Off Grid Living: Garage Door Repair

As sturdy as your house may be, there are some things, unfortunately, that you cannot foresee happening, or can stop from happening. A flooded basement, termites, or burst pipes can all be a hassle, to put it mildly. These are all potential catastrophes that can also be very costly. Luckily, there are few necessary projects that you can pull off on your own. One of these includes the undertaking of your own garage door repair. With a few careful steps, there is no need to spend hard earned money. Fix your garage door yourself!

Diagnose the Problem

Typically, a problem with your garage door is easy to fix because these problems are simple to diagnose. There are two essential components to your garage door, for example. One is the door itself, and the other is the garage door opener. Once you understand what the problem is and from what part of the garage door it is coming from, garage door repair is really quite simple!

Potential Issues

Regardless to whether you garage door swings open like a restaurant door or rolls up in sections, all garage doors depend on their spring tension. This means that your garage door, held up on metal tracks, is powered by at least one spring (usually several, depending on the size of your garage door). Once you understand this, you can then check your tracks to determine if something is wrong that is preventing the springs from providing power to your garage door. Damage to your metal tracks is commonly the issue with garage door malfunction and can be typically fixed easily. Check for dents on your tracks, loose hardware, or proper alignment of your tracks. Although each issue is handled in its own way (hammering out dents with a rubber mallet is something you can easily do yourself if your issue is a simple dent, for example), in order for you to pull off your own garage door repair, it is imperative that you understand what the problem with your garage door is. Be certainly careful not to injure yourself as well. No need to use a search engine to find someone to fix your leg on a Sunday afternoon.

Although usually issues pertaining to garage door repair stem from problems with your garage door, some problems can be traced to your garage door opener. These garage openers are complex gadgets that can drive a carriage along a rail and is attached to a drawbar to move the door from their opened to closed positions and vice versa. Any number of issues can affect whether or not the opener is working properly and thus, whether or not your garage door is working. Some examples of issues with your garage door opener include problems with the motor and radio receiver or the locations of the bolts that allow the chains that drive the door to work. If any issues arise from the garage door opener, you may have to simply re install the radio receiver and motor using Do It Yourself guides that can be found at any hardware store.

With all of this work, I sometimes wonder why I don't hire my neighbor for the job, and give him a gift card from here for his hard work, with an unspecified amount of cash on the card. ;)

These are some elementary steps in helping you pull off your own repair of your garage door. If the damages to your garage door are extensive, however, it may be time to replace it.