Maintenance is essential for both manual and automated garage doors. Most of the maintenance for either type of door takes very little time and effort.
The average garage door is cycled (opened and closed) two times a day, or 700 times a year. Each of those cycles causes a garage door to deteriorate. However, with proper maintenance, garage doors can have long, useful lives and remain quiet.
Manual Doors
For an up-and-over door, spray the pivot points on the door and the springs with a lubricating spray. For the side runners, and the hinges on a sectional door, also spray with lubricant. Make sure to clean the track and do not spray or grease the track. Grease on a track becomes sticky and loses its properties. At the end, wash the door with a damp rag to remove dirt.
Electric doors do require less maintenance than manual doors, but they still require maintenance. The tracks on electric doors can get really dusty, and to clean them all you have to do is run a wet cloth along the tracks. Also, photocell sensors can get really dirty, and if they aren’t aligned with each other, the door will not close.
You should also test the safety reversing feature to make sure the door will reverse if something is in its path. You can test this by placing a soft object in the path of the door and closing it. If the door does not reverse and stop, you shouldn’t use the door and have it serviced.
You should also check the motor to see if it is working, and if it is making a lot of noise, the door balances are not correct and the door springs need to be adjusted.
Checking these things once a month is correct.
Painted steel doors do not require a lot of maintenance. A painted surface can get scraped, and if the surface gets scraped, the paint can start to rust. A scraped surface can be repainted; all the old paint can be removed, and new paint can be added. Masking can be used to paint only certain areas of the door.
The finish on timber doors must be touched up every year. Stains and varnish slow deterioration. Greying and cracking of the wood is a sign that a touch up is needed. The bottom rail gets the worst of it and should be checked first.
Replacement rubber seals on doors, if maintained, should not dry out and crack. However, if this happens, water and cold air will be able to pass through and cause discomfort. Replacing the seal may help, but it is only a temporary solution.
More thorough inspections can be arranged through a professional. A service by an engineer will adjust the balance of the door and test the tension on the springs and cables. This is good practice for electric doors and may be done less frequently for a manual door.
Maintenance of an electric door should be enough to keep the contacts clean and a manual door should be lubricated enough to keep the moving parts from seizing.