Were your Antioch garage door sensors knocked out of alignment?

Quiet as mice, the sensors stand sentry on either side of your Antioch garage door. They’re ready to leap into action whenever called upon. They’re there to protect you, your loved ones, your dog and your possessions.

Garage door sensors quietly project laser beams across the opening to your garage door so that the garage door won’t come down on an unsuspecting child, pet or your car. When the laser is broken, while the garage door is in motion, it instantly stops the garage door in its tracks.

You don’t see the laser. You probably don’t even notice the sensors. But they’re still there doing their job, well, unless …

To perform their duty, garage door sensors need to cooperate effectively. This means that the laser beam has to be precisely aimed to complete the circuit between the two sensors. The sensors are mounted near the floor on either side of your Antioch garage door. They are wired to the garage door opener so that, when the laser beam is broken, they tell the garage door opener to stop.

What if the sensors are not properly adjusted? No doubt, when they were installed, they were adjusted so the laser beam communicated between the two sensors. But since then, well, things can happen.

Suppose you’re rearraigning things in the garage. You don’t even realize it when a box your moving pushes against another box that is up against one of the sensors. With no idea that it has happened, you’ve knocked one of the sensors out of alignment. The beam will no longer complete its circuit between the two sensors. The safety measure is no longer working.

Maybe you were sweeping leaves out of the garage in the fall or shoveling snow in the winter and bumped the sensor. The sensor are fairly solidly mounted by you can still knock them out of whack. Maybe you simply kicked one of the sensors by accident one day.

Whatever happened, if the sensors are no longer precisely aligned, you’ll have trouble with your garage door.

Sensors also can get dirty, which can also affect their operation. If you decide to clean the lenses on the sensors, be sure to do so gently so that, while cleaning them, you don’t move them. But you may want to call in a professional to check that the sensors are properly aligned and operating at peak performance. 

If you call a garage door technician out to perform annual maintenance on your Antioch garage door, one of the tasks they’ll perform is checking the sensors.

Did you garage door survive this Salem winter okay or do you need a new garage door

Your garage door has survived how many Salem winters? What’s one more? But did your garage door truly survive the recently passed winter?

How does your garage door look? If there are stains on the garage door from dirty, salt-filled snow, you can wash that off. But you may find that winter has done more than that to the garage door at your Salem home.

For starters, there’s a good chance that winter has dried out the weather stripping around and at the bottom of your garage door. Fortunately, you can replace that without having to replace the entire garage door.

How did the rollers, springs and tracks make out with this most recent winter? If you’ve had annual maintenance performed on your garage door and garage door opener, the answer may be ‘Not too bad.’ But if you seldom maintain your garage door, you may not enjoy the answer to that question.

If your garage door and garage door opener are okay following this recently passed winter, that’s great. Now is a good time to do some maintenance to refresh, adjust and lubricate your garage door from the effects of winter and prepare it for the summer ahead. But what if the damage is more than maintenance can reasonably address?

How do the garage door panels look? Just as winter will dry out the rubber of the weather stripping around your garage, winter will also dry out the panels of your garage door, particularly, but not exclusively, if you have a wooden garage door.

If the panels aren’t bad, you may want to consider going beyond cleaning the garage door. You may want to paint, stain and/or seal the panels of your garage door. Of course, that depends on whether they are worth saving.

If the panels have taken too much of a beating from too many winters, you may need to replace a panel or two, if that’s reasonable. Of course, if the garage door is that bad, you may find it’s time to replace the entire garage door.

How about the mechanics of the garage door – the rollers, hinges, tracks and springs? Are they in reasonably good shape? If not, can they be brought back up to par? 

Then there’s the garage door opener. Does it need some adjustment and lubrication or is it just getting a bit tired after a few too many winters?

