Kenosha CDL drivers should not neglect maintenance of trailer overhead doors

While folks in the Kenosha may not get out driving as much in these days of sheltering-in-place, as a truck driver, you’re probably as busy as ever. This means that you’re raising and lowering that overhead door in the back of the trailer with increased frequency.

Using an overhead door naturally causes wear and tear on the door. It’s inevitable. But is there anything you can do about it? Of course, there is. Just as maintenance of the overhead door of the garage at your Kenosha home, or the loading dock doors where you pick up and deliver goods will extend the service life of those overhead doors, maintenance of the overhead door in the back of your trailer will make a difference.

Maintenance includes lubricating springs and hinges. It also means adjusting the door for peak performance.

You don’t have to lubricate or adjust the overhead door on the back of your trailer every day – not even every week or month. But when is the last time you did maintain the overhead door in your trailer? If you’re like most CDL drivers, it’s probably been a while.

Maintenance of your trailer’s overhead door will help you to avoid situations where springs break, where hinges give way, where the door gets jammed because it isn’t going up or down evenly. But maintenance of the overhead door will do more than that.

Maintaining the overhead door in the back of your trailer will ensure that the door operates smoothly and easily. If you’ve been fighting with the overhead door in back there’s a good chance that, if nothing else, it could use some maintenance. Of course, it’s possible it already requires repairs, but we don’t want to jump to the worst conclusions.

One note of safety: if the overhead door in back of your trailer does require repairs, approach the process with extreme caution. In fact, it’s probably best that you call in a pro. Just like the springs in your Kenosha garage or loading dock are under extreme pressure, so are the springs in your trailer’s overhead door. You can get hurt or worse if something goes wrong.

10 Tips for Securing Your Garage

Your garage is a place where you park your cars and store things. You may even use it, occasionally for leisure and hosting. It’s a great addition to your home. But is it secure?

You can’t take garage security for granted. If you do, it becomes the weak point where the nefarious in our society can gain entry, whether they intend to steal, vandalize, or cause harm. Therefore, securing your garage is as important as securing your home. Here are some tips to consider when securing your garage:

1. Don’t leave high-dollar toys sitting in the garage, in public view, for extended periods of time. If you can, secure these items in the garage so that they’re not visible to people passing by in the street or on the sidewalk. Otherwise, try not to leave the garage door open unnecessarily where those less scrupulous individuals can scope out your garage and your possessions.
2. Don’t forget to close the garage door. Of course, this is critical when you’re not home as people can gain access to the garage and, potentially, the house while you’re not there and are unaware. But, if you are home, this creates another issue – the safety of you and your loved ones.
3. Add some lighting to the area around your garage. People who are up to no good prefer to act in the shadows. Casting light around your garage, possibly with the use of motion sensors, is a great way to discourage those whose motives run off the tracks somewhat.
4. Avoid providing shields for would-be burglars, etc., around your garage. Sheds, bushes, items left outside can provide hiding places for those who want to break into your garage. Take a strategic look around your garage and try to deny those opportunities for folks with ill intent.
5. Secure doors and windows. Deadbolts may not keep bad guys out, but they’ll slow them down. Deadbolts on the windows, on the service door, and on the garage door can prove frustrating for someone trying to break in.
6. Strategically plant some prickly bushes. No, you don’t want bushes that provide cover for someone trying to get into your garage. But some low bushes that are uncomfortable to come into contact with can deter someone outside your garage. Putting prickly bushes under the windows is a great idea.
7. Have your garage door adjusted so burglars and such can’t use the old trick of pushing back the top panel of your garage door and grabbing the release cable. You can also have a garage door release cable shield installed.
8. Secure the door inside your garage that leads to your home. Chances are, there are things far more precious inside your home than inside your garage. If someone can break into your garage, and the inner door is unlocked, they can walk right in. Secure this door and they’re now at another level of security.
9. Don’t leave your garage door opener clipped to the visor of your car. Those with disreputable intentions simply have to break into your car to get into your home.
10. Purchase a new garage door opener to replace that outdated model. The security with an older model of garage door opener is not up to the level of newer models. Even if your old garage door opener works, you may want to consider a newer garage door opener. You can get a garage door opener that uses an app on your phone to open the garage.

Organize your Antioch garage for fun and function during the COVID-19 lockdown

How many times can you watch Harry Potter? No doubt, you’re sick of the news already. Sick of the news, sick of the walls that confine you in your Antioch home. You need something to divert your attention. You need an activity that is productive while offering a mental release from the COVID-19 lockdown and organizing your garage might just be the ticket.

The garage is one of the most inefficiently used spaces we have at our homes. It becomes the receptacle for all those things we don’t want to put away right now. We tell ourselves, “I’ll get to it later.” But when is ‘later?’

With lockdown-induced time on your hands, this is a great time to straighten out the garage. Maybe you can clean the garage enough that there’s room for both cars again. But, as long as you’re at it, maybe you should take it a step further.

