Garage door maintenance will make the likelihood that your garage door requires repair far less likely. And garage door technicians know how to maintain garage doors the same as they know how to repair them.

You have enough other things that need to be done around your Antioch house. Leave those dangerous chores to the pros.

Is your Wonder Lake garage door balanced?

Is your Wonder Lake garage door balanced? Most people look for balance in their lives, not that too many find it. With your garage door, balance

is crucial. If the garage door isn’t balanced, their will be additionally strain and wear on parts of the garage door and garage door opener. It’s also a matter of durability and safety.

When your Wonder Lake garage door is balanced, the door is more apt to operate smoothly and with as little strain on the mechanics of the garage door and garage door as possible. When the garage door isn’t properly balanced, a chain of destruction can set in. This part wears cause strain and wear to that part and so on.

The garage door springs are among the first parts where an unbalanced garage door is felt. These are high-tension springs. They hold a lot of weight and make it possible for a half-horse-power, more or less, garage door opener to smoothly lift and lower a garage door that might weigh from 100 to 400 pounds, depending on the size and materials used in the manufacture of the garage door.

Even if you’re not using the garage door opener – if you’re opening the garage door manually – the springs make it easy to raise and lower the garage door.

If, for instance, the garage door was up and a garage door spring broke or let go, the door would come crashing down. In so doing, it could damage your vehicle or other things that are in the way. It can also injure or kill people who are below the garage door when it falls.

When the garage door is balanced, this is generally not a concern. The springs will last and last. Other mechanical parts of the garage door and garage door opener will also last much longer (everything else being in good condition).

With a balanced Wonder Lake garage door, the door will raise and lower smoothly and it will be quieter doing so. You’re less likely to experience the jerky motion of a garage door in trouble.

Have you considered your garage floor as a canvas for your creative juices?

Is your garage door up to protecting the floor?

Have you ever looked at your garage floor – really looked at your garage floor? You may see a dreary, flat, plain-grey surface. Then again, maybe you never really look at your garage floor. It’s there. It holds your car off the ground but, otherwise, what’s the point? You may be passing up a tremendous opportunity.

How about thinking of your garage floor as a blank canvas where your imagination can run wild? With some imagination, you can transform your garage floor so that it makes a statement about you and how you use your garage. In fact, it can transform your entire garage while enhancing its value as a part of your home.

There are a number of ways you can paint your garage floor. The marketplace is full of epoxy finishes that will bring flat-grey to life. For instance, there are a variety of speckled epoxy paints that come in a myriad of colors. Or, if you’re someone with a particular appreciation for more horsepower, you may want a black-and-white checkered-flag approach.

If you’re transforming the garage into a Man Cave, a decorative surface on the garage floor is a must. But, an epoxy surface on the garage floor makes more sense than simply aesthetically. That coat of epoxy will go a long way to protecting your garage floor.

Moisture is the enemy of concrete. It eats away slowly but consistently at a concrete surface while constantly searching for a chink in the concrete. In the winter, when you add the effects of cold, snow, ice and road salt, the moisture approaches your concrete floor with an adrenaline boost. This is when garage floors suffer the most.

An epoxy coating on your garage floor doesn’t have the absorbency of concrete; it’s like a protective shell. While protecting your floor from moisture, it also holds other substances at bay, such as dirt, grease and oils. It makes the garage door easier to clean. But, there is another vital element to consider when putting an epoxy coat on your garage floor.

WHAT ABOUT THE GARAGE DOOR!!! 

Does your garage door sufficiently hold back the cold and the elements? Doing so is among the duties of a garage door (along with holding nefarious individuals back from taking your belongings and protecting you and your loved ones). Make sure the seal at the bottom, and around the top and sides, of your garage door seals properly – that the seals are supple and able to do their job. Also check that your garage door isn’t so old that it is loosening up and failing to seal between the panels when closed.

If your garage door is in good condition, it’s time to turn your attention to that big, gray canvas under your car.

Is your Zion garage door making noise as a symptom of a problem?

Since the day your garage door was installed in the garage of your Zion home or office, it has begun to age. Every day, it’s a day older. Every year, it’s a year older. Every decade … well, you get the idea. Over time, you’ll notice that it is louder and louder when opening and closing. This is somewhat normal. But, there are times when the noise your garage door makes could indicate a problem you should address.

If you never used your garage door, rust would still represent a threat. The bearings, gears, springs, hinges and other parts won’t experience the wear-and-tear normally experienced by a garage door that is well used but rust will still attack. The thing about rust is that it will attack the metal parts of your garage door whether you use it or not.

Assuming you do use your garage door with frequency, which is likely with most garage doors on most homes in Zion, rust is not the only issue. Parts will begin to loosen over time. Bearings can become loose or rigid. Springs can lose their mojo.

 Inevitably, these changes will reduce the efficiency of your garage door and garage door opener while increasing the amount of noise they make when in use.  If parts outright break, the first indication you may have is the volume of the noise your garage door makes when raising or lowering.

Broken parts can also quickly incapacitate your garage door. They can even make your garage door dangerous to use. This is why maintenance is essential for your garage door. Timely maintenance (usually about once a year) will go a long way towards the avoidance of broken garage door parts or garage door openers.

Along with annual maintenance of your garage door, using your sense of sound is essential to monitoring the condition of your garage door. If the garage door begins making more and/or louder noise, have it checked out promptly. You could catch a problem early before it spreads and causes other problems while increasing the cost of repair.

Still, regular maintenance is the best way to avoid problems with your Zion garage door. It will keep it operating more efficiently and quieter, too.