A noisy garage door is annoying, but the noise is also information. Different sounds point to different parts, and a few of them are early warnings that something is about to fail.
Usually dry hinges, rollers or springs. Lubricate the moving metal parts — hinges, the bearings in the rollers and the springs themselves — with a garage-door lubricant or a silicone or lithium spray. Do not grease the tracks; grease in the tracks collects dirt and makes things worse. And WD-40 is a cleaner, not a long-term lubricant.
Often worn rollers. Older metal rollers with no bearings wear down until they grind in the track. Upgrading to sealed nylon rollers is one of the biggest noise improvements you can make, and it also takes load off the opener.
Loose hardware. A door moves thousands of times a year, and the bolts on hinges and brackets slowly work loose. Snugging them up often quiets the door. Leave the brackets at the bottom corners alone, though — they are attached to the cables and are under spring tension.
This is the one to take seriously. Popping can mean the springs are binding or near the end of their life, or that a cable is slipping. One very loud bang usually means a spring has already broken. See what to do if your spring broke.
Chain-drive openers are naturally louder than belt drives, but a chain that slaps or a motor that strains is often working too hard. The most common cause is not the opener at all — it is a door that is out of balance, which makes the motor lift weight the springs should be carrying. Here is how to check your door's balance.
New rollers and a clean track reduce resistance, so the springs and opener do not have to work as hard. Springs that properly balance the door extend the life of the opener. A smooth, quiet door is usually a door that will last.
Our free 25-point inspection checks all of these — rollers, hinges, springs, cables, balance and the opener — and you get one price in writing before any work starts.
The price we quote is the price you pay — even if we find more. Every job starts with a free 25-point inspection and an honest written report, and any extra repairs we discover are done at no additional cost.
Call (786) 575-3463. Free 25-point inspection and same-day service across Miami-Dade and Broward.
