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.

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First of all, it’s important to give the garage door a look and listen test.  When you open and close the door are there any strange sounds?  Does the door move smoothly in its track?  If the door’s making a rubbing sound, try to locate the sound—eyes only, don’t put hands anywhere near the moving parts of a garage door!  Also, if the door comes jarringly up the track, check the track when the door is in a down position.  Both sides of the garage door’s moving parts—springs, cables, and pulleys—should look symmetrical.

It’s a common problem for a garage door to have problems with the springs.  Springs are under intense pressures and often, because of this, the springs can wear out or break over time.  A worn spring could cause the garage door to stick in its track, or open and close jarringly.  To check the springs, disable the garage door opener, and lift the garage door halfway up into its track.  If the door balances there, the springs are in good condition.  If the door doesn’t balance, it’s often the springs, and, because springs are a notoriously dangerous component to fix, it is important to call a professional.

It’s also important to keep the garage door and the moving components lubricated.  There should never be any lubricant applied to the track.  This can do more harm than it would do good.  The track can be wiped clean, but lubricant could cause the door to slip in its track.  Lubricants can be applied to all the moving parts of the garage door.  For Garage door opener models, like Screw and Chain Drive models, it is also important to lubricate this component.

Also, make sure that all of the safety components are working properly.  The safety sensors should be working appropriately: the sensors are lit with green lights and the door can be closed by pressing the garage door opener.

Visit Bailey Garage Doors for all of your garage door needs.

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A Garage Door’s spring is a mechanical component to the garage door, and because of the pressures placed upon it to both raise and lower the door, the springs will eventually go bad. The problem with garage door springs is that it’s not the easiest component to fix. As we’ve talked about here before, because of the pressures behind those springs, for the amateur, or even professional for that matter, those springs can represent serious bodily pain, loss of limb or maybe even life. It’s best to call a professional if you don’t have either the knowledge or practice replacing these springs.

When a spring does break, it could be at the worst possible time—when you are hoping to leave for work, school, etc. You will know a spring has broken when the garage door wont open or close—this could also be a sign of other problems such as a faulty garage door opener, etc., and the list of ways in which to troubleshoot a stuck garage door can be found in February’s blog post. If you’ve determined that the spring is at fault, call a professional technician at Bailey’s Garage Door. If you continue to try and engage the spring by continuing to try to open and close the garage door, it could do severe damage to the door.

So, how do you prevent this moment in time in which you’re stuck with a broken garage door, hoping that a Garage Door Technician is available soon! There may have been warning signs before the door became stuck, warning signs that you could have caught early, and avoided the stuck disaster. Unfortunately, however, garage door springs wont break in standard ways, but often it might provide clues as to its wear. Firstly, if your garage door is stopping as it’s opening or closing this could be a sign of a damaged spring. Check the springs when the door is fully closed, and look for any noticeable damage or wear to the spring. Another clue is how the door is situated in the opening. Is the door crooked? Does it seem to be off its track? These could be definite clues that point to a faulty spring. Also, there’s the standard practice of if it looks broke then fix it! If there’s noticeable wear, or if you’ve had a simple accident such as backing into the door, or clipping the door with your car as you passed underneath, this would be a definite time to have the springs checked, and, possibly, replaced. You don’t want to find yourself with your car stuck in or just outside the garage at a time of emergency.

For all of your garage doors needs, please contact Bailey Doors today!

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