A broken garage door can be the result of years of wear on your door mechanisms or the sudden break of your door or door opener hardware. Whatever the cause, a malfunctioning garage door can seriously affect your schedule and your garage security.

There are two main components to a garage door: the door itself and the opener. In this article, we’ll tell you how to make repairs to a garage door.

Repairing a Garage Door

Overhead garage doors, whether they roll up in sections or swing up in one piece, operate on spring tension. The door moves on metal tracks on the garage walls, and a heavy spring or springs provide the power. Garage door springs counterbalance the weight of the door to make it easy to open and close. They serve the same purpose of counter weights used to balance doors in centuries past and in many doors today.

Here are some helpful repair tips:

1. Check the metal tracks inside the garage. If they’re loose, tighten the bolts or screws at the brackets. Working inside the garage with the garage door closed, examine the tracks for dents, crimps, or flat spots. If there are any damaged spots, pound them out with a rubber mallet, or with a hammer and a block of scrap wood. If the tracks are badly damaged, they should be replaced.
2. Check the tracks with a level to make sure they’re properly aligned. If the tracks are not properly aligned, loosen but do not remove the screws or bolts that hold the mounting brackets, and tap the tracks carefully into position.
3. Clean the tracks with concentrated household cleaner to remove dirt and hardened grease. Clean the rollers thoroughly, and wipe both tracks and rollers dry.
4. Check for loose hardware, and tighten as needed. On swing-up doors, check the plates where the spring is mounted to be sure the screws are tight, and tighten any loose screws. On roll-up doors, check the hinges that hold the sections of the door together; tighten any loose screws, and replace any damaged hinges. If the wood is cracked at a hinge, remove the hinge and fill the cracks and the screw holes with wood filler. Let the filler dry and then replace the hinge. If possible, move the hinge onto solid wood.

Now you’ll be able to make basic garage door repairs.

Happy Repairing!