Here is a look at what causes a garage door to come off its track.

Reason #1: Car Hitting the Door

Garage doors are big and tough. It takes a lot to get them off their hinges. So it makes sense that, in most cases, a car has hit the door. And it’s easier to do than you might think.

Have you ever been later for an appointment and in a hurry? You can pull out of the garage, or perhaps enter it, going too fast. If the door isn’t totally up, a crash is inevitable. Or you can forget to click the remote to open the door.

Reason #2: Improper Alignment or Weak Tracks

If the horizontal tracks on the garage door system aren’t sturdy enough, they can bend under the weight of the door. This happens when they are poorly made, using weak steel.

If the tracks are improperly aligned, they can also bend. Bolts in the brackets get loose, causing wobbling and finally breaking.

Reason #3: Worn Out Rollers

The rollers for your garage door can wear out and break, causing structural stress. Some fittings don’t have enough or the right type of ball bearings.

Reason #4: Broken Lift Cable

Older doors have parts that are worn out, especially around the lift cables. Old parts can cause of series of problems with various pieces of the door system. The end result is a garage door off its tracks.

The Importance of Garage Door Inspections

A garage door off its tracks is expensive to repair. It makes sense to get regular inspections of the components and system as a whole. Expert technicians can spot problems early, preventing damage and even injury.

Contact Bailey Garage Doors for all of your garage door needs!

The post Why Did My Garage Door Come Off Its Tracks? appeared first on Bailey Garage Doors.

You Don’t Have a Safety Reversal Feature

Since 1993, all garage door openers are required to have a safety reversal feature. This mechanism relies on a beam between two sensors located about six inches above the floor on either side of the door. If anything breaks this beam while the garage door is lowering, the door immediately reverses. If your garage door opener doesn’t have this feature, consider buying a new model.

Your Garage Door Opener is Too Loud

Any device with moving parts is bound to make at least a little noise, but modern garage door openers are designed to be as quiet as possible. If your current garage door opener is making too much noise when it works, invest in a screw drive or belt drive model as these will be a lot quieter than the older chain drive models.

You Don’t Have a Rolling Code for Your Garage Door Opener

The remote controls of older garage door openers functioned with fixed codes that could be cracked by savvy thieves, making them major security risks. Newer models utilize a rolling code that changes every time your remote control is used. Since they’re so much harder to duplicate, they’re much safer than older models.

You Don’t Have a Battery Backup

Older garage door openers were all but impossible to use if there was a power outage. Homeowners were completely blocked from using their garages when they didn’t have power, but modern garage door openers have a battery backup system that will let you at least open your garage door and drive somewhere else if you lost power.

Contact Bailey Garage Doors today for all of your garage door opener and garage door needs.

The post Here Are Some Good Reasons To Replace Your Old Garage Door Opener appeared first on Bailey Garage Doors.

Like any major appliance in the home the garage door and the garage door opener should be regularly maintained to prevent poor service or possible failure. To begin maintenance, tell everyone in the home your plan to work on the garage door or opener to prevent any possible injury. The first step to garage door maintenance is simple: stand inside the garage with the garage door closed; inspect the springs, rollers, pulleys and all of the mounting hardware for both the garage door and the opener. If there are any signs of damage or noticeable wear to these components, it may be time to call your garage door professional to replace the damaged or worn components (Remember garage doors are held up under a lot of tension, and a trained professional should be called to replace damaged hardware to prevent any possible injury to the homeowner).

The balance of the garage door should also be regularly checked to ensure the garage door is opening and closing with no resistance along its track. With the garage door closed, disconnect the automatic door opener, and, with the automatic door opener disconnected, lift the garage door manually into an open position. If the door moves smoothly and freely into the upward position, the door is in alignment. If, however, the door catches and drags on the rails, a trained garage door technician should properly service the door.

The garage door’s reversing mechanism – devices which have been added to all garage doors built after 1993 and are responsible for the prevention of the possible entrapment of a person under the garage door – should also be tested regularly. To test the door’s reversing mechanism, open the garage door and place a two by four on the garage floor directly in the path of the garage door. With the two by four in place, close the garage door onto it. When the garage door falls on the two by four and makes contact, the garage door should retreat back up on the track into the open position. If the door does not immediately retract, call your garage door service technician to fix the reversing mechanism.

On a final note, a small amount of lubrication can be added to all of the garage doors moving parts. Make sure that the garage door is either in a fully opened or closed position while working on the garage door, and stand clear of the garage door and all of the moving parts when the garage door is activated.

The post Garage Door Opener Maintenance appeared first on Bailey Garage Doors.

Garage doors are opened daily, and, unlike the rest of our home, when the garage door is opened anyone with a view from the street is aware of the things we keep in the garage. People often forget to close the garage door when they leave, or maybe they have a forgetful teenager to blame, either way, keeping that door closed is paramount to prevent any crimes of opportunity from taking place. Your garage door technician can install a timer that will close your garage door for you after a predetermined amount of time. This will not forgo the safety mechanism put in place on the garage door like the garage door safety sensors, which prevent any accidental closure on people or objects (assuming that the safety sensors are working correctly). The timer has an override option if you wish for the door to remain open while you work, clean, etc.

When you are going on vacation, you should unplug your garage door opener. And, with the opener unplugged, you can put a padlock on the latch or run a metal bolt through a hole in the track to ensure that the door will not be opened from the outside.

Another thing that many people forget about is the garage door opener on the visor of their vehicle. That opener is hidden behind just a pane of glass. Remember to take the opener in the house with you, especially removing it from the vehicle if you are on vacation and the vehicle is going to be parked outside of the home.

