Will lack of garage door maintenance spoil your New Year’s Eve?

And Have a Happy 2022

You and your spouse are dressed and ready to go. Then the doorbell rings. The babysitter is here, at last. It’s time to go – time to go to the last party of the year. After the lockdown version of New Year’s Even last year, you figure you’re due for a chance to let your hair down and enjoy yourselves.

You go over the list of emergency phone numbers with the babysitter, wish her a Happy New Year and promise you’ll be back not too long after the stroke of midnight. Then you head out to the garage. 

As you slide into your seats, close the doors and start the car, you both take a deep sigh of relief. All your responsibilities are handled. Now, it’s your time. It’s time to enjoy yourselves. It’s time to enjoy New Year’s Eve.

After a smiling glance shared between you, you hit the button to open the garage door. The door goes up, the same as it has done a thousand times before. But then, and suddenly, something goes wrong.

The rollers on each side of the top panel of the garage door fall out of the track. The garage door starts falling onto the hood of your car – your new car, the car you take so much pride in, that you clean and shine so regularly.

You’re still trying to come to terms with what is happening when you realize the door is continuing to fall, one panel after another, onto your car. You hit the button to stop the door. At first, nothing happens. You hit it again and, at last, it stops.

Looking out beyond the fallen garage door and the damaged hood of your car, you see the promise of a relaxed New Year’s Eve fading into the shadows of the night. Your plans have changed.

The odds that this story describes what will happen to you this New Year’s Eve are slim. The point is that, whomever this does happen to, could have avoided the problem and the havoc it wrought. All they needed was some timely garage door maintenance.

Here’s hoping you’ve had timely garage door maintenance performed on your garage door and garage door opener. And here’s hoping you have a Happy New Year and a wonderful 2022.

Garage offers versatility for Christmas

Christmas is a hectic time of year. So much to do and so little time to do it. It helps to devise a plan to help you survive the holiday without losing your cool. You can start by making a list of all the tasks you need to complete. Also, consider all of your resources. And don’t forget the garage as one of those.

The garage can help you survive the holiday mayhem of Christmas in several ways. Consider these possible ways to use your garage to its full potential:

1. Use your garage as a storage area: Just think of all the things you can store in the garage at Christmas time. You can store the boxes from the Christmas decorations and lights in the garage. You can hide gifts in the garage until Christmas morning. You can move furniture out to the garage when you’ll need more space in the house for entertaining. You can put some of the foods prepared in advance out in the garage (assuming you protect them from hungry uninvited guests that find their way into the garage).
2. If your garage is heated, and reasonably clean, you can expand your house while entertaining. Think of it as another room for guests to mingle. It might even work as the room for those who want to smoke a cigarette or cigar (you can air it out later).
3. Decorate your garage for that Christmas party you’re holding for the kids. They can do crafts and games without messing up the house.
4. Keep the pets out in the garage while you’re entertaining.

Of course, you’ll want to ensure that the garage door is working properly. Imagine if you get the garage all setup for that kid’s party and, on a cold December day, the garage door rollers fall out of their tracks.

At Christmas time, you want to think about the holiday not your garage door. And you certainly don’t need any additional expense on the garage door when your shopping for Christmas gifts and holiday dinners.

You may want to have some timely garage door maintenance performed before the holiday. Even if you won’t use your garage for anything special, you don’t need garage door problems spoiling your holiday.

In any case, here at Garage Doors and More, we would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas.

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.

Decorating for Halloween? Don’t forget the potential of the garage

This homeowner decorated right

on out of his garage and into

the front yard. This is an example

of the possibilities that exist

for decorating your garage this

Halloween.

Some folks go all out decorating for Halloween. Some generally throw up a few spooky decorations and call it a … well, spooky night.

There’s a lot you can do with Halloween decorations. But, if you consider it’s potential, you don’t want to neglect the garage or the garage door. The garage, with the door open, can represent a frightening cavern with bats hanging from the rafters and ghouls peeking out from the corners. 

As for your garage door, you can think of it as a large palette where your most spine-chilling imagination can run rampant.

