A garage door is the largest moving piece of equipment on your house. It cycles 1,500 to 3,000 times a year. The right maintenance — done in 20 minutes once a year — doubles its useful life. Here's what to do, and what to leave to a tech.
What should I check on my garage door every month?
**A five-minute monthly check catches roughly 80% of failures before they strand you.** Watch a full cycle for noise, test the safety reverse on a 2x4, wave your hand under the photo-eye, and visually inspect both springs and the lift cables for matching tension, rust, or fraying.
- Watch a full open and close from the side. Listen for grinding, clunks, or stuttering.
- Check the safety reverse — close the door on a 2x4 laid flat. The door should stop and reverse on contact.
- Wave your hand below the photo-eye sensor while the door is closing. The door should stop.
- Look at both springs. They should look identical — same color, same gauge, same number of coils. A spring with a separated coil or rust streak is at end-of-life.
- Look at the cables. Frayed cables are the next-most-common failure after springs.
How do I tune up a garage door once a year?
**A twenty-minute annual tune-up doubles the useful life of a garage door.** Lubricate moving parts with silicone or white-lithium spray (never WD-40), tighten every visible bolt, wash the panels, inspect and replace the bottom weather seal if cracked, and retest the safety reverse with the door under tension.
- Lubricate the rollers, hinges, and torsion bar with a silicone or white-lithium garage door lube. Don't use WD-40 — it strips lubrication.
- Tighten the bolts. Two-tech crews leave them tight; vibration loosens them over the year.
- Wash the door panels with mild soap and water. This is when you'll spot rust spots on a steel door — touch up with matching paint.
- Check and tighten the weather seal at the bottom of the door. Replace if cracked or compressed.
- Test the safety reverse and photo-eyes again, more carefully.
What should I leave to a garage door technician?
Anything involving spring tension. Torsion springs hold the equivalent energy of a small bullet at full charge — DIY spring work kills people every year. Our 21-point professional tune-up covers everything above plus spring tension balance, opener gear inspection, and limit-switch calibration.
When should I call a garage door repair company?
**Call a garage door technician any time the door sounds, moves, or balances differently than yesterday.** New grinding, hesitation, sagging across the top edge, drop-faster-than-lift behavior, mismatched springs, or visible cable fraying are all signs of an active failure mode — not maintenance items you can wait on.
- Door is louder than usual — grinding, banging, popping
- Door pauses, hesitates, or reverses on its own during open/close
- Door is sagging or uneven across the top edge
- Door drops faster than it lifts, or feels heavy when manually lifted
- Springs look different from each other (one stretched, one not)
- Cable is fraying or has visible kinks