Garage Doors: A Maintenance Guide

Garage doors are a big investment for anyone, so it’s absolutely vital that you take its maintenance seriously. While we would always recommend that you leave any larger-scale repairs, maintenance and servicing to the professionals, it certainly pays to look after your door properly through visual inspections and cleaning. 

In this guide, we will take a look at how to clean and maintain both wood and metal garage doors, so you will know exactly what to do post-purchase.

Maintaining wooden garage doors

As one of the most expensive types of garage door, wooden garage doors also require their own specific sort of cleaning and maintenance. Here are some of the things that you will need to do:

• Inspections: regular visual inspections will help you keep abreast of any problems with your wooden door, such as scuff marks or splitting.

1. Cleaning: to make sure that your door stays clean and rot-free for as long as possible, we would recommend scrubbing your garage door with warm, soapy water periodically. Top tip: use a non-abrasive cloth.
2. Restaining: your wooden garage door may have been stained at the manufacturing stage, but if it’s starting to look worn, then it might be worth restaining it to keep it looking as good as new.

• Lubrication: lubricating your garage door is very important to ensure all mechanisms are working effectively. Try and do this every couple of months, using oil or WD-40, and be extra careful around high-tension areas such as springs. 
• Look out for splitting: when exposed to direct sunlight over long periods of time, wood will eventually split. This is true even of doors that have been treated rigorously. Look out for splits and treat them using wood filler. If you’re uncertain, make sure to call your local garage door maintenance team.

Maintaining metal garage doors

Metal garage doors also require maintenance, but of a different kind. Here are some of the key things that you need to keep in mind when creating a maintenance schedule for your metal garage door:

• Inspections: when it comes to metal garage doors, inspections are just as much about listening as they are about looking. While you will want to keep an eye out for scuffs and rusting, you always want to listen out for creaking and scraping, as this could be a sign of a bigger problem.
• Cleaning: steel and other metal garage doors will accumulate dirt over time. Like with a wooden garage door, give it a clean every now and then with warm, soapy water. If you live near the coast, it’s worth keeping in mind that salt can damage the metal.
• Repainting: while factory-applied finishes should stand the test of time, your door could well end up needing repainting after a while. If you want to do this yourself, ensure that the door is completely clean before you begin.
• Lubrication: just like with wooden garage doors, regular lubrication is very important to ensure that all of the moving parts don’t seize up. Springs, tracks, rollers and hinges are the main components that will require attention. Like with any of these tasks, if you don’t feel comfortable doing them yourself, simply call your local garage door maintenance team. 

 

Associated Garage Doors are a family-run business, providing a personal and tailored service to all clients throughout Kent, Tunbridge Wells, Tonbridge, Bexhill, Canterbury, Sevenoaks and beyond. If you have any garage door maintenance questions that you would like to ask our team, or if you would like to enquire about maintenance packages, we would be more than happy to help – just get in touch.