What Can A Repair Service Do About A Sticking Garage Door?

Posted on: 8 December 2022

Does your garage door open part of the way, and then get stuck? Maybe it wiggles itself loose and then moves past the sticking point to close fully, or perhaps it gets totally stuck in that position and won't budge. Either situation can be annoying, and either situation is a good reason to call a garage door repair team. Here are a few of the key repairs they may need to make on a stuck garage door.

Lubricating the Track 

It is possible that there's just part of the garage door track that has accumulated some rust or corrosion, and that is now "grabbing" onto the garage door as it passes by. This is an easy problem to solve. The garage door repair person can simply apply some lubricant to the part of the track that's sticking. In more serious cases, they may first want to clean that part of the track to remove the grime. This can be done with sandpaper or with wire wool. 

Adjusting the Chain

Most garage doors have a chain, similar to a bike chain, that drives the opener. This chain can get stretched out over time. As it does so, it may start hanging a little lower than it should, and that can cause the opening mechanism to lose tension temporarily when the door is closing. A garage door repair company may be able to remove a link or two from the chain in order to tighten it up again. In the worst-case scenario, they may have to replace the chain. This takes a bit more work, but a chain is a relatively inexpensive replacement part.

Aligning the Springs

Another possibility is that the garage door is not aligned properly. It is reaching a point in the closing cycle where the misalignment throws the whole opening mechanism off because one side of the door is sitting lower than the other. This is easier to fix than you might think. Basically, your garage door repair team needs to adjust the springs on either side of the door so that they stay at an equal tension and length, and so they hold the door under even pressure on both sides. If a spring is too badly stretched out, they may need to replace it, but this rarely happens.

If your garage door is opening partway and then getting stuck, call a garage door repair team. There's plenty they can do to fix this problem. Contact a local garage door repair service, such as Plano Overhead Garage Door, to learn more. 

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