 One common winter challenge is your garage door getting stuck. The door may stick because snow or rain that was at the bottom of the door has frozen.
How do I prevent my garage door from sticking in the winter? One way to prevent a stuck door is by coating the bottom of the door using a water displacing spray. Before you do this, lift the door up and clean out the bottom ridge. Get off all the dirt and clean the concrete floor as well. Then, sprinkle table salt over the area where the door rests on the concrete floor. If the door is starting to stick already, apply the spray again and pour on more salt so that the door doesn't completely freeze over the floor. What about rubber stripping for garage doors? Ice can collect on the weather stripping or rubber under on the garage door or along its tracks and stop it from opening and closing smoothly. To prevent this, coat the rubber using the water displacing spray or floor wax. The coating of wax prevents the door from getting stuck and the door will slide and open without any problems. Avoid petroleum-based products for coating the rubber as it can degrade it. What about latex paint? Is your garage door or its frame is painted with latex-based paint, the door might get stuck because of chemicals in the paint. The same chemicals that make the paint adhere so well can also get the door to get stuck which is known as blocking. Blocking can be particularly bad just after the door has been painted. Freezing temperatures also don't help the paint dry completely. If the problem keeps recurring, it may come down to removing the latex paint and repainting the door with another kind of paint. Acrylic and alkyd paint are made to stop blocking. What about automatic openers? An automatic opener should do that just that — it should open automatically. However, even your automatic garage door may seem like it is getting stuck when the temperatures are really low. What might be happening is that the opener may be reacting to changes in temperature. Modern openers have adjustment buttons at the back or under the lens of a light. If you do make adjustments, do it gradually. Big adjustments can put undue pressure on the door and damage it. Who offers garage door repairs in Amarillo? If these steps don't work, call in the experts. Amarillo garage door company Willow Creek Overhead Door will be glad to take a look and advise you accordingly. They are very familiar with dealing with garage and overhead door problems resulting from cold, icy Amarillo winters. If you need weather stripping or a repair for hail or snow damage, call Willow Creek Overhead Door today for a free estimate.
0 Comments
 A garage or overhead door that shakes and jerks when it is closed is not something you should ignore. If you do, it will eventually becomes a major problem when the door will not close completely. What causes an overhead garage door to shake and jerk when closing? A garage door system has two major parts. There is the door itself and the opener. Movement of the door is controlled by the lift motor and is driven by either screw actuators or a chain. It is the lift motor that pulls the door up and then lets it down so it can close. When the door is opening or closing, it runs on a set of tracks which keep the door in place. If your garage overhead is getting jammed or shaking and jerking as it closes, the tracks should be checked. They should be inspected to ensure that they are aligned correctly on the wall. What should you do if there is damage to the garage door? Damage on the tracks will often be in form of bends or crimps. If the damage is not severe, you can undertake to correct the repair by using a mallet or hammer to straighten them out. If this does not stop the shaking and jerking, leave it to a professional. What if the tracks are correctly aligned? If the tracks are aligned properly with no bends or crimps, then the problem may be the overhead garage rollers. If they make squealing or squeaks when the door is opening or closing, they may be causing the shaking and jerking and need to be replaced. This is best left to the experts who will get the right rollers for your door and install it correctly. Another point that should be checked is the hinges and screws. Loose or damaged ones can also cause jerking because they are unable to hold the weight of the door. If they are not changed in a timely manner, they can cause the lift motor to burn out. Who can do garage door repairs for your home or business? A poor repair job can leave a garage or overhead door more damaged that it was before. Willow Creek Overhead Door in Amarillo, Texas has made a name for themselves by the quality of their garage doors, friendly customer service and installation services. Call them today for a free repair estimate for your jerky garage door. photo courtesy of Oleg Alexandrov  Garage doors open and close every day. Most of the time, they do so with little effort. However, on a rare occasion, the door may start struggling to open or to lift. You will notice that the door is slow going up. The motor may sound like it is struggling. The door tracks may creak and rattle. It may start as a barely noticeable thing. However, with time, the noises and vibrations will become very apparent. If not handled, the noises and vibrations may become quite dramatic. It is something you definitely need to diagnose and get fixed.
