Name: Parker Garage Doors & More
Address: 22350 N 20th Ave, Phoenix, AZ, 85027
Telephone: (602) 870-9848
Rating: 4.8

Why Is My Garage Door Noisy?

Your garage door & garage door opening system are meant to open and close smoothly with little to no noise. However, normal wear and tear & other factors like loose or broken garage door parts can seem to all of a sudden make your garage door noisy! Maybe it’s just a slight banging you hear when you go to open your garage door or perhaps it has started to squeak whenever the door is operated at all. No matter the sound, not only is a noisy garage door annoying it can also mean it may be in need of lubrication or repairs.

If your garage door is loud when opening & closing it could be time to upgrade your garage door insulation!

There are many reasons your garage door may be noisy, from improper maintenance to normal wear & tear, a bent track, becoming off-balance, or a loose part (rollers, nuts, chains, hinges, springs, etc.). The key is to listen to the type of noise being emitted and to take note of when the noise is happening during the open/close cycle. If you hear a banging noise it could mean that your door is off track or you may be in need of garage door panel replacement. A rattling noise usually means there are loose nuts or bolts or the opener support rails or chains could be loose. A scraping noise could indicate an unbalanced garage door which can be extremely dangerous. Clinking can indicate rust build-up causing garage door springs to rub together! And a popping noise usually signals a torsion spring has snapped and you should call a garage door repair service immediately. Any type of broken/snapped garage door spring or unbalanced door should be looked at and repaired by an experienced garage door expert as soon as possible.

Causes of A Noisy Garage Door

Improper Maintenance
Normal Wear & Tear
Bent Tracks
Loose Parts – rollers, nuts, chains, springs
Door Is Off-Balance
Opener Needs Repair/Replacement
Hinges/Rollers Need Lubrication

The Importance of Garage Door Maintenance

Garage doors are subject to the different weather elements, everyday use, and here in Arizona the extreme heat during the summer months. These things all collectively work together and wear on the many parts that compromise your garage door. That being said to ensure that your garage door is in proper working order & is performing as efficiently as possible it is important to schedule regular garage door maintenance with a trusted garage door company. Regular garage door maintenance helps to ensure that any repairs needed are spotted sooner rather than later which can help prevent serious injury or accidents as well as costly garage door repairs or replacement. Maintenance also helps to ensure that your garage door tracks are free of dirt & debris which can hinder movement & create a noisy garage door!

Lubricating Your Garage Door

Remember when your garage door starts making noise it’s trying to tell your something. If a little lubrication is needed it is important to add it anywhere needed as soon as possible.

Garage door parts that are rubbing together causing friction & heat, are bound to break completely, causing a dangerous more costly issue. This is also why it is important to lubricate your garage door and its moving metal parts regularly and not just in times of distress.

While it is always advised to work with a reputable garage door repair company, should you look to lubricate your garage door parts yourself we highly suggest that the garage door is disconnected from any power source before beginning. And while WD-40 may be used to help lubricate parts we suggest using lithium grease. Lithium grease will not cause dirt build-up over time like WD-40. Should you find a lot of dirt build-up, a little bit of brake cleaner goes a long way to help remove built-up grime.

In the end, your garage door is responsible for much of the heavy lifting in life (literally) and should be taken care of and maintained to ensure the safety of people and personal property. And proper garage door maintenance & lubrication can help to extend the overall lifespan of your door while also ensuring it is always in proper working order.

The Difference Between Torsion Springs & Extension Springs

When it comes to your garage door there are many moving & working parts that all play a big role in the opening and closing of the door both safely & efficiently. That being said when one of these parts is in need of repair or replacement, your garage door usually does not work properly or efficiently and can also pose a big safety risk. One of the most frequent garage door issues that will definitely hinder the use of your door & cause possible safety hazards, is broken springs.

There are two different main types of garage door springs. Both types of springs play a significant and big role in the overall motion of your garage door. And because both of these types of springs are big and hold a lot of force & tension they are also quite dangerous to try to replace or repair yourself. But before we get too far ahead of ourselves let’s first discuss the two different types of garage door springs.