It’s a good idea to call a professional out to do some post-winter maintenance on your Salem garage door. While they’re there, they can give your garage door and garage door opener the once over to let you know what kind of shape it’s in. Just make sure it’s someone you can trust and not someone who’s a little too happy to sell you a new garage door.

As Lake Villa winter passes, time for some garage door maintenance

Winter was tough on your Lake Villa garage door and garage door opener. It’s a given. It’s simply a factor of dealing with winter in these parts, even a comparatively mild winter.

The kind of cold we experience in Lake Villa makes parts of the garage door and garage door opener brittle. Parts wear differently when they’re hardened by the cold. They’re more prone to break in this condition.

There’s also the effects of snow, ice and moisture on parts of the garage door and garage door opener. The moisture that gets into bearings and the tracks that guide the garage door displaces lubricants and cause rust. Moisture can also get into the wiring of the garage door opener.

This is the reality. And after experiencing winters year after year, the wear and tear on garage doors and garage door openers is cumulative.

It wouldn’t be so bad if people maintained their garage doors and garage door openers properly. But, overwhelmingly, that’s not the case. Many people never provide appropriate maintenance for their garage doors and openers.

Some garage doors have never had a drop of new lubrication added to their rollers, hinges, bearings and drive chains. They’ve operated for years with nothing going for them except good luck.

Garage door maintenance can go a long way toward extending the life of a garage door and garage door opener. It can reduce the likelihood of parts breaking. But it does more than that.

Garage door maintenance will keep your garage door running smoothly, efficiently and quietly. Efficiently can include a garage door that goes up and down at the speed that it did when it was new. Without that maintenance, the way a pot slowly boils, you may not notice that the garage door is going up and down slower (and louder) than it used to.

It’s not a bad idea to perform maintenance on your garage door and garage door opener before winter, ensuring that everything is adjusted properly and adequately lubricated. But it’s also a good idea to maintain them after winter passes. Before winter, it’s to prepare them for the rigors of the winter to come. After winter, it’s to help them recover from the effects of the winter that has just passed.

Lake Villa is a great place to live. But there’s no denying that winters are rough. And your garage door and garage door opener can testify to that. A little maintenance will go a long way to helping them endure the worst that winter can throw at them.

Is your Twin Lakes garage door possessed?

You push the button and your Twin Lakes garage door rises to let you in or out. You push the button again and it lowers after you’ve entered or left. Well, hopefully, that’s the case. But what if that’s not what happens?

Does your Twin Lakes garage door act as though it’s possessed?

One possibility is that your neighbor is a practical joker and has hacked into your garage door remote and is peaking out from behind the curtain snickering while you scratch your head at the trouble your garage door is having. Thankfully, most neighbors don’t have time for these kinds of shenanigans. 

A more likely answer is that there is a problem with your garage door and/or garage door opener. When your garage door is acting erratically, that’s the most likely explanation. Possession is unlikely. Of course, if it is a matter of possession, you may want to call someone from the clergy who has the expertise to provide an exorcism. 

Let’s assume that your Twin Lakes garage door and garage door opener is not possessed. What, therefore, is the specific problem with your garage door and garage door opener? There are numerous potential explanations, including:

• If the garage door opens but won’t close: You may have a problem with the garage door opener remote. Or you garage door may require limit adjustments. When it touches the floor it thinks it’s hitting someone from the family or the family dog.
• If the garage door comes off the tracks: it’s probable that your rollers are sticking. Since rollers don’t always stick evenly, the drag sticking rollers create pulls the garage door out of whack and out of the track.
• If the main spring is broken: This problem is liable to announce itself loudly. It’s extremely important that you call in a professional to deal with a broken garage door spring as replacement requires experience to avoid the possibility of serious injury.
• If you have a broken cable: you’ll probably notice that one side of the garage door is sagging.
• If the garage door won’t close: you may have dirty sensors or there is something blocking the sensors.
• If you can hear the garage door opener running but the garage door doesn’t move: a likely explanation is that the cord to disconnect the garage door opener has been pulled and you need to give it a couple tugs to reset it.
• If the garage door stops in mid travel: It’s possible that the garage door isn’t level and requires an adjustment. It’s also possible that it requires lubrication. There are different types of lubricants to use with different parts of the garage door and garage door opener. Be sure to call on a qualified garage door technician.
• If the remote doesn’t work: have you checked the batteries? If that’s not the problem, it’s likely that the remote opener needs to be synched to the garage door opener again.
• If nothing happens: First thing to check is the circuit breaker. If the circuit breaker keeps blowing, you should call in a professional. If it’s not the circuit breaker, you should also call in the pros. 

