The garage door of your Montgomery, IL, is one of its most important mechanical features. It allows you to enter and exit your home with your vehicle, providing security and an appealing exterior finish at the same time. Plus, it does so quietly and unobtrusively. So, when your home’s garage door begins to make noise, it doesn’t go unnoticed for long. However, it’s not always easy to pinpoint the source of the noises that a garage door might make. To help, here are four common reasons that a garage door might begin making more noise than it should.
1. Worn Out Rollers
One of the most common reasons that a garage door might start making noise is that it has worn-out rollers. When that happens, your garage door could start slipping off its tracks, which could produce a variety of odd sounds. Or, worn-out rollers could cause your garage door to get out of alignment, which results in similar sounds. In both cases, what you’d hear is squealing or screeching sounds, along with vibrating noises.
The good news is that, depending on your garage door, a little lubrication of the ball bearings in the rollers could solve the problem. Of course, if your garage door has plastic or nylon rollers, lubrication won’t solve the problem. In those cases, replacing the affected rollers is the way to quiet your garage door down.
2. An Off-balance Door
Although they don’t seem like it, most garage doors are quite heavy. However, the door’s hardware and springs handle the heavy lifting so well that you’d never notice. But when that critical hardware suffers damage or begins to break down, it can easily result in an off-balance door. When that happens, you might hear a variety of sounds, including scraping, popping, and banging.
To eliminate those noises, it’s necessary to figure out why the door slipped out of balance and correct the problem. Anything from broken, loose or aging springs can lead to an out-of-balance garage door. Another symptom of such a condition could be a garage door that slams shut when you close it. In any case, replacing the offending spring and rebalancing the door should correct the problem and the sounds it generated.
3. Loose Door Hardware
Another problem that often causes garage doors to make noise is that their hardware has loosened from years of use. Something as simple as a loose bolt or two on a single hinge of your garage door can lead to unusual noises. The good news is that this is usually one of the simplest problems to fix. All it takes is to tighten the offending bolts, and the noises should go away.
The thing is, however, that it’s not always easy to figure out which piece of hardware needs tightening. So, when that happens, inspecting each part, one by one, and tightening as necessary is the right course of action.
4. A Malfunctioning Opener
Sometimes, the noises you hear when your garage door opens and closes aren’t coming from the door itself. A damaged or malfunctioning garage door opener can also lead to a variety of odd sounds. Since garage door openers rely on drive screws, chains, or belts to work, there are always moving parts that might be the cause of your problem.
For example, a slipping belt could cause a squealing sound, just like a faulty serpentine belt on a car might. Or, a damaged screw drive could begin to make contact with the garage door rack, making a scraping sound. If you can isolate the location in your opener system where the noise originates, it makes fixing the problem much easier. Although if your garage door opener is over 15 years old, you’re likely better off replacing it since the problem it’s developed probably won’t be the last one you’ll need to deal with.
Enlist Some Expert Garage Door Help
No matter the reason why your garage door is making noise, the easiest way to solve the problem is to call on the experts at BDK Door Company. We’re a family-owned business that’s served Montgomery, IL, and the surrounding area since 1979. We offer comprehensive garage door installation, repair, and maintenance services for both residential and commercial garage doors. So, if your garage door is making noises and you want to quiet it down, give BDK Door Company a call today!