A trip to one of the Halloween outlets that pop up in empty strip-mall stores can provide you with ample material to turn your home into a ghostly experience to delight Trick-or-Treaters of all ages. If you have time for delivery yet, you can probably order decorations online.

These options may cost more than you want to spend. With some creativity and ingenuity, however, you may achieve wonderfully scary results using materials around the house.

You may provide a spooky presentation based on a random assortment of Halloween-based decorations. The overall appeal of your presentation may work out better if you come up with a theme.

The next step is to assemble some of the materials that might help: 

• Cardboard
• Sheets
• Paints
• Markers
• String
• Etc.

You may want to go online and look for ideas. You’ll probably find plenty of concepts you can use. Pinterest is probably a good place to start.

Then, let the creative juices flow. You can setup a table in the garage where you work on the project. Think of yourself as something of a Dr. Frankenstein – a mad scientist. Build a Halloween display worthy of the phrase, “IT’S ALIVE!!!”

Just remember to maximize on your home and garage’s potential. From the front yard, to the eaves extending out from the house to the garage door and garage, with a little effort, you can turn your home into horrifyingly delicious Halloween presentation.

Time to replace the weather stripping on your Antioch garage door?

Autumn is a wonderful time of year as beautiful fall colors combine with mild temperatures to make Antioch an even more fantastic place to live. But autumn won’t last forever; winter is ready to sweep in behind it with snow, blowing winds and cold. That cold and snow will make every effort to work its way around the edges of your garage door.

By all means, enjoy autumn while you can. Go apple picking. Carve pumpkins and decorate for Halloween. But even by the time Thanksgiving comes around, we’re liable to find the temperature in Antioch falling precipitously. 

How can you keep the snow and the cold from seeping into your garage from around the edges of your garage door? Weather stripping is the key.

There are different types of weather stripping to seal your garage door from the elements. And there are different types to use in different areas of the garage door.

Essentially, there are two areas around the garage door where you need to seal: around the sides and top, and across the bottom.

For the top and sides, you can use a brush type seal. The brush type adapts well to the movement of the garage door while performing well to keep out dirt, leaves, rain, snow and the cold.

Another option is a rubber, vinyl of plastic seal that is mounted on both sides of the garage door.

At the bottom of the garage door, you may have a metal threshold mounted to the floor. But you still want a seal mounted to keep the cold, wind and water out.

Weather stripping makes a tremendous difference. If you have a heated garage, it help to reduce the workload on your heater. Even if your garage isn’t heated, weather stripping is a welcome addition.

Of course, you probably have weather stripping on your existing garage door. But, after a number of years, the question is what kind of condition the weather stripping is in. 

Winter is coming to Antioch, though you still have some time. But why wait to check your weather stripping, and replace it if necessary?

Do you have to lean to make your crooked garage door look straight?

A crooked garage door faces greater wear and tear

Something seems funny, kind of out of whack, when you look at your garage door. Is it you or is it the door? If, when leaning slightly to one side, your garage door looks straighter, you may have a garage door that isn’t aligned straight in its tracks or the garage door opening. You may want to do something about this.

Assuming your garage door was aligned properly when it was new, something must have gone wrong over time. This isn’t out of the realm of possibility; wear and tear can cause garage doors to go out of alignment. Parts can break which can also result in a crooked garage door.

• Worn cables
• Broken springs
• Rusted springs
• Broken rollers
• Misaligned rollers
• More

If you never used your garage door, time will still take its toll. Parts will rust. Springs can loose their tension. But, no doubt, you do use your garage door.

Every time you raise and lower your garage door, parts grind against each other. Tension is applied to parts. There is wear and there is tear. 

If you keep your garage door properly lubricated and aligned, you reduce the amount of wear and tear. The durability of your garage door is improved. But once things start getting out of whack, additional strain is placed on your garage door and garage door opener.

The moral of the story is that you don’t have to stand leaning to one side when looking at your garage door, and it won’t help to reduce the harm caused by a misaligned and/or damaged garage door. Have it fixed promptly and you’ll spare the door all that extra wear and tear. 

In the meantime, timely garage door maintenance can help keep your garage door straight to begin with.