Extension Springs

Your garage door extension springs are found running parallel to the garage door track. They are long & skinny and extend/ stretch whenever the garage door is opened or closed. With this action the springs store energy to help with the movement of your door. Extension springs come in a variety of different spring options such as, open-looped, double-looped, and clipped end extension springs. While there are many different sets of instructions & videos available showing how to replace or repair these springs on your own, there are a few important things to keep in mind. You need to be careful of falling garage doors, cuts from rusted metal on the spring or garage door track, and activated garage door openers during the repair process. Because of these hazards, it is always best to seek the help of a garage door spring repair expert.

Torsion Springs

You may have anywhere from 1 to 4 torsion springs incorporated with your garage door depending on the strength, weight, and size of your door. These springs can usually be found on the metal shaft directly above the door opening. On either side of the metal shaft are aluminum drums. The springs are wound around the drums to a certain torsion setting. These springs come in a variety of different options including, standard torsion springs, early set torsion springs, steel rolling door torsion springs, and torque master torsion springs. These springs are the most dangerous of the two springs to try to repair or replace yourself and definitely should be handled by a professional. Not only do you run the risk of activating the garage door opener, or a falling garage door, changing these springs on your own exposes you to serious safety risks. Because of the amount of tension these springs hold they often break which results in a flying spring or metal.

The most common residential garage door spring problems usually include any of the different extension springs and standard or early set torsion springs. The steel rolling door torsion springs and torque master torsion springs are most common in commercial or industrial doors. The springs on commercial or industrial doors absolutely should be repaired or replaced by a professional garage door repair technician.

Wood vs. Steel Garage Doors – The Pros & Cons

You’re looking to have a new garage door installed and don’t know what the best option is between a wood garage door & steel garage door. Knowing the pros and cons of each with your end goal in mind can help you reach the right decision for you!

Garage Door Springs & Your Garage Door

First and foremost, the typical lifespan of any garage door not considering outside elements is on average 30 years. But keep in mind that your garage door is just one part of your entire garage door system. Your garage door springs are a HUGE component when it comes to the working elements of your door. The average lifespan of garage door springs is about 10,000 cycles. This means if you open & close your garage door an average of 6 x per day your springs will need to be replaced in 3 ½ years. And your springs should be changed at least twice before you are in need of a new garage door installation.

That being said, Wood & Steel are the two most popular options amongst homeowners when it comes to installing a new garage door. When choosing any garage door keep in mind that it is an investment & the door you choose will serve you for many years to come.

Wood Garage Doors-Pros & Cons

Pros
Beautiful craftsmanship & ageless aesthetic
Can greatly increase home/property market value
Maximum energy efficiency
Dent Resistant

Cons
More expensive than steel doors
Requires re-staining/painting
Requires Maintenance
Can be affected by outside elements

Steel Garage Door-Pro & Cons

Pros
Offer great durability
Lower cost compared to wood doors
Longer Lasting
Can mimic the appearance of wood
Require less maintenance…but ALL garage doors need maintenance

Cons
Are easily dented
Can rust especially if not maintained properly
Fewer options when it comes to craftsmanship
Not as aesthetically pleasing as wood

Your garage door opener is also an important component of your garage door system. The lifespan of a garage door opener on average is 10-15 years & should be replaced when needed. If it is left not working properly it can cause major issues with your entire garage door system.

Both wood & steel garage doors are great options when it comes to new garage door installation. If you are unsure what type of door would work best for your home, you can always speak to one of our experienced & certified garage door technicians. We pride ourselves on our garage door knowledge and are your garage door installation & repair experts!

Help Minimize Heat With Garage Door Insulation

The Arizona summer is upon us and with it comes increasing temperatures and higher energy bills. Summer temps can feel like a scorching hot oven, especially if you plan on spending any time in your garage. Many people utilize their garage space using it to exercise, work on cars, as a workshop for various tasks, and even as a man cave.

During the summer months you can expect your garage to be between 10-20 degrees hotter than the temp outside!

Living in Arizona we know the highs can get into the 120’s which means your garage space can reach up to 140 degrees on some days! Not only does a temperature that high make being in your garage unbearable it also makes it unsafe! And let’s face it, if your garage is connected to your house like most peoples are, it makes keeping your house cooler a little harder. This means that your air conditioning system works harder and in turn you see your energy bill go up even more so during summer months. And let’s be real, no one likes a higher energy bill!

