Tag Archive for: Garage Door

Imagine just getting home from work and a storm has knocked out the power to your home. Now it is impossible for you to open your garage door with your remote, so getting soaked is likely going to happen. You park your car and run inside your home so that you can manually open the garage door and safely park your car. How to manually open a garage door? This involves understanding where the emergency release cord is and what steps are necessary.

Let’s take a look below at the details involved with manually opening and closing a garage door.

How Do I Open It From The Outside?

Opening your garage door from the outside can be a little more tedious than opening it from the inside. If you lose power you will need to know how to manually open your garage door from inside and outside your home. Let’s take a look below at the recommended steps.

  • Find the emergency release kit – At the top of your garage door, there is a small lock. The lock keeps the emergency release cable. Keep in mind, you need the key to the lock to release the door.
  • Emergency release cord – Use the key to open the lock tumbler and locate the release cable. Pull the emergency release cord to trigger the release mechanism and place your garage door into its manual mode.
  • Unlock the garage door – Use your key to unlock the next lock that is responsible for keeping the door closed. Turn the handle on the door so it is facing a vertical position.
  • Push the door up – Grab the exterior garage door handle and lift the door. Once the door is open, ensure that it will stay open. You wouldn’t want to drive your car into the garage and have the door close on top of the car.
  • Close the door – Once you are successfully in the garage, you can close the door from the inside of the garage and place it in the closed position.

How Do I Open It From The Inside?

Opening your garage door from inside the garage is a fairly simple task. Let’s take a look below at what the steps are to accomplish this task.

  • Unlock the garage door – In some cases, homeowners use the bottom latches on the garage door to keep intruders out. You will need to unlock the latches to open the door.
  • Unplug the electric garage door opener – Unplug the garage door opener. This allows you to ensure that you won’t get shocked or electrocuted if the power is restored.
  • Emergency release cord – Find the red handle that hangs from the center rail. The red cord attaches the garage door to the trolley of the center rail.
  • Pull down on the cord – Once you have located the release lever, pull down on the cord to disconnect the door from the trolley.
  • Push or pull up – Lift the garage door by using the bars or center garage door handle to elevate the door up and open. Be sure the door is going to stay open or place some locking grips under the bottom wheels to keep the door in place.
  • Close the door – Once you have pulled your car into the garage, you can pull the door closed and lock the door with the manual locking bars.

Other Recommended Maintenance

Now that you know how to manually open and close your garage door, you should consider reading up on how to tighten the garage door springs. This is a necessary part of garage door maintenance. You can always hire a professional if you aren’t comfortable with this task.

Next, another good part of garage door maintenance is understanding how to lubricate your garage door. This is necessary to keep the parts from sticking and not working properly. Keeping the parts greased and lubricated is necessary for their longevity.

Lastly, if all else fails with your garage door maintenance, consider researching when to replace your garage door. Planning for this project allows you to save your funds and not worry about the added expense.

When Do I Call A Professional?

When it comes to garage doors, you will almost always call on a professional garage door installation company to troubleshoot any of your issues. Additionally, reach out to your local home inspection team. If you are needing to manually open and close your garage door, you might have other underlying issues. Using your local home inspection team will allow you to find out exactly what’s going on with your garage door.

Conclusion

Garage doors can be finicky. They have so many working parts, that if not maintained, could break down and cause some issues. Consequently, most homeowners don’t realize the necessity to clean and grease the wheels and track of the garage door. If you want longevity out of your garage door and do not want to open and close it manually, simply maintain it. Reach out to Blue Guardian Home Inspections for a full home inspection in Kendall, Kane, Dupage, and LaSalle Counties of Illinois.

Garage doors can be rather interesting pieces of a home. Most homeowners never consider the maintenance side of a garage door. Often you just push a button and expect the door to open and close without any issues. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. In some cases, it is necessary to tighten some of the garage door parts, such as the springs. Ever wonder how to tighten garage door springs? Depending on which spring you are tightening will determine how you tighten it.

Let’s take a look below at how we can tighten side-mounted extension springs or torsion springs.

What Are The Types Of Garage Door Springs?

Believe it or not, there are two types of garage door springs. Let’s take a look below at each type.

Torsion Springs

Torsion springs are most often installed as part of bigger automatic garage doors. Typically, these doors are 10 feet wide or wider. Depending on the size and weight of the door, you could see two over the shaft of the door. This type of spring requires professional adjustment. It is a very dangerous and difficult task to adjust these types of springs and it is not recommended that a homeowner attempt this. Let the professional make the adjustments.

