It is always important to perform routine maintenance on your garage door, but particularly before winter weather arrives. A few important measures that should be taken before snow or ice arrives, are:
- Lubricate all moving parts. We cannot stress the importance of this enough, these parts may stick and stall when it’s cold out, but lubricating the parts ahead of time will help your garage door continue to run smoothly. Make sure you don’t use WD-40 instead use a silicon lubricant that won’t freeze.
- Spread salt or sand in your driveway and around your door. Spreading salt or sand in your driveway may help you avoid collision with your garage door if your driveway becomes slick. Leaving your driveway bare may cause it to freeze over, making it difficult to pull into your driveway without slipping and sliding. Also, spreading this around your garage door can prevent your door from freezing to the floor when temperatures drop and snow builds up around it.
- During a snow storm, if you are able to, it helps to shovel to the ground where your garage door meets the floor. This can prevent build up. If your garage is heated, doing this can help prevent ice from forming where the snow can melt and freeze.
- Look for ice between the panels. Sometimes ice can get between the panels and make it hard for the door to raise.
- Cold weather can damage metal parts. It is a good idea to inspect your door and make sure that it is still properly aligned in its tracks. Metal brackets can contract during very cold weather and throw off the alignment. If they are out of alignment it will make it harder for the door to open.
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