Did you know the summer heat can greatly affect your garage door’s opening system?

The heat creates issues with the electronics involved and can hinder the opening and closing mechanisms and even cause the motor to overheat. Another expense is added if you call for garage door repair or an adjustment!

What Can You Do To Make Your Garage Cooler During Summer?

Use & Time of Day- The early morning hours up to about 10am prove to be a much cooler time to spend in your garage. Opening your garage door a little to allow some of the trapped hot air to escape also helps. Definitely avoid being in your garage between 3-6pm when temperatures are the highest making your garage a dutch oven!

Garage Door Colors/Material- Believe it or not the color of your garage door and outer exterior matter! Darker colors tend to conduct more heat. Installing a lighter-colored door or choosing to paint it a lighter shade can reduce some heat. Same goes for the material of your door. Steel doors are heat conductors whereas wood doors are natural insulators.

Ventilation System- Your garage ventilation system or lack of one can be a huge factor in the rising temperatures in your space. An active ventilation system is a bit pricer than the normally used passive systems but also a lot more economical and efficient.

Installing a Fan- While a fan can only help to a certain extent it does help to improve the airflow and circulation, which can help to break up that hot stagnant air! Removing clutter and creating a more open space can help airflow as well.

And…

The #1 Way to Help Minimize Heat…Garage Door Insulation

Garage door insulation is the number one way to help combat that horrible summer heat. All of a sudden you can see yourself spending time in your garage again! On top of helping to decrease the higher temperatures in your garage, insulated garage doors offer so many other benefits as well!

Benefits of Insulated Garage Doors Include:

Greatly reduce heat transfer
Lower energy bills
Insulation helps quiet noisy garage doors
Reduces outside noise
Helps keep cold air out during winter
Better constructed as opposed to uninsulated garage doors

Now that you are aware of some of the benefits of an insulated garage door what do you need to know when choosing the right insulation?

R-Value- The R-Value of a garage door is key! What does R-Value mean? This is basically the number that measures the insulation in your door. The higher the R-Value the better the insulation. In fact, an R-Value of R18 or higher can help reduce radiant heat, ultimately helping to keep the inside of your garage a lot cooler.

Thank you.

Overall Insulation– An insulated garage door can do wonders for the temperatures within your garage but in order for them to work to their maximum potential it helps if the walls of your garage and attic space are insulated as well.

Type of Insulation- The type of insulation matters. While the R-Value measures the performance of insulation it helps to understand which types are best. For example, convex reflective foil-faced foam utilizes radiant heat which helps to reflect the heat away from your garage. Flush foam insulators help to absorb heat from conduction, while reflective foil has a 97% reflective rate.

If you are looking to survive the summer heat while still being able to utilize your garage spaceit’s highly beneficial to look into replacing your garage door with a higher R-Value door or by adding insulation to your existing one.

One more positive factor to consider when deciding on insulating your garage door… it helps add to your homes overall value!

If you have any other questions or want to insulate or upgrade your existing garage door, give Parker Garage Doors a call! We’ve been providing honest, affordable service in Phoenix, Lake Havasu and throughout the valley for over 20 years. We are family owned and operated and know our stuff when it comes to garage doors.

Overlay Carriage House Garage Doors

2018 XHI OVERLAY CARRIAGE HOUSE DOORS

The Homeowner’s Guide to Garage Door Inspection and Maintenance

Many small residential garage door problems can be repaired on your own with a little bit of elbow grease and some knowhow—which we hope to provide you with here today—but do keep in mind that some repairs should be performed by a professional who has the experience, specialized tools, and replacement parts to fix the problem. Safety is the number one priority when it comes to repairing and garage door issue. Sp please remember this should you choose to go at a few repairs yourself.

For example, lubricating the rails is a safe and easy DIY project anyone with a few minutes and a silicone spray can handle. However, depending on the type of garage door you have, a project like spring replacement could be at best difficult and at worst potentially dangerous. Let your personal experience and comfort level guide which repairs you can do on your own and which repairs you should call the pros in for.

