Garage door repair does not have to be as hard as it sounds. Even for ladies or elderly people, there are a few simple steps that can be made before a professional has to be called. Good garage door maintenance actually begins in the construction phase of a garage. Building the garage with sufficient space can help reduce the amount of repairs later on.
Garage Dimensions
The minimum size for a two car or two bay garage is a twenty four by twenty four foot (24’x24′) space. A much more roomy size is a twenty-eight by twenty-eight foot (28’x28′) area.
Garage door sizes are also another area to seriously consider. A standard size garage door is nine feet wide and seven feet high. This size works well for cars, but when trucks, suburban, or vans are part of the family fleet, a larger ten foot wide and eight feet tall door is appropriate. Also when constructing a garage, it is best to use standard size doors. Even just making a door a few inches wider or narrower will require the door to be a special order item. This can get expensive.
When building to accommodate larger vehicles, it is important to realize that the ceiling must also be higher. A standard ceiling height of eight feet matches with a seven foot high door, but an eight foot tall door requires a nine or ten foot clearance on the inside of the structure.
Garage Door Repair
The first simple repair begins with inspecting the track. If the track is not straight and dent free, the door cannot travel up and down with out incident. If a dent is blocking the way a hammer can be used to tap the track back straight once again.
Doors have moving parts, so the next thing to check is if there are loose bolts or brackets on the door. A simple screwdriver can fix this situation.
The third thing to check is if the door rollers are gummed up with excess oil or grease. Other objects can also inhibit the traveling of the door. An accumulation of dirt and other materials commonly found in a garage can test the life of your door.
And finally, rope or string is another threat to the condition of especially an electric opener. Garage door opener parts typically have to be ordered, so the removal of a string before it does any damage can be vital to preserving the motor of the opener.
Routinely monitoring the garage door parts can insure a longer life and fewer repairs through out the year. Sooner or later we all end up with a garage door repair bill, but at least if the simple maintenance is performed every few months, the door unit should have a longer life over all.