How can you find out what is going on? If your overhead door is not opening properly, the first thing to do is consult your owner's manual. The manual should offer some troubleshooting steps to figure out what is going on. (If you don't have a copy of the manual, you may find a copy on the internet.) Follow the steps carefully and see what might be going on. A common source of this problem is torsion springs that are not adjusted properly. Go out and look at the inside of your garage door. Torsion springs sit along the top of the wall above the garage door. These springs counterbalance the weight of the door so that a person or the garage door opener can raise and lower the door smoothly. When this spring does not have the proper adjustments, the opener will start struggling to open the door. If a person tried to open the door without the counterbalance of the spring, the weight might be too much. What can you do if you suspect the torsion spring is out of adjustment? It is important to leave this type of repair to the professionals. These springs, adjusted or not, hold a lot of stored energy. Unless you know how to properly handle such a spring, you are in danger. These torsion springs can recoil and take a grown man down to the ground. The power is enough to do severe bodily damage and can even be deadly in some cases. Unless you are a garage door professional, call in someone who is. Who should you call when you need a torsion spring repair? Due to the danger of this kind of repair, you need to call in experienced Amarillo garage door and overhead door professionals. You can give us a call here at Willow Creek Overhead Door. We have plenty of experience handling torsion springs of all sorts. Our technicians know how to install, repair, adjust, and maintain most torsion spring installations. We also handle repairs, installations, and replacements of garage and commercial overhead doors, operators and openers. If you need garage door work done in the Greater Amarillo area, give us a call. We are here to help.  So your garage door just quit on you. Have you run through the basic troubleshooting steps yet? Sometimes in our rush to solve a problem, we forget to check the most likely causes first. Take a moment and check a couple of things before moving on to the more complex possibilities. Is it the garage door opener? First, open up the back of your garage door opener. The best way to see if the battery is weak or dying is to roll it back and forth in the compartment a couple of times. If that fixes the problem and the garage door opens, then you need to replace the battery sooner rather than later. The second source of the problem might be obstruction. How big of an obstruction does it take to stall the door operation? The sensors on the door are designed to create a beam that signals the lift mechanism. As a safety measure, if anything disrupts that beam at any point, the door will not operate. It could be something as simple as a shovel or a misplaced tool. Simply move the item out of the sensor range and try using the remote again. While you're there, check the sensors on the door to make sure they are in proper alignment. The sensors are located about a foot off of the ground on either side of the door. One sensor should have a green light; the other a red. Due to their location and the constant use of the door; it's possible the sensors have been jarred or bumped out of place. A simple readjustment may fix the problem. What else should you look for before moving on to the operating mechanism? There is one other possibility that can cause a garage door to stick. Before checking the track and other components, check the spring on the door to make sure it's not broken, loose, or misshapen. If it is, this part can easily be found and replaced. The track looks funny. What does that mean? It's a good possibility that the track is out of alignment. Try re-aligning the components so that the door lifts smoothly onto the track. Also, make sure the track stays well lubricated. Keep it well-oiled to avoid functional difficulties in the future. In addition, check the power supply and tension in the cables. It's very important that these components are well-maintained because they control the speed and force with which your garage door comes down. To avoid breakdowns or injuries, always keep your door in good working order. If you've tried everything and nothing works, what do you do next? If you can’t figure out or solve the problem yourself, it is time to call in the professionals. The staff at Willow Creek Overhead Door are experts in troubleshooting, fixing, and replacing broken garage doors. This Amarillo garage door company is all about customer service and affordable prices for all. They'll not only fix the problem, but they’ll also explain how and why it happened, and what you can do to avoid this outcome in the future. To find out more about their products and services or for a free estimate, contact Willow Creek Overhead Door today. Watch our video on how to troubleshoot your garage door!  Is your garage opener reversing your door for no obvious reason? You likely noticed it after pulling out of or into the garage and hitting the clicker. The door starts going down, but before it closes completely, it reverses itself. You try hitting the clicker again and it does the same thing.