Regular garage door maintenance should keep your Twin Lakes garage door and garage door opener operating properly. But, if you do have a problem with your garage door or garage door opener, if you need help, a qualified garage door technician can put your garage door and garage door opener back in business quickly.

How can you protect your Antioch garage door from high winds?

How much wind can your garage door withstand when the winds blow hard in Antioch? That’s a good question, particularly as we are in the month of March when winds are known to blow harder. An answer, of sorts, found broadly on various blogs, is winds of 20 mph. It’s not clear where that number comes from as those using it generally fail to provide the origin of the number. The truth is that it depends on the local codes and there, it’s not measured in mph of wind speed but in psf – pounds per square foot of force.

In any case, that 20-mph figure seems ridiculously low, and is probably confused with psf, since we all know that storms will frequently bring winds of greater velocity than that. In Antioch, over the course of 2020 and 2021, the average wind per month blew no higher than 6 mph. But, in every single of those 24 months, the high wind speed, not to mention wind gusts, were higher than 20 mph. In some cases, winds and gusts were significantly higher (see chart).

Six mph is comfortably 14-mph comfortably the 20-mph maximum for most garage doors. But, in November of 2020, for instance, Antioch experienced a high wind of 51 mph with guts as high as 79 mph. Amazingly, this did not result in garage doors blown out all over town.

This does not mean that garage doors are not damaged by high winds. For instance, garage doors can suffer from wind damage, or damage from objects blown by the wind, without the garage door suffering catastrophic failure. And garage doors are ripped from their frames in some extreme weather conditions, such as with tornadoes, microbursts and hurricanes.

Of course, here in Antioch, we don’t have to worry about hurricanes too often. And tornadoes and microbursts are generally isolated enough in their impact that the odds of losing a garage door to a funnel cloud is not a widespread problem.

What we really need to know is what to do about your garage door when there are high winds.

The Doors & Access Systems Manufacturers Association International has some specific suggestions:

1. And it is not suggested that you do so when winds represent a clear and present danger, but you should keep the garage door closed in high-wind situations.
2. DO NOT back your car up to the inside of the garage door to bolster the door against high winds – winds may be as likely to yank the door out of the frame as to blow it in and could cause additional damage to your vehicle.
3. DASMAI does not recommend operation of the garage door during high winds.
4. The garage door should be kept closed when there are high winds.
5. It’s also highly recommended that you don’t add weight to the garage door unless it’s part of an integrated system to reinforce the garage door.

Qualified garage door repair and installation companies will generally install better quality garage doors that are less susceptible to high winds. For instance, Beau Bristol, the owner of Garage Doors and More, installs 2-inch-thick garage doors that are more solid in general and better able to withstand high winds. The garage doors he’s had to replace over the years from wind damage were, almost inevitably, of the 1-3/8-inch variety.

Fortunately, we live in an area where wind-rated doors are not required, such as in certain coastal regions where hurricanes are possible. Still, even in Antioch, we can see high winds and it’s good to know what to do, and what precautions to take to protect your garage door from high winds.

Have you considered putting a kennel in your garage?

Your Crystal Lake garage has the potential to serve as a multi-purpose structure. You can create a woodworking workshop in your garage. You can create a craft workshop in your garage. Or you can simply use your garage for storage, with or without enough room for the car. But there are other potential uses for your garage.

