It’s hard to believe, but summer is right around the corner! While a break from the cold may be nice, warmer weather tends to be hard on your home—especially your garage door. Heat gets trapped inside your garage and makes things expand, causing wear on the springs and tracks within your garage door system. Here are four tips to help you prepare and protect your garage from a potentially damaging summer.
Insulate Your Garage
Protect your garage door, and whatever you store in your garage, during the hot summer months by adding insulation to the walls and door, or by replacing your door with an insulated one. This will help keep the inside of your garage at a comfortable temperature all year around and ensure animals and insects don’t get inside. Insulating your garage can also keep your energy bills down!
Bonus tips: keep your garage cool by opening the windows (if you have any) or opening your garage door a few feet. Consider setting up and turning on fans to circulate the air; you could even install a ceiling fan. If you’re feeling up to a home improvement project, paint your garage a lighter color, as darker shades absorb heat.
Cover Photo Eye Sensors
Sunlight is a wonderful mood-booster, but it can also have a negative effect on your garage door. Direct sun can trick the photo eye sensors on your garage door system into thinking an object is obstructing the door. You’ll know this is happening if the garage door only partially opens or shuts when you operate it during warmer months.
To prevent sunlight from streaming directly into the photo eyes, use cardboard to create a sort of sun visor for them. If your garage door still isn’t working properly, contact a professional to come inspect the rest of the system and potentially repair anything that needs to be fixed.
Perform Regular Maintenance
With a Midwest summer also comes high levels of humidity. Not only can this make you feel like you just got out of the pool when you step outside, but it can also impede the motion of your garage door. If you find that your door is sticking, humidity could be the reason.
A simple fix is to lubricate the garage door system on a regular basis, particularly during the summer when humidity is high. Again, if the door still isn’t smoothly gliding along the track as it should even after lubrication, contact a professional for assistance.
Prepare for Summer Storms
The summer can be a turbulent time when it comes to storms. Severe storms sometimes result in power outages, which means your garage could be without power for an unknown amount of time. This is why it’s important to know how to operate your garage door manually and consider installing a backup battery to keep your door running when you lose electricity.
If your residential garage door needs to be replaced or repaired before summer really sets in, get help from an expert. Subscribe to our blog for more home repair advice, and contact us today to learn how we can help you prep for an Iowa summer!