The post Garage Door Safety appeared first on Bailey Garage Doors.

First, consider the children in your home.  Don’t allow the children to play with the functions on a garage door.  Remember that the safety mechanisms built into a garage door, like its safety sensors—which prevent the door from closing on a person—can be disabled if the opener is held down.

Keep the garage door opener button out of a child’s reach at all times, and don’t allow children to play unsupervised around the garage door.  Explain the inherent dangers to your children.

Remember, a child will be more likely to experiment with something that they don’t understand, even if you’ve told them to stay away from it.  Hopefully a thorough explanation of the dangers of playing with a garage door will fizzle out any curiosities they once had.

Your garage door most likely has safety equipment built into it, and you should test some of this equipment periodically to ensure that it’s working properly.  One of the easiest tests is to place a two by four in the path of the light on the safety sensors, and try and close the garage door.  If the garage door continues in a downward track even with the obstacle, the safety sensors are not working properly.  Also, visually inspect the garage door monthly, looking for any obvious signs of damage or wear to the garage door or to its hardware and accessories.

Also, remember that a garage door is a route into your home.  It’s so common for someone to leave a garage door opener on the visor of their vehicle, which they’ve left in the driveway, and to go on vacation.

That garage door opener is a key into your home.  Leaving it on the visor of your car is akin to leaving the keys to your house in the lock of the door handle.  Also, while you are away on vacation, consider disengaging the garage door opener, and adding a vacation lock to the garage door, so it’s unable to move freely in its track.

Contact Bailey Doors for all of your garage door needs.

The post Garage Door Maintenance Tips appeared first on Bailey Garage Doors.

The post Is Your Garage Door Sticking? appeared first on Bailey Garage Doors.

The screw drive opener rides on a trolley that moves up and down a steel rod. The screw drive openers operate with much less force than other models. There are many advantages to the screw drive openers, and the main advantage is its simplicity. There are very few moving parts that the homeowner will need to maintain over the life of the opener.

Chain Drive openers are the most common and oldest of the garage door openers. The opener operates the door up and down by turning a chain (similar in appearance and operation to a bicycle chain) with one end of the chain connected to a part called the J-Arm, which is attached to the garage door itself, with the other end attached to the trolley. Chain drives are also the most economical garage door opener, and, while older chain drive garage door openers were loud, newer technology has quieted the starting and stopping motion of these openers.

Belt Drives are the quietest of the openers, and they operate in the same way as the chain drive openers. Instead of the chain, a belt is used. The belt drive has a sleek appearance, and, because the belt itself is made of a fiberglass, reinforced rubber, the vibrations caused from starting and stopping the garage door is greatly reduced.

All garage doors openers have pros and cons, and a homeowner should give preference to which opener fits both his lifestyle and his style.

The post Garage Door Openers appeared first on Bailey Garage Doors.

A common sign that the sensors need to be serviced or replaced occurs when the garage door will open properly by touching the wall switch, but when the switch is pressed to close the garage door, the door will start down the track a short distance and then retreat back into an open position. Holding down the switch may close a garage door with a faulty sensor, although the sensors will no longer prevent the door from closing upon someone or something.

Trouble Shooting

The garage can be a dusty place, and when dust covers the sensor it may not work properly. If the sensor appears dirty, wipe it clean with a clean cloth or paper towel. Another common problem with safety sensors is misalignment. The garage is a very busy place in any home, and these sensors can easily go unnoticed. If a person or object bumps the sensor, it may fall out of alignment. If one sensor is no longer pointed toward the matching sensor, it may need to be realigned. If any wires are showing around the sensor, or if the sensor appears to be damaged, you will need to call a professional to service the broken sensor.

Service

Bailey Garage Doors is proud to be one of Montana’s best garage door companies because of our reputation for quality. Our knowledgeable staff can fix any garage door issue you may have and our large inventory of parts can ensure that we have the part that you need.

The post Garage Door Safety Sensors appeared first on Bailey Garage Doors.

Choose Your Style and Material
There are a handful of different garage styles, and multiple different types of garage building materials. Why style is definitely your personal preference and should go along with the style of your home, consider the climate you live in and your budget when choosing material. Wood doors, for example, are stunning, but can be very expensive. If you live in a place where temperatures are known to change sporadically from hot to cold, then fiberglass doors might be the better option. Or, if you live in an area that’s prone to burglary or violent weather, then steel doors—which are incredibly strong—could offer you exactly what you’re looking for.

Consider Garage Door Safety
A garage door with added safety features can be key, especially if you have children at home who might be at risk of a garage door injury. The newest garage doors on the market are pinch-resistant, pushing fingers out of the way when closing; feature tamper-resistant brackets that reduce the risk of injury under tension; and come equipped with reversing features that will cause the garage door to open back up if something is in its way upon closing.

Don’t Forget About Insulation
You might assume that insulation in a garage door is a waste of money. But with the increasing focus on energy conservation and space maximization, choosing a garage door that provides adequate insulation may end up being important to you and your family—you could end up using your garage door as a place for social gathering or as a place for work., among other things When choosing insulation for your garage, look for the garage’s R-value. A higher R-value is indicative of more thermal insulation, i.e., a higher R-value is equal to less outside noise and increased warmth. Remember, just because a door looks thick does not mean that it has a high R-value.

Consult with a Professional to Learn More
If you still have questions about what kind of garage door is right for you, don’t hesitate to reach out to a garage door professional to learn more today.

The post How to Choose a New Garage Door appeared first on Bailey Garage Doors.