Can your family tell when someone’s home just from your noisy garage door? A noisy garage door isn’t just annoying—it’s a key indication that your garage door or your garage door opener needs maintenance. While regular maintenance with a garage door pro is important, there are ways to troubleshoot your noisy garage door yourself. Perform our maintenance checklist to get back to a smoother, quieter garage door.
Garage Door Maintenance Checkpoints
Like any piece of mechanical equipment, garage doors operate best when they receive regular maintenance and service. If something is off with your garage door or opener, try performing these maintenance tasks to fix it, and make sure to regularly perform maintenance to prevent any issues or annoyances in the future.
Keep in mind that while you can perform maintenance yourself, it’s important to take safety precautions while working on a garage door. Before performing any maintenance tasks, make sure to disconnect the garage door opener so no one tries to open it as you’re working on it. Once it’s disconnected, try fixing your noisy garage door through the following steps.
Tighten the nuts and bolts.
If the noise you hear from your garage door is a rattling noise, there’s a good chance the nuts and bolts are loose or you may even be missing a screw. You can use a general wrench and socket set to retighten your nuts and bolts, then replace any missing screws as needed. It’s important to not tighten the bolts too much as it could pull the carriage bolt heads through the door or strip the lag screw holes.
Check for bent or misaligned tracks.
Warped or misaligned garage door tracks won’t allow the garage door to close properly, which may be causing the noise. You’ll be able to tell if they’re bent or not aligned properly by the way the garage door sits if it appears crooked or there’s a gap between the door and the ground. You can also use a vertical or horizontal level to make sure they’re aligned if there isn’t any evident misalignment.
While you can check for this yourself, you’ll need to call a professional if they are bent or misaligned. If you call before the situation gets worse, your technician may be able to realign or fix the tracks instead of having to replace them. Once the tracks are adjusted, your garage door should open and close smoothly again.
Examine your chain.
The chain in your garage door opener could be causing a loud noise when you open or close your garage door if the chain is too loose. This could lead to jerky door movements causing the chains to hit the track. If the chain does appear to be loose, you can tighten it by turning the adjusting nut that’s attached to a bolt where the carriage connects to the rail. Tightening this can increase the tension on the chain, making it smooth and tight again. You can find more about this procedure in the owner’s manual for your garage door opener. If you’re not sure which bolt is the adjusting bolt or would prefer to have someone else perform this task, you should contact a garage door professional.
Lubricate or replace worn rollers.
If you’re hearing a squeaking or grinding noise from your garage door, it might be the rollers. If your rollers have regular wear, they may just need to be lubricated. Make sure to continue lubricating them every 3-4 months. If your garage door is still making noise after lubricating them, you may need to replace the rollers, however this is rare and rollers generally wear very well. If you feel you need to replace your rollers, get in touch with a garage door expert to replace your worn rollers and to discuss the best type of rollers for your garage door.
Tighten, lubricate, or install new hinges.
You should inspect your door hinges for the three key issues: wear, lack of lubrication, or looseness. Any three of these issues could cause a lot of noise when you’re opening or closing a garage door. To start, lubricate all of the hinges and see if this solves the noise issue. If it persists, try testing all of the bolts that connect the hinge to the door. You can tighten them with an outlet wrench if they’re not tight enough, but make sure to not overtighten them. Finally, if the hinges are tightened and lubricated but there’s still noise, you may just need to replace the hinges. You can typically take a look at a hinge and tell whether it’s worn out or maybe even broken. Hinges that should be replaced may have steel shavings around the joint or an oblong hole where the pin and bracket meet. You should contact a garage door professional to install new hinges — do not attempt to do this yourself as it could be dangerous.
Clean and lubricate your garage door’s moving parts.
As you might have already noticed, proper lubrication is a key aspect of a smooth, quiet garage door. It’s important to make sure all of your garage door’s moving parts are cleaned and lubricated, including all joints, rollers, rails, and springs. It is important to use the proper lubricant. You can stop by our showroom during business hours to pick up a can of Amega’s Multi-Purpose Spray Lube made specifically for garage doors and openers. This lubrication, combined with regular inspections from our technicians, will keep your garage door working smoothly.
Perform regular maintenance on your garage door.
The best way to fix a noisy garage door is to prevent it in the first place. It’s easy to take your garage door or garage door opener for granted and forget about maintenance, but ongoing maintenance will help prevent annoying noises or sudden garage door difficulties, such as not being able to open or shut it. Along with preventing any last-minute inconveniences, taking care of your garage door and its opener now could save costly repairs in the future.
Call the Des Moines-Area Garage Door Experts
If you’ve performed maintenance yourself and are still experiencing a noisy garage door, call the garage door professionals at Amega Garage Doors & Openers. We want to make sure your garage door maintenance is completed safely and in a timely manner. Our experienced garage door technicians will diagnose and repair your issue so you can feel peace of mind when operating your garage door. Feel free to call us at (515) 633-2119 or schedule service using our online form.