Have you considered the potential of your Crystal Lake garage as a kennel for your dog or dogs? There are considerations you should entertain before making such a move; it’s really not as simple as moving the dog crate out to the garage and then putting the dog in the crate.

One consideration is environmental. You need to consider the temperature in your garage. Is your garage heated? Do you have AC for the summer months?

A dog is probably not as susceptible to mild temperature changes. But, in the McHenry area, winters can produce dangerously cold temperatures. In the summer, the heat can threaten heatstroke for people, and dogs, if exposed to high temps for too long.

If the garage is not heated or airconditioned, you need to be conscious of that fact. Don’t leave the dog out in the garage when the temperature falls below freezing or rises above 85 degrees, for instance. You may want to check with your vet about what temperatures are best for your dog.

Another consideration is the air quality in your garage. Do you keep paints, cleaners and solvents in the garage? Even if you don’t have dogs in the garage, you want these chemical agents sealed properly so they don’t foul the air.

You also need to remember that your car produces toxic gasses that are unhealthy for your dog. You don’t want to leave the car running in the garage where those fumes will build up to the extent that they cause health concerns. Long before they might prove fatal, those gasses will cause headaches and other issues.

It’s probably not a bad idea to put a ventilation system in the garage if you’re going to put a kennel in the garage.

As long as you’re considering going here, it doesn’t hurt to look at the idea from the dog’s perspective. A crate if confining. Building a pen, or pens, in the garage offers an opportunity to provide your dog with some comfort and more.

You can give them an area that allows room to stretch their legs. You can put some bedding in there with them. You might even put a few toys in the pen that they like.

If you want to get really snazzy, if you have a pen just outside the garage, you can put doggie doors between the inside pen and the outside pen. This is ideal since it allows the dog to go outside when it wants, stay inside when the weather is inclement, and to go outside to do his or her business.

Finally, you want to make sure your Crystal Lake garage door seals properly to keep out drafts and to ensure that the garage door opener works reliably. 

Will battery backup keep your garage door working when the weather howls?

The problem with the power going out is that it has a tendency to do so during storms. Therefore, when considering a power outage that incapacitates your garage door opener, if you have to get out of the car and wrestle the garage door open, you’re liable to do that in stormy conditions. These are the times you most want a battery backup for your garage door opener.

A garage door opener is seldom more appreciated than when it’s pouring rain, the wind is howling, or sleet and snow are lashing the outdoors and everything in it. It’s not that your garage door opener has conspired with the weather to force you into adverse conditions; it’s just that storms are the common culprit when the power goes out.

Battery Backup Garage Door Opener can Weather the storm

Imagine that you’re coming home from a formal event one night. As you turn onto your street, you notice that the street lights. Closer inspection shows that none of the lights are on in the homes of your neighbors. You suddenly realize that the power is out.

As you consider how you’ll light some candles when you get into the house, it hasn’t really occurred to you that the power outage will cause a bit of inconvenience before you get there.

You push the button on your garage door opener remote control and watch expectantly as the headlights reflect off the garage door in front of you. “Any time now,” you say to the garage door as though it can hear you. Then it dawns on you; the garage door opener isn’t going to work.

Now you find yourself, in your best clothes, your hair styled. You’re comfortable, dry and warm and had no idea that would change. But you realize that, if you’re going to get the car into the garage, you can’t count on the garage door opener anymore. The power is out. It’s not going to work.

It’s not going to work unless you have a backup, such as a backup battery.

There are backup batteries for sump pumps; why not a battery backup for your garage door opener. It’s the difference between counting on your garage door opener with or without the storm.

The cost of a battery backup system is reasonably low. It’s low enough that you might consider it worth the cost to install a battery backup system with your garage door opener. On those, cold, rainy, windy days, you’ll stay dry and warm in the car all the way into the garage.