When your garage door or part of your garage door system breaks down, you either try to repair it yourself or have a garage door repair company come and repair it for you. If you are choosing to have a garage door company repair your issue, the best way to know if you are getting a good deal is to know a little bit about garage doors. So we are going to go over what are the parts of a garage door system, including what garage doors are made of and what are some of and common garage door issues.
What is your garage door made of?
The first thing to take note of is the material used to construct your garage door. Some of the most popular include:
- STEEL (extremely durable and low maintenance)
- WOOD (beautiful, expensive, susceptible to wear and tear and weather)
- ALUMINUM (inexpensive but susceptible to damage and don’t help to regulate temperatures in your garage)
- FIBERGLASS (expensive, won’t rot or warp, and the most durable doors)
How does your garage door open?
If your garage door needs to be replaced or repaired, the company hired to do the job will need to know a little about the functionality of your door including how it opens. There are several ways a garage door open and they include:
- Swing out doors- These doors are hinged on the right side and you swing them open like a big fence gate.
- Swing up or TILT doors- To open this kind of 1-piece garage door, you must swing the door out and up.
- Roll-up doors- Roll-up doors bundle into a coil similar to certain types of window blinds.
- Slide to the side doors- Usually providing a smaller opening than full-size garage doors, slide to the side doors roll on a track and slide over to one side to allow entrance to the garage.
- Sectional or hinged doors- The most common type, sectional garage doors have several hinges and move up and back on a track system.
The Parts of a Garage Door System
If something does happen to your door and you are forced to call a firm, such as Houston garage door experts Spectrum Overhead Door, LLC, knowing the individual components of your door will help ensure they know exactly what you are talking about and bring the correct parts to get the job done. Here are a few of the individual components that make up your garage door:
- Panels- This basically refers to the main garage door itself or smaller sections if it is comprised of individual pieces or PANELS.
- Emergency Cord – An emergency pull cord hangs down on the inside of your garage near the door. When you pull it, the system’s motor will disengage, and it will stop opening or closing.
- Vertical track– The track your door is secured in, will allow your door to slide up and down or left and right inside this track via tiny wheels or ROLLERS that are mounted to the garage door itself.
- Hinges– These could be found between the sections of your door on a sectional door OR on the right side if your door is a swing-out model.
- Weather Seal – Ever wonder what that piece of rubber at the bottom of your door that keeps out dirt and drafts is called? Now you know!
- Window inserts- Simply put, if your door has windows, they are referred to as WINDOW INSERTS and can be made of glass or heavy-duty see-through plastic.
- Torsion springs– Also known as garage door springs, they are designed to counterbalance the weight of the door making the door almost weightless for both manual and opener operation.
- Torsion Cables – Cables bear the weight of the door, and are under extreme tension.
- Struts – Garage door struts reinforce and strengthen the door, and are helpful in Houston are communities to combat high winds and hurricanes.
- Sensors – Like the emergency cord, sensors come in majorly handy in an emergency when you need to stop the door from moving (like when it’s about to close on your foot). Garage door sensors are also called photo eyes. They shoot an invisible beam across the opening of the garage door. When an object breaks the beam, the sensors send a signal to the motor to stop it.
- Garage Door Opener (Opener Motor) – This is the part of the garage door system that drives the door to go open or close. Usually, these are mounted overhead, though there is some wall-mounted garage door opener. We specialize in professional quality openers like LiftMaster. These motors are strong and dependable for a lifetime of worry free operation.
Common Garage door issues.
Broken Garage Door Springs.
If the spring(s) is broken the door will become extremely heavy and difficult to open. This can lead to garage door opener motor damage as well, if not addressed quickly. Your torsion springs may build rust that can corrode the spring and may compromise and even break the spring
Off Track Garage Door
Above, we talked about rusty garage door springs. That can be one cause of your garage door being off track or opening in a tilted fashion. Some of the most common would be the door hitting an object on one side, old spring and/rollers, or door opening to high, momentarily tilting the door and causing one of the side cables to become misaligned. The tangled-up cable will keep the door from moving on that side.
Damaged Garage Door Panel
Over time, slight bumps from cars or people, as well as storms can dent and damage a garage door panel. Damage to a panel will get worse and worse over time, causing the door to begin to sag severely when it goes overhead. This type of damage can cause the door to hang up and have trouble opening or closing.
Garage Door Opener Issues
There can be a time where the garage door opener itself can have problems. Some of the most common issues with garage door openers are a stripped drive gear or broken sprocket. It is also possible that the chain or belts need to be replaced or have tension added. The opener motor also has a capacitor for the motor to provide additional power to the motor and these often fail and need to be replaced.
Regular maintenance can prevent many of these common garage door issues. If you do need to call a Houston garage door repair expert, you will now have a better understanding of what your repair technician will be explaining to you and you can make a more informed decision regarding your garage door.
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