Enhancing Your Home’s Curb Appeal

A noisy garage door can be a pain to deal with, especially if you can hear it from clear across the other side of your home. If things get that bad, you'll want to know how you can put an end to the rattles, squeaks and clattering caused by your garage door. Here are a few tips you can use to give your ears some well-needed relief.

Check and Tighten Those Nuts and Bolts

The first step towards silencing your garage door involves checking each and every nut and bolt on the garage door as well as the track. Loose garage door hardware can transmit surprising amounts of excess noise. Use your socket wrench to tighten each loose nut or bolt you come across. However, you should avoid over-tightening, as this could lead to stuck or stripped bolts later on.

Use Rubber Pads to Isolate the Garage Door Opener

Vibrations caused by your garage door opener during operation can travel throughout its metal mounting hardware and create excess noise. Suspending the garage door opener from thick rubber straps can help isolate those vibrations and reduce noise. You should also place thick rubber pads behind the door-track mounting brackets to further isolate unwanted vibrations.

Replace Your Steel Rollers with Nylon

Traditional metal rollers tend to make a racket as they ride within their metal tracks. If you're tired of hearing the metal-on-metal contact, you can always swap your metal rollers for nylon rollers. Nylon rollers are quieter and don't require as much maintenance as their metal counterparts. However, nylon rollers do tend to be slightly more expensive than metal rollers.

Always Lubricate

With all of the moving parts your garage door has, lubrication is an absolute must. To keep down excess noise and prevent rust formation, lubricate the hinges, springs, and the inner bearings of the rollers with white lithium grease or a silicone-based spray lubricant. Avoid getting lubricant on the track itself, as this can attract debris and clog up the track. If your garage door opener uses a chain or screw drive, be sure to lubricate the chain or track with heavy grease.

Check Your Garage Door Springs

As your garage door springs age, rust buildup and ordinary wear can cause them to chatter as each coil rubs against one another. Applying lubricant can stop this problem, in most cases. However, it may not work for well-worn torsion and extension springs. The only solution at this point is to have your garage door specialist replace them with new springs. 

For more information and advice, contact a company like AAA Garage Door, Inc.