Your garage door on your home is used more often than the front door if you are like the majority of Americans. Studies have shown that nearly 70% of all American families use their garage door as the main entrance to their home instead of the traditional front door. This is due to the fact that many people choose to park their car in a garage and that makes it easy to get out and go right inside. The garage door is a major working and moving part of any home and needs to be inspected, maintained and repaired on a regular basis to ensure that it is in great working order.
AAA Action Doors has a list of ways that you can inspect and maintain your garage door.
Visual Inspection of Your Garage Door: This is the first step to take when trying to ensure that your garage door is working. You can go out in the garage and look at each area of the door and the mechanism that makes up the door and opening device. Inspect the garage springs, tracks, pulleys, motor, sensors and any other parts for areas that looked worn out or broken. Be sure to have these areas repaired as soon as possible to prevent further damage and danger to those around the door.
Does The Garage Door Reverse: There is a safety mechanism that is installed and part of all garage door units. The reverse mechanism makes sure that if something gets under the door and below the sensor the door will recognize it and reverse so that it opens back up. You can test this by placing a block of wood on the ground in the middle of the garage door and try to close it. The door should hit the wood object and bounce back open. You want to be sure that this is checked once a month for safety.
Troubleshooting Garage Door Sensors: There are sensors called photo eye sensors that are installed about 12 inches off the ground level at the point where the garage door closes. They are there to stop the door from closing if there is anything in the path of the sensors. The sensor is sensitive enough to catch a kid running past or a toy in its path. The sensor should stop the door from closing as soon as it senses anything in the way and will open back up.
