Is your garage door making a lot of noise lately? Do you hate alerting the whole neighborhood as to when you leave and come home? VF&I Garage Door Services has a few ways to help you reduce the noise and locate the problem.
Quieten Garage Door Rollers; Nylon VS Steel
There are three major components that are designed to make the garage door open and close quietly. Start by checking the rollers. Rollers are meant to roll through the tracks. Check to see if they are no longer rolling and are just being dragged across the tracks. The roller might need to be replaced. Before you run out to replace the rollers, you can try lubricants. Use a petroleum-based lubricant on the roller and see if they start to rotate again. If lubricating the roller doesn’t help, you will just need to replace them. There are quieter rollers out there made of nylon and because they’re not made of steel, the two steel pieces won’t grind on each other. This type of roller will also help avoid rust and corrosion.
Garage Door Drivers & Replacing Chain-Driver Door Opener
Another thing you’ll want to check is the garage door drivers. If you have an older garage door, it may still be using a chain-driver door opener. The chain-driver is what the motor turns to lift the garage door. Chain-drivers have always been on the loud side. However if it’s making more noise then normal, you may want to lubricate the chain. You can use the same kind petroleum-based lubricant that you used on the rollers for the chain. If you want to help reduce noise altogether replacing the chain is an option. There are rubber belts reinforced with metal that removes most of the noise created by the chain.
Garage Door Opener Vibration Isolators; Relocating Metal Brackets & Motor
The final thing that might be a problem are the vibration isolators. The sound and vibrations of the garage door opening and closing are transferred inside the home’s structure. There are vibration isolators between the main garage door opener (motor) and the metal bracket that holds the motor to the ceiling. The vibration isolators are like a muffler. If the metal brackets are held directly to the roof’s trusses this can cause more noise all throughout that section of the house. The motor doesn’t need to be attached to the trusses. You can relocate the metal brackets and motor if you wish.
Preventive Garage Door Maintenance
What you can do yourself to help reduce the noise comes down to lubricating. Use the petroleum-based lubricant, lube the rollers, metal hardware, springs, and track. When lubing the track make sure you get the curves heavily lubricated. After lubricating wipe away the access lube. This will prevent dirt built up. Your perimeter weather-stripping needs lubing as well. However don’t use the same kind of lube for the metal parts. Use a silicone-based lubricant. If you use a petroleum-based lubricant this will damage your weather-stripping.
Home Garage Door Installation, Replacement, Emergency Repairs & Maintenance in Las Vegas, Summerlin, North LV & Henderson Nevada
If going through all these steps, and you still suffer from a noisy garage door, you may need help. Call your local garage door service guy for a tune up. VF&I Garage Door Services is happy to come out and tune up your garage door system. We will check your whole garage door system, lube, and replace worn out parts. Contact us to give you all the options to make improvements and make your door quieter.
