Summer Garage Door Maintenance

Hot weather is here. Don’t let this year’s extreme heat waves take a toll on your garage door system, impacting its function and lifespan. Keep things cool in your garage and home with these summer garage door maintenance tips for Bay Area homeowners.

Inspect

Extreme heat can cause metal components to expand, shifting components like hinges, rollers, and garage door springs, impacting garage door function. Pay special attention to these components in the summer. They manage heavy weight and pressure. If you have any safety concerns, contact your local garage door service technician immediately.

Does your garage door seem to malfunction on sunny days? Sunlight takes a different path in summer and may shine on your safety sensors. Installing safety sensors sunshades is an easy way to manage this issue.

Lubricate

Lubricate garage door hardware each spring, including garage door rollers, tracks, pulleys/chains, hinges, and other moving parts with silicone or lithium-based garage door lubricant, to ensure more reliable, smooth operation through the season. Lubrication prevents hot, expanding metal from causing essential garage door components to stick. Because heat may also impact your garage door weather seal, we likewise recommend cleaning and applying a layer of lubricant to prevent it from sticking in extreme heat.

Insulate

Insulated garage doors prevent summer heat and humidity from transferring into your garage and home. Keep things cool by applying polystyrene insulation or replacing worn, ineffective insulation on your garage doors. Your insulation investment will pay off in the winter months as well, keeping you warm and comfortable.

Clean

Maintaining your garage doors prevents rusting and molding that reduces indoor comfort levels and shortens garage door lifespan.

Test

Rolling blackouts are common in the Bay Area in the summer. Be ready, testing your manual release handle to ensure proper operation in power outages. Make sure the red release handle is no more than 6-feet from the floor and allows you to open the garage door smoothly without your garage door opener.

Replace

Temperature extremes take a toll on batteries and lights. Check your bulbs for outages, and be sure to swap out the batteries in your garage door remotes seasonally.