Side-Mounted Extension Spring

You will notice these extension springs on both sides of the garage door. They are parallel to the track and cable and the pulley that holds them in place. These types of springs are easily adjusted or repaired by a homeowner. However, for your safety, reach out to a professional.

How To Tighten A Garage Door Spring – Equipment Needed

Just like with every project, tools, and materials are needed to tighten garage door springs. Let’s take a look at the suggested list of tools and materials needed for each adjustment.

How To Tighten A Garage Door Spring – Making Adjustments

Knowing how to tighten the garage door spring is a tough task. Adjusting the garage door springs will vary. Each type has a different way of adjusting them. Let’s take look below at some steps for adjusting the springs.

Side-mounted Springs

There are 6 simple steps for adjusting or tightening the side-mounted springs on your garage door. Let’s take a look at what those steps are.

  • Open the garage door and disengage it from the garage door opener.
  • Place a C-clamp under the wheels at the last panel of the garage door. This ensures that the door will not shut while you are working on it.
  • Detach the spring hook so that you can regulate the tension.
  • Attach the spring to a hole that is higher on the track to increase the tension on the garage door. This allows you to regulate the opening and closing of the door. Reduce the tension on the side of the door where there is a gap if the garage closes unevenly.
  • Increasing the safety cables requires you to shorten them by tightening the knot. If you want to reduce the tension then you will lengthen the cables by weakening the node.
  • Lubricate the springs and ensure that the door is working properly.

Torsion Springs

Adjusting the torsion springs on a garage door has a different process than how you adjust the side-mounted springs. Let’s take a look below at the necessary steps.

  • Ensure that the garage door is closed and install a C-clamp on the track above the last wheel. This ensures that the garage door won’t suddenly open while you’re working.
  • The point where the spring ends is the location of the winding cone. Locate the winding cone so that you loosen the screws.
  • Place a steel bar or winding taper into the bottom of the hole of the cone to ease the screws out.
  • Regulate the extension by reducing or increasing the tension. If the door closes too quickly, you must increase the pressure by winding the cone upwards. However, if the door closes too slowly, or won’t close all of the ways, wind the cone downward so that you decrease the tension.
  • Stretching the spring will require you to leave the bar in the bottom hole and remove the other one. Applying force from the bottom and up to the bar.
  • Now tighten the set screws that you loosened earlier. This locks the spring into its new placement.
  • Test the door and if everything is working properly, lubricate the wheels and springs and reconnect the door to your electric door opener.
How To Balance a Garage Door - Torsion Spring Adjustment - Easy/Clear Instructions

Other Recommended Maintenance

Now that you understand how to tighten your garage door springs you should probably start looking into when it is a good time to replace the garage door. If you are experiencing the need to make repairs to your garage door on a regular basis, you will want to replace it. Be sure to call a professional and your local home inspection team to make the right garage door selection.

Next, it is possible that you aren’t even sure where to begin with your garage door maintenance. If this is you, be sure to read up on how to inspect your garage door and springs. This information can save you a lot of time and money. Knowing more about the process will also help reduce any added maintenance stress.

Lastly, there are always recommended safety tips when dealing with anything that is mechanical. Garage doors seem easy to move, however, they are rather heavy. Understanding the dangers that your garage door could provide is key to keeping your family safe.

When Do I Call A Professional?

When it comes to tightening garage door springs or fixing or repairing garage doors, it is a great idea to call a professional garage door installation company. They are more equipped and have the expertise to adjust your springs so that the garage door functions correctly. Also, it is a great idea to put the garage door down on your yearly maintenance list. This ensures that the door or doors are working properly throughout the year. Additionally, reach out to your local home inspection team for a full garage door inspection during a full home inspection. Consequently, they can recommend a reputable garage door installation and repair company.

Conclusion

The moment that you have to tighten the garage door spring or have issues with the garage door, is the moment when you want to call a professional for help. Most homeowners are not equipped with the proper tools to conduct any garage door repairs. Additionally, if you do not know what you are doing, there can be a substantial safety hazard while conducting garage door repair. Call on your local home inspection team and they can check to see if your garage door needs any repairs or updating. Reach out to Blue Guardian Home Inspections for a full home inspection in Kendall, Kane, Dupage, and LaSalle Counties of Illinois.