When you go into the garage after that, you may hear a clicking sound or see flashing lights on the opener. What is going on? What can you do to troubleshoot the problem? The first thing to do is to consult your garage door opener manual. The manufacturer will likely have a section that outlines common troubleshooting steps. There should be one that offers troubleshooting tips for when the opener reverses itself. A few common problems include the following:
Sometimes the blockage is quite obvious. Something fell off a shelf. A toy is standing in front of the sensor. Your vehicle is blocking the sensor. Remove the blockage and try to close the door again. If there is no obvious blockage, look for something not so obvious. If a spider has woven a web across the lens of the sensor it will block the signal. Even a small piece of debris can cause problems. Clear the problem and try it again. How do you know if the door sensors are out of alignment? Check the sensors on both sides of the door. Make sure they are level with the floor and pointed towards each other. If they are not, gently move them back into place and try the door again. How do you know if the limiting switch needs adjustment? If the sensors seem okay, look at the limiting switch next. This switch controls how far down your garage door goes down. If it is set wrong, it may send the door down too far or not far enough. Check this setting, make an adjustment and try the garage door again. What do you do when none of your troubleshooting solves the problem? Once you have gone through the troubleshooting steps, if your opener is still not working, you need to get professional help. Whether your garage door opener is reversing or the light is flashing, Willow Creek Overhead Door in Amarillo, Texas can help solve the problem. We are the Texas Panhandle area experts in residential and commercial garage door service. We repair, install and replace doors, operators and openers. In business for more than 10 years, we are the top Amarillo garage door company. Contact us today for a free estimate.  Most homes and businesses that have a garage door has a keypad mounted inside the garage. A few also have keypads mounted on the outside of the garage. The average homeowner and business owner doesn't think much about the keypads until something is not working properly. You walk up to the keypad and hit the button. Nothing happens. You hit the button again. Still, nothing happens. Now what do you do? It is not safe for your home or family to have the garage door open all day and all night because the keypad is malfunctioning. Therefore, you need a prompt solution. What do you do when the keypad is not working? Besides scratching your head, there are a few things to do to troubleshoot what is going on with the garage door keypad.
If your troubleshooting does not find the problem or solve it, you need to bring in overhead door professionals. Your garage door is a system that needs to have all the parts working to function safely and effectively. If something is wrong with your keypad, you may need to have a professional repair or replace it. Overhead door specialists can diagnose the problem and get a solution going quickly. When you are having trouble with your garage door keypad, or any other issues with your overhead door, give us a call here at Willow Creek Overhead Door in Amarillo, Texas. We have been serving the Texas Panhandle area for more than 10 years. We repair, install and replace residential garage and commercial overhead doors, operators and openers from reputable manufacturers. We will personally come to your home or business and give you a free estimate, so don’t hesitate to call our locally owned and operated Amarillo garage door company today.  Why are the lights on your garage door opener blinking or flashing? This is a common question when it comes to garage door troubleshooting. You likely noticed the problem one day when you went out to get in your car. It might be when you got home in the evening. That light was not blinking the day before though. If you are lucky, the garage door will open when you hit the clicker button. However, often, if the lights on the opener are flashing or blinking, you may not have a working door opener. Getting the opener to work is critical for both commercial and residential buildings. What could be going on with your garage door opener? The lights on the door opener are indications of a problem. Every door opener manufacturer has their own set of lights and codes. They can vary a bit. However, the conditions that cause them to flash are pretty common:
What can you do about getting the garage door opener to stop flashing and start working? Calling in professionals is the best answer for this problem. A professional garage door company can diagnose the problem and give you an idea of the options and prices available. It may be something as simple as changing a battery or resetting the opener mode. Or, it could be a major issue with the opener or sensor system that requires a repair or a complete replacement. The only way to tell is to have a professional come out and take a look at it. Trying to fix the problem yourself may end up causing more damage and costing you more money in the long run. Therefore, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Who should you call when you experience problems with your garage door opener? If you are having trouble with your garage door opener, give the premier Amarillo garage door company, Willow Creek Overhead Door, a call. This family owned and operated business has proudly served the Amarillo, Texas and Texas Panhandle areas for more than 10 years. They are experts in residential and commercial overhead doors, operators, and openers so if you are in need of professional, quality service and honest, reasonable prices, contact Willow Creek Overhead Door today.  How often do you think about your garage door? If you are like most people, you don't think about it until something goes wrong. While we may not think about garage doors at our homes or places of business much, we sure do use them frequently. Thinking about maintenance at least once a year is the way to make sure you don't start having problems. Routine maintenance and upkeep will keep your garage door working for many years to come. Just follow these five easy tips! How can you keep your garage door in good shape? Maintenance is key to keeping your garage or overhead door at your home or commercial building functioning and safe. The following routine checks can help spot trouble before it becomes major. Here are five of the top tips for keeping your garage door in good shape:
