If your garage door is misbehaving and you don’t know why, don’t brush it off, regardless of how small the problem may currently seem. Do a little investigative work to try to pinpoint the problem now—before it escalates. If you can’t figure out what’s wrong, call a trustworthy garage door repair technician to inspect your system for you. If you wait too long to fix a small issue, it could become a major, expensive problem before you know it. Here are several common problems homeowners face when their garage door starts acting up.
If your door is stuck open, look for obstructions in its path. If there are none, inspect the door's safety sensors. These send a beam of light across the bottom of your door. If this beam is broken by something, the door won’t close. If nothing is in the door’s path, these sensors may be dirty or out of alignment and need to be adjusted. Read our blog post, "Is Your Garage Door Not Closing or Reversing After a Few Inches?" to learn how to realign them. Also take a look at the cord powering these sensors to make sure it isn’t damaged.
If your door won’t open, it could be one of the problems listed above. It may also be a more serious problem—a broken torsion spring. If you heard a loud noise in your garage recently, this is likely the case. Never attempt to open your garage door if a spring is broken. The door can be extremely dangerous at this point and should only be touched by a professional.
If your garage door is noisy, you may need to tighten some nuts and bolts. If that doesn’t fix the problem, inspect the rollers; make sure nothing is jammed in the track. It's also possible that the rollers are be getting worn down and need to be replaced. If they aren’t, lubricate them to see if that helps. Also lubricate the hinges and check for wear. If none of these solutions fix your noise problem, it could be a larger issue that needs professional attention.
If your garage door is moving on its own, don’t worry; it’s probably not a ghost. It more likely has to do with your garage door opener. Make sure nothing is pressing against your remote. Check with your neighbors to see if their garage door opener frequency is interfering with yours. If not, call a garage door tech to check for a short circuit somewhere in the system. While this is uncommon, it’s not impossible. Your garage door remote could also be defective and sending out random signals.
If your door shakes or rattles when opening or closing, it’s most likely out of alignment. Don’t operate it until you have it inspected and repaired by a professional. The longer you operate your door under these circumstances, the more damage you'll cause and the more expensive it will be to repair.
If you have one of the above problems but can’t seem to find a solution, don’t worry. This list is by no means exhaustive, and there may be a simple explanation to your problem. Contact a trustworthy local garage door repair company to investigate the situation for you. If you live in Des Moines, Ankeny, Altoona, Ames, or Central Iowa, contact WD Door anytime! Request a quote by clicking on the button below.