Don’t just straighten out your Antioch garage; organize it

Organizing the garage goes beyond cleaning and straightening. Done properly, organizing includes a plan. To make an effective plan, you need to start with an inventory of the things you keep in the garage. When complete, you may want to go through this list and determine if there are items in the garage you really want to put somewhere else.

Once you’ve created your list, go through and prioritize based on likelihood and frequency of use. In other words, if you garden a lot, your gardening tools and materials are a higher priority. If you work on your car or motorcycle frequently, your tools are high priority.

Next create a layout of your garage and start planning where things can go. You may want to consider adding shelves, pegboards, and hooks that will make storage of items in the garage easier. Thankfully, hardware stores in the Antioch area are considered ‘essential’ so you can pick up some hooks, pegboard, and shelving if you need it.

Another good idea is to go online and look for garage organizing hacks. You can come up with some wonderful ideas for maximizing the use of your space in your garage.

If you do a good enough job organizing the garage, you may decide to pick up some epoxy and paint the floor. But, whether you take the project that far or not, you should take a few minutes to consider the condition and maintenance of your Antioch garage door and garage door opener. It’s nice to have an organized garage. It’s wonderful to have a garage door and garage door opener that work smoothly and reliably when called upon.

Have you checked your garage door’s balance lately?

The question above asks if you’ve “checked your garage door’s balance lately?” We might just as well ask if you’ve ever checked your garage door’s balance. Seriously, how many people do you know who check their garage doors to see if they’re balanced? Do you know anyone who has ever checked the balance of their garage door?

Since it’s done so infrequently, what’s the issue? Why bother to check to see if your garage door is balanced? The answer is rather comforting:

• It’s easy to do
• You can improve the performance and durability of your garage door and garage door opener

Checking your garage door’s balance is so easy that we’ll share it with you here and now.

How to balance your garage door:
Step 1: Close the garage door and pull the emergency release handle down and away from the door until the door is disconnected from the trolley.
Step 2: Lift the garage door to the halfway point. Let go. When you let go, the garage door shouldn’t move. If it’s balanced, it’s supported by the springs and will not go up or down.
Step 3: Lift the garage door all the way open and, once again, let go. The garage door should rise slightly. If it slams closed, even if it slowly drifts down, your garage door is not balanced.
Step 4: With the door remaining disconnected from the trolley and the garage door opener, raise and lower the garage door slowly. While doing so, listen and feel for spots where the garage door binds, hangs up or grinds and sticks. The garage door should move freely.
Step 5: Close the garage door completely and pull the release handle again. Press the remote control for the garage door opener and the trolley should move into place connecting to the garage door again. If this doesn’t happen, you may have to lift the garage door until it engages with the trolley.

If your garage door fails to pass any of these tests, give a qualified garage door technician a call. They’ll come out and balance your garage door for you.

When the garage door isn’t balanced, it makes more noise, it takes more time to open and close and it causes more wear and tear on the garage door and the garage door opener. Your garage door and garage door opener will last longer if you keep your garage door balanced.

At Garage Doors and More, we tip our hats to other essential providers

If your garage door is broken, even within the bounds of coronavirus isolation, you’re liable to find it essential that you have the garage door fixed and promptly. While abiding by the governor’s ‘shelter-in-place’ order, you still need to go out and pick up groceries. And, if there’s a medical emergency, or simply a doctor’s appointment, you’ll want to have access to your vehicle in the garage.

There’s no denying that, even while shutting down the economy to prevent the further spread of a pandemic, there are roles that are essential – that we can’t ‘shutdown.’ Those who operate in those essential fields are denied the sanctuary of staying in their own homes relatively safe from the spread of COVID-19.

Taking that additional risk, these are individuals who deserve a degree of respect and appreciation. This actually includes a fairly substantial list of people in a number of roles.

We don’t have to think long before we realize that first responders are among those most at risk while fulfilling an essential need. First responders include police officers, firemen, EMT and paramedics. If someone is sick with coronavirus, and they call emergency services, the people who respond cannot avoid coming into some level of contact with someone with the disease. In many other cases, the first responders have no way of knowing if the person or people they’re dealing with are infected.

At hospitals and other medical facilities, the people who work in the medical profession are expressly called upon to help people with coronavirus or who may have coronavirus. There’s no escaping it – only precautions to mitigate the risks.

But there are others we depend on while isolated

Of course, there are many others who serve us during our enforced isolation. Chief among these people are those who serve, somewhere along the line, in the food industry. This includes farmers, truck drivers, restaurant owners and workers, the young man stocking the shelves at the local grocery store, and the cashier where you pay for your food.

When we go to the grocery store, we may spend 20 minutes or half an hour. During that time, we inevitably come into contact with other people, with products other people have touched. We can, as the first responders do, take precautions. We can wear masks and rubber gloves. But we can’t 100-percent avoid the risk of catching the disease. The clerk stocking the shelves at the grocery store is there for hours. During that time, they have no way of escaping the risk.

If you need your garage door fixed, garage door techs understand how important that is. But we also understand how important other essential providers are in our lives. We want them to know how much we appreciate them.

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.