If your routine checks find a problem, or a problem arises out of the blue, you need to call in a professional garage door company. Some garage door repairs are actually dangerous. A good example of this is trying to install, repair, or take down torsion springs. The torsion spring holds a great deal of stored energy. If you do not know how to release that energy before you take it down, it can recoil and strike anyone around. It can knock a grown person off a ladder and actually do severe damage in the process. It is best to leave this, and other major garage door repairs, to the professionals who have the tools and experience to make these repairs. Which garage door company should you call? The company you should call is Willow Creek Overhead Door in Amarillo, Texas. The family owned and operated company has been in business for more than 10 years. They repair, install and replace garage and commercial overhead doors, operators and openers. When your business or house’s garage or overhead door is in need of a repair or replacement, don’t hesitate to call one of the best Amarillo garage door companies, Willow Creek Overhead Door, for a free repair or installation estimate. image courtesy of ROI Online  Have you ever come home and found water sitting inside your garage after a hard rain? You know the door was down when you got home and no one had been home all day. Yet somehow, the water got in any way. You check and make sure the windows were shut and locked. The water heater is not leaking. No vehicle in the garage sprung a leak. The next thing to look at, for that water's mysterious appearance, is your garage door. If your garage door is not sealing properly at the bottom, it may be letting water in. How can water get in your garage if the door was down? More than likely, you have water coming in around your garage door. When you get a lot of rain or rain combined with heavy winds, water is going to hit your garage door more than normal. That is when you will start seeing the mystery water showing up. If you are lucky, you will find a path of water from where it entered to where it pooled. That will tell you what you need to look at when troubleshooting. Even if you only find the pool of water without the path, you still need to take a look at the garage door. What could be causing the garage door to leak? Take a look at your overhead door. One of the most typical problems is that the garage door is not sealing at the bottom. Everywhere you see a crack or a hole is a potential point of entry for water. Here are a few of the common reasons for leaks to start:
What should you do to stop the water leaking into your garage? The best solution to stop the water leaking into your garage is to call a professional garage door repair company. You may have an idea of what is wrong, but a professional will be able to fix it and make sure the leak does not happen again. Willow Creek Overhead Door installs, repairs, and replaces overhead and garage doors for commercial and residential clients. As a leading Amarillo garage door company who sells products from reputable manufacturers, yet offers local service, Willow Creek Overhead Door is your best bet at repairing your leaking garage door. Contact Willow Creek Overhead Door today for a free estimate.  How many times a week do you open and close your garage door? Better yet, how many times a day do you open and close your garage door? You likely don't think about it much. If you live in a regular household, you and your family members may be opening that door several times a day. That can add up to a several dozen times a week. When your garage door opener is not working, you certainly will notice it. You will pull up or try to pull out and find the garage door is not opening. If you work for a business with an overhead door, it’s probably at least four times a day, five days a week. When accessed frequently, you may encounter your garage door opener stops working. When that happens there are a few steps that need to be taken in order to resolve the issue. What's causing the problem with your garage door opener? Your door opener is a machine that depends on power and properly working parts. When something goes wrong, you will know it. Here is a list of potential problems you may be facing:
What kind of troubleshooting can you do yourself? An average homeowner and handy-person can do some basic troubleshooting to find out what the problem is, including:
What can you do if you can’t solve the problem yourself? If you find that troubleshooting does not solve the problem you are having, you need to call an expert, such as Willow Creek Overhead Door. This Amarillo garage door company offers products from reputable manufacturers, yet does all the work themselves. They can repair, install and replace garage and commercial overhead doors, operators and openers. Give Willow Creek Overhead Door a call today for a free repair estimate. image courtesy of ROI Online |
Archives
November 2018
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed