How to Lubricate Garage Door

Unfortunately, though your garage can have multiple functions – you can park your car, store items that you don’t want to throw away just yet, or make it your small repair center, the garage door could also be a source of ungodly noise. There could be multiple reasons that might cause this unfortunate state of affairs, such as improper maintenance, wear, tear, or simply a noisy type of garage door opener.

Thankfully, although fixing your noisy garage door might require a little bit of technical knowledge, in some cases, fixing it won’t be particularly time-consuming. What’s most important, you’ll be able to do it on your own. In a moment, you’ll learn about the most common causes of a noisy garage door and how to deal with them.

Why Is My Garage Door Squeaking?

You most likely don’t pay too much attention to your garage door until it causes you an inconvenience. Although it could still close and open, any type of movement might be accompanied by a terrible noise that would disturb your family or maybe even neighbors. Contacting a technician with a great deal of experience certainly wouldn’t be a bad idea, but there’s a good chance that you’ll be able to tackle the problem without anyone’s help.

A bent track could be the reason why you are experiencing problems with your garage door. You might be able to close and open the door, but if this process is accompanied by a rubbing sound, the track could be bent.

One of the garage door parts could be loose, which could be causing a lot of noise during the opening and closing of your garage. Identifying which component is responsible for the clamor – whether it’s garage door rollers, nuts, or chain, to name just a few, could be pretty time-consuming. However, your task will be a bit easier if you know what type of sound corresponds with which of the garage door’s moving parts.

If there is a rattling sound when you open or close the door, it is most likely due to the loose nuts or bolts. That’s one of the most common causes of noisy garage doors, with a relatively simple solution – use a ratchet to make sure that no nut or bolt is loose. However, don’t use too much force, or you might damage the door and achieve the opposite effect from the intended one.

On the other hand, a squeaking sound could indicate that hinges or rollers are the responsible parties. Because of their wear and tear, the entire door could additionally shake while it opens and closes. If the bearings of the garage door rollers are dirty, they will become worn much more quickly, which is why it is a good idea to check their condition regularly.

If they are worn-out, you should consider replacing the garage door rollers – nylon ones are worthy of recommendation, as they are significantly quieter, but at the same time, they don’t need to be oiled regularly. This way, you would not only successfully deal with the problem, but you could also forget about the garage door rollers’ maintenance. Are there any downsides to this solution? Unfortunately, they are also more costly.

If you can hear a characteristic “slapping” sound while you open or close the garage door, it could indicate that the chain is the culprit. If that’s the case, fixing this issue could be as simple as tightening it.

How to Lubricate Garage Door

However, you might find out that even after you make sure that none of the garage door parts remains loose, the terrible noise is still there. Don’t worry – there’s still plenty of things that you could do to fix your garage door. Although loose parts are often what is causing the noise, just as frequently lack of lubrication is to be blamed.

There are a lot of different elements – hinges, springs, rails, or a chain that, due to the friction, could make a clamor each time you open or close the garage door. The good news is that you can easily deal with this issue easily – all that you need to do is lubricate the garage door parts.

1. Use a damp cloth to clean the tracks so that they’ll be completely dirt-free.
2. Once you’ve successfully dealt with the previous step, you can now start lubricating garage door parts. We recommend lithium grease as a garage door lubricant instead of WD-40 or oil. The latter would lubricate the garage door just fine, but it would attract dirt later on, which would prove counterproductive.
3. Now, after lifting up the garage door a little bit, spray the garage door lubricant on hinges. There’s no need to use too much of it – a single spray should be enough.
4. Once you’ve sprayed the springs with the garage door lube, open and close the door a couple of times. However, you might find out that even after you lubricate the garage door springs, there’s still a noise coming from them, and you might need to replace them. However, the process could be dangerous, which is why we don’t recommend doing it on your own; instead, contacting a skilled technician is a better idea.
5. Lastly, you should lubricate the upper part of the rail. Oftentimes there’s not enough lubrication, and as a result, the chain causes a lot of noise every time you open or close the door. You might have trouble accessing the rail, which is why a step ladder will come in handy once again.

What if the Lubrication of Garage Door Parts Doesn’t Help?

Additionally, if you discover that lubricating a garage door part brings no results and the issue of noise persists, you might need to replace it. However, if you aren’t absolutely certain that you know how to do that, it’s best to leave this job to trained specialists. It’s not only a matter of damaging your garage door parts even further; if you aren’t careful, some elements could fall-off and cause an injury or even death. Regardless of whether it is the springs or perhaps hinges that need replacing, we recommend contacting a technician.

Could the Issues With Garage Doors Be Caused by Something Else?

It also could be the case that you lubricate all the garage door parts, tighten all the bolts, and there are no apparent problems, yet still, there’s a noise. In this case, the garage door opener might be to blame. Chain drive garage door openers are typically the loudest, which is why if you want to get rid of the noise, you should consider installing a belt drive garage door opener instead.

Conclusion

If you value peace and quiet in your home, you might be surprised that your garage door could be a source of disturbance in your day-to-day life. No one enjoys the noise caused by the opening and closing of the garage doors, though there is not a single solution to this problem.

Your garage door is made of many moving parts, which means that the issue of a noisy garage door could be fixed by tightening all the bolts and nuts, though don’t use excessive force, or you could damage the mechanism.

However, if it doesn’t bring any results and loose elements are not the cause of your problems, you should lubricate the garage door’s moving parts. Similarly, as in the previous step, you should inspect from where exactly comes the noise, and then just lubricate a garage door element that causes the clamor. It could be the springs, the hinges, or other moving parts.

Still, lubrication of garage doors might not be enough, and you might need to replace some elements. After reading this article, we hope that you now know what could be causing the disturbance and how to lubricate your noisy garage door.

Google Reviews of Our Garage Door Installation & Repair Services

We have now used A1 Garage Door Service three times and they have been amazing both times. This time our Technician Clint was very efficient and professional and very honest with us on his recommendations and we are just so happy with the service. You won’t be sorry call A1 Garage Door Service.

Amy Rojas on Google
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Great experience with A1. Called them on a Sunday evening and was able to get a technician to my home Monday morning. Brigham was great, he thoroughly explained things to me and was able to quickly fix our garage door.

Ben Jensen on Google
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Called A-1 Garage Door Service this morning to schedule an appointment for a Service Technician to troubleshoot our garage door issue.

From start to finish, communication was excellent. Justin informed me via text message when to expect him, a company photo and a little something about himself. He was punctual, polite, professional, and we’re pleased with the great job he did on the installation.

I would recommend this company if you are particular and want the job done right.

Thank you Justin and A-1 Garage Door Service.

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