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3 Garage Door Repairs best for the Professionals

3 Garage Door Repairs to Leave to the Professionals, ,

For many people, their garage is more than a convenient place to park their car—it’s a storage space, a work area, a home-gym, and even the most commonly used entrance to their home. The garage door itself keeps everything inside the garage safe, and when it breaks, it can be a real nuisance. Getting the door repaired quickly keeps your home safe and allows your family to keep up with their busy schedules. Even if you like to tackle home improvement projects yourself, there are some repairs best left to the professionals for your safety.

Garage Door Repair Problems Only a Pro Should Handle

1. The Door Won’t Open or Close

Garage door St. Paul MN Modern garage doors have sensors that detect objects in the door’s path. While obvious obstructions, like a child’s toy or a fallen bike, can easily be removed, the door still may not close. If the pathway is clear and the door won’t close, it could be due to a problem with the motor, which must be repaired by an experienced professional under the terms of your product warranty.

2. You Hear Grinding or Loud Noises

Garage doors are inherently noisy, but it you notice an increase in noise, it’s time to call a professional. It may be due to a broken spring, a roller that’s gone off the track, or even a dent in the track itself. A garage door repair expert will be able to identify and fix the problem quickly, so you can stop covering your years every time you open and close the door.

3. There’s a Broken Spring

Many garage doors move up and down with the help of torsion springs. These springs are always under high tension, and when they snap, they can keep the door from functioning correctly. Installing a replacement spring is dangerous and should always be left to a professional who has the proper safety gear and training to handle the job.

Whether you’ve noticed any of these problems or want to schedule routine garage door maintenance, the experts at AA Garage Door in St. Paul, MN, can help. Their team is dedicated to providing high-quality and affordable service quickly, so your life can get back to normal. Call (651) 702-1420 or visit their website to get your free repair estimate today.

5 ways to keep your garage warm

Image of wooden thermometer showing 30 degrees C — How do you keep your garage warm?

The summer may be a distant memory now as the days start getting shorter and colder, so if you’re going to be spending more time there, then you’ll want to know the best way to keep your garage warm.

If you’ve got plans for your garage this year, then you’re going to want to make sure that it’s warm enough for you to do what you want in it.

Here’s our guide to keeping your garage warm.

1. What will it be used for?

Knowing what you’ll be doing in your garage will help you to decide how warm your garage needs to be.

If you’re only going to use your garage for a few minutes whilst getting children or work samples in and out of the car, you won’t need it to be as warm compared to if you plan on spending hours playing music or making something out of wood in your garage during the evening or all weekend.

2. Insulation

Spending the time to insulate your garage will be worth it if you’re going to spend a lot of time in there.

If you’re trying to get your old car back on the road, you don’t want to be undoing seized bolts lying in a draft. If you’ve turned your garage into a play room for your children, you’ll want to make sure it’s not cold.

3. Better fitting doors and windows

Better fitting doors and windows can eliminate drafts, and provide more warmth without you needing to invest in a heater.

Perhaps you can already feel a draft or can see gaps that shouldn’t be there.

It’s worth getting your garage door and windows looked at to make sure that they are doing their jobs properly, or how they can be improved.

4. Efficiency

You’ll need to make sure that you stop cold air getting in and warm air escaping. You can do this by fitting weather strips around your garage doors and checking other areas for leaks.

This will ensure that you’re not paying for heating that doesn’t even stay in your garage.

Depending on the size of your garage, and what you’ll be doing in there and for how long, you might want to organize or divide your garage differently so that you don’t need to heat the whole garage if you’re only going to be working at a small workbench.

5. Heating

Once you’ve eliminated drafts and got your windows and doors sorted out, and repaired if necessary, you can then decide how you’re going to heat your garage.

If you’re going to be spending a lot of time in there, then you’ll want a cost effective way of heating your garage, perhaps so that your band can practice for hours at a time, you can make things out of wood, or finally get your car back on the road.

This could be several portable heaters or it could be a dedicated heating system.

If you’re only going to be spending a few minutes at a time in there, then portable heaters might be just what you need.

Conclusion

The best way to keep your garage warm will ultimately depend on what you’re going to be doing in there, and for how long at a time.

Even if you’re going to be spending hours at a time there, it needn’t be expensive to keep your garage warm and cosy.

If you need help or advice on your garage door, whether it’s to do with energy efficiency, or it needs putting back on track, Contact Us today at 651-702-1420 and tell us how we can help you.

10 Garage Door Maintenance Tips

Image or yellow gloves on an open tool box — You might be able to carry out garage door maintenance yourself

If you’re keen on saving time and money, then perhaps you want to add garage door maintenance to your list of things to do.

Here’s what we recommend you do:

1. Check everything works

You’ll want to check that everything works on your garage door as expected.

Perhaps you use your garage door every day and will know when something’s not right, or perhaps you only use it a couple of times a month.

Have a look at the opener, door, handle, and lock to make sure that it all works.

Remember to check your automatic garage door opener too if you have one.

2. Check for damage

Perhaps your garage door has been battered by a storm, or has very obvious damage to it due to a car driving into your garage door.

There may be less obvious signs of damage, such as fraying cables, rusting springs or it’s just slow or noisy when opening and closing your door.

3. Check it’s weather proof

You’ll want to check that your garage door is weatherproof.

Rain, snow, storms and sun can damage garage doors, and let in wind and water.

You don’t want the first sign of a leaking garage door to be everything in your garage is wet.

4. Check the screws

Ensure that all the screws and other fittings are tight and secure, and replace any that are missing.

Whilst you might have suitable screws already, you’ll want to check that they are up to the job.

5. Check the frame

Check the garage door frame.

If it’s damaged or rotting, then your garage door may not be as secure or work as it should do.

6. Clean the tracks

Cleaning the tracks regularly will remove the dust and other debris that might cause problems.

You can brush the worst out, and then use a cloth to make sure you’ve got them really clean.

7. Lubricate

Once clean you’ll want to lubricate the rollers, tracks and pulleys.

You can get garage door lubricant as a spray which will make it easier to get to those hard to reach places.

8. How often?

This depends on where you live, what’s in your garage, how often you use your garage, and what you use it for.

You may need to check once a month, or just a couple of times a year.

9. Safety first

Safety must come first.

Obviously you may not have the tools, parts, skills, experience, time or inclination to even think about repairing your garage door, so you might not be able to attempt even the seemingly easy maintenance tasks.

Garage doors are not toys, and are under a lot of tension, and have many moving parts.

We wouldn’t recommend that you fix any major problems yourself.

10. Know your limits

You might not be physically capable of making these checks, or feel comfortable working by yourself carrying out these garage door maintenance tasks.

Perhaps it’s raining or dark, or your children want you to play with them, or you don’t really have the time to spend on your garage door.

If in doubt, leave garage door maintenance to the professionals.

Conclusion

Whether you’re able to carry out these garage door maintenance tasks or not, you might still need some help, advice or guidance, and we’re only too happy to help.

Even if you can’t fix it yourself, you might have still saved time and money by diagnosing the exact problem, and what replacement parts are required, before contacting us.

You might have confirmed that you do actually need a new garage door, or that only a garage door service is required.

Why not Contact Us at 651-702-1420 now, and tell us how we can help you?