There are a great many steps to preparing a house to be sold. All holes made by hanging artwork must be filled. Carpets need a good deep cleaning. Gutters need to be cleaned out and any necessary repairs made. Paint should be updated and refreshed. Lawns need to be trimmed and maintained. Any broken windows, path stones, steps, porch railings, need to be repaired. The whole house will need a thorough deep cleaning. There is one thing though, that is often overlooked. This, of course, is the garage door. Over time, the tracks, gears, pulleys, and springs of a garage door wear down and fail to work correctly. Sometimes the problems are obvious, perhaps the door becomes stuck in a single position. Other times, it is not so obvious such as squeaking and rattling when the door is in use. These problems are easy to overlook or ignore and therefore only stand to get worse and worse until they become one of the glaringly obvious problems. The garage door may not seem like a big deal, but if anything in or on the house is compromised in any way, it can affect the sale. The problem is, not many people know where to begin with repairing a garage door or finding a professional that can make the repairs. This is exactly the type of information that you will find here. How to determine what type of problem is affecting the door, how to make small repairs, and when you need to hire a professional. You may check thehousewire.com for more information on home garage door openers, types, as well as their features.
The first thing that needs to be done is to examine the entire door, its track, and all moving parts. To successfully do this, you will need a flashlight, rag, ladder, black washable marker, and a helping hand from a friend or family member. Begin and the bottom of the track near the floor. Shine the flashlight on the track from every available angle looking for dents, crinkles, indents, or bends in any part of the metal. Make a note of any dents that you find so that you know exactly where to find them all after you finish the inspection. This can be done in two ways, you can draw a diagram in a notebook and mark off areas or you can use the washable marker to mark the areas directly on the track. Make sure it is washable as you will need to clean it off after you make the repairs. Move systematically up the entire length of the tracks. Once you reach a certain height, you will need to use the ladder. This is the point where you will need the assistance of your friend or family member. They will need to steady the ladder to make the experience much safer. It also gives you more freedom to concentrate on examining the track. As you are looking at the track, there may be some areas that are clogged with grease, this is where the rag comes in handy. You can use the rag to wipe away enough grease to determine if that area has any imperfections. After examining the track, move on to the gears, pulleys, and springs. Look for pulleys that have slipped out of the track and springs that may be loose. As you are checking the length of the track, check to see if any debris has lodged in the track or gears. This is the second most common problem.
After the inspection is finished, it is time to determine whether you can handle the repairs on your own or need the aid of a professional. If there are any dents or any abnormalities in the metal of the tracks, you can easily handle the project without assistance. If there is any debris, this is very easy to handle alone. All it takes is a good cleaning. The pulleys and gears are a bit more difficult, if you have experience with this type of project, it should be no problem. On the other hand, if you do not have any experience, it is most likely best to call a professional. For springs, it is always best to call a professional. The only exception would be an engineer or professional repairman.
If you need to smooth out dents in the metal, you will need a rubber mallet or hammer and a block of wood. Never strike the metal with a regular hammer without using a block of wood. The reason for this is that a regular hammer will cause additional dents due to the rounded shape of the head. The rubber mallet will not have this problem and as such can be used alone if necessary. Before working on the actual dents, you should first wipe off any excess grease or build-up. Also, remove any and all debris. This can include leaves, dust and grime, twigs, and clumped grease balls. All of this should be removed before beginning the process of straightening out any dents. Then lay the block of wood along the damaged area and hammer evenly along the block until the area is smooth. Work systematically until all damaged areas of the track have been fixed. After this part of the process is complete, you will need to give the entire track a good cleaning. Once everything is dry, use WD40 or a similar product on all of the gears and pulleys.
At this point, you will definitely know whether or not you will need the assistance of a professional. If you decide that you do, the process of finding one is fairly simple. The internet holds a wealth of information just waiting to be uncovered and this includes listings of various types of professionals. Simple pull up any available search engine and use the words “garage door repair” along with the name of your city or something along the lines of “near me”. This will give you a comprehensive list of what is available in or near your area.
