We don’t recommend it. In fact, there are many reasons why you should leave garage door maintenance and repair up to professionals. For starters, if you aren’t familiar with the many components of a garage door and how they work, you could be putting your safety at risk. Additionally, you may not have the tools required to do the job right, and should you make a mistake, you’ll likely need to pay for a far more expensive repair.
While painting your garage door, lubricating garage door parts and cleaning and organizing the garage are great DIY projects, we recommend leaving the rest to us.
Below are 4 garage door repairs you should never DIY.
Broken garage door springs. The spring system in your garage is complex, and rarely is repairing one a simple job. You’ll know you need someone to take a closer look at your garage door’s springs when you hear your garage door make squeaking or straining sounds. Often, the springs will lose their ability to recoil and your garage door won’t operate smoothly.
If you notice these signs, call a garage door professional immediately. We can inspect the garage door springs and replace or repair them properly, so you can stay safe. Handling these without knowing how can be dangerous.
Misaligned tracks. When you notice your garage door is off track, it can be very tempting to want to fix this yourself. Not only can this be unsafe should the garage door become unstable, but it can be very difficult to determine why the garage door is misaligned in the first place, unless you are a garage door professional. Some causes of garage door track misalignment include bent or old tracks, or broken tracks. These repairs should always be made by a garage door technician.
Broken cables. Cables and pulleys operate under great tension (like garage door springs). Should you try to repair a cable yourself, it could snap and lead to a serious injury. Occasionally cables break if they are older or haven’t been maintained on a regular basis. This is why we recommend having your garage door inspected once every year.
Garage door openers. You wouldn’t repair your computer or phone on your own (or at least you shouldn’t). The same goes with garage door openers that today rely on state-of-the-art technology to operate. Should your garage door opener stop working, call a garage door technician who has the training and knowledge to diagnose and repair the issue properly. Otherwise, this could lead to a costly repair or even require you to purchase a new garage door opener.