Broken Garage Door Springs - How to Stay Safe
If you have a broken garage door spring, you can’t continue using your garage. If you do, you may end up causing harm to yourself or anyone else who may be in the car with you when the garage comes crashing down. This is inevitably what will occur if you continue using your garage with worn springs. Someone who has the training and experience to do it should, only handle making any type of repairs or adjustments to springs, torsion or extension. We understand that it is one thing to tell someone to remain safe and to actually tell them how they can do it. If you’re going to remain safe from the harm of broken springs you’ll have to be proactive. At Ahwatukee Garage Door Repair we suggest that you have your garage door regularly serviced. Since a garage door has plenty of moving parts, it is best to allow someone with proven experience to handle any repairs that need to be made. It is impossible for you to go on using your garage without occasionally having something go wrong. If you or family members are using your garage every day, several times a day, this is going to cause wear and tear on your springs. The weight of the door is held up by the springs and since the door is heavy, it is going to wear on the springs, eventually. You do not want to let the springs get so worn that they break. What you should do is make sure you can have the springs repaired before it reaches this point. This is why it is in your best interest to rely on the services of a professional garage door service to handle the repairs for you.
Avoid DIY Spring Repairs
Perhaps you would rather handle the repairs to your garage door springs on your own. This is commendable but it isn’t something that we would recommend. There are several reasons that we would recommend that you only allow a trained professional to handle this for you.
Not Making All Necessary Repairs
We often find that when homeowners repair their own springs they only repair one and not both. The spring that isn’t replaced will have to do all of the work of carrying the weight of the door. This can be problematic because the weight needs to be distributed evenly between both sets of springs. When you only repair one spring, it causes other parts of your garage door to work harder, causing more stress on those parts too. Now you can probably see why we would suggest that you allow a trained service technician to handle this job for you. A trained professional will know how to effectively repair both sets of garage door springs. It eliminates all of the other problems that can occur when you only repair one spring at a time.
Missing a Step in the Process
If you are not a trained garage door service technician, you could easily leave out a step in the repair process. If this occurs, this means that the job that you perform would be useless. You must adhere to every step of the repair process in order for the springs to be properly repaired. If you leave out a single step, it could still mean that your spring will eventually break. A trained professional will know all of the necessary steps and they will also perform a thorough inspection of the spring once the job has been completed to ensure that every step was taken.
Putting Too Much Pressure on Your Garage Door Opener
The weight of the door has to be evenly distributed in order for the other parts of the garage to work efficiently. When they are not one of the most important features of your garage door will suffer, the automatic opener. The opener is what helps to open and close our garage door. When the springs are not counterbalanced, they may start to affect the way the opener functions. You may begin to notice that your garage door will start to act as though it will not open or close. This can be avoided and preserve the life of your opener if you call on the services of a qualified garage door service technician.
How a Service Technician Adjusts Springs
In order to adjust your springs they will begin by turning off the garage door opener with the garage door closed. They will then secure the door to keep it from opening up while they are making the needed adjustments. They know where all of the parts are and this helps to keep them safe while they are handling the job of adjusting your springs. When a homeowner attempts to make repairs or adjustments to their springs on their own, they run the risk of being harmed or harming themselves if they are not fully aware of where all of the parts are located. When adjusting your garage door springs, the technician will adjust both sides so that the tension is distributed evenly. Again, if only one spring is adjusted and not the others, this means that the other spring will work harder to make up for the loss of the other spring. Finally, the technician will lubricate the springs. They are lubricated so that they will function properly. It is a good idea to make sure that the springs are lubricated several times a year so that they will continue working smoothly. Repairing and adjusting your garage door springs is not a simple chore. It is something that takes a great deal of precision and know-how. Every single step needs to be taken in order for the job to be performed effectively.
If you are not currently having your garage door serviced annually, this is a good reason to do so. If you want to be certain that your garage door does not fall down and cause you or anyone else any harm, you’ll need to make sure that they are always in good working condition.