In this post, you’ll learn about some of the following topics:

How to diagnose common garage door problems
Safety tips to avoid injury
How to inspect your garage door safely and thoroughly
DIY maintenance and home tune-ups
When to call in professional garage door repair experts

As garage door technology has improved, so has the complexity of these devices. However, it’s still possible to inspect them yourself as long as you’re very careful and know what to look for. Let’s begin by discussing the most important safety procedure, after which we’ll cover how to perform an inspection on your own.

The #1 Safety Procedure for DIY Garage Door Repair

While many garage door repair activities require further safety measures, there’s one thing you should always do while repairing, maintaining, or even simply inspecting your garage door.

Can you guess what it is?

Always work with the door down.

Of course there are some situations where the door has to be up—these are often good cases to make an appointment with a residential garage door repair company like ours—but generally speaking, most activities can and should be performed with the door down. The last thing you want to happen is for the garage door to rapidly and perhaps unexpectedly crash down while you’re working.

Additional Garage Door Repair Safety Tips

Before doing any work on your garage door, make sure you’ve safely cleared out children, pets, and basically anyone else who might get in the way. This is especially important if you’re working on the sensors for an automatic garage door, because they prevent the garage door from closing completely if something passes through them (like a car, but also a dog or small child).

Since it is likely that you’ll be working on an automatic garage door, it’s also a good practice to disable the opener while you perform repairs or maintenance. This will require cutting off power to the opener, the process for which varies depending on your garage door setup. Sometimes it’s as simple as unplugging the opener, but you may need to shut it off in your home’s fuse box. Either way, do it—this will prevent accidental opening/closing of the garage door.

Finally, here’s a tip that’s not necessarily about safety, but you’ll be glad to know it anyway: always work on your garage door with your cars parked outside! Just in case something goes wrong and the garage door is stuck in the down position, you’ll have access to your vehicles until you can get a professional service technician to come over.

How to Perform a Home Garage Door Inspection

Discovering problems before they become major repair issues can save you both time and money, so regularly performing a garage door inspection is a good idea for any homeowner. Assuming everything appears to be in good working order and you aren’t having any problems, a good inspection schedule would be bi-monthly or at the most once every 90 days.

Inspecting your garage door on your own is a fairly simple task if you know what to look for. Begin by standing in your garage—remember, anytime you’re inspecting or maintaining the garage door, the door should be in the down position—and carefully look at the following components:

Springs
Cables
Pulleys
Hinges
Sensors
Rollers (the “wheels”)
The door itself

Visually inspect each part. What you mostly want to look for will be signs of damage or visible wear. Cables are a common culprit for garage door problems, but can usually be spotted when they start to fray. Check for hardware that may be coming loose and needs to be tightened down. Look at the sensors and make sure that they’re properly aligned. The springs shouldn’t “wobble” and should remain snugly in place.

If you see damage or wear, take down notes about parts that may need to be repaired or replaced. Decide which problems you think you can fix yourself and which problems may require professional assistance. If you are in need of professional garage door service, call Parker Garage Doors at 602-970-9848.

While standing in the garage safely away from the garage door, open and close it. Since most of the time you’re probably opening and closing the garage door from inside your car, this will give you the opportunity to pay special attention while viewing and listening to its operation.

Look for anything that catches, halts, or grinds. View the springs to ensure that they’re attached properly and stretch out symmetrically. Listen for any unnatural sounds (you’ll know it if you hear them). Squeaking, grinding, and so on can indicate problems.

Twice yearly, a small amount of lubrication should be sprayed into the garage door tracks, hinges, and rollers. It’s not uncommon for homeowners to forget this (often for years at a time). If the garage door seems to be struggling to move properly or you hear some of the aforementioned noises, the door may just need to be lubricated. A silicone spray is usually a fine choice.

After lubrication, perform the same test where you stand and observe the garage door. If the noises are gone, you solved the problem with lubricant—if they persist and you can’t find any visual evidence, you may need to call a professional to diagnose the issue.

How to Test Your Garage Door Sensors

If your automatic garage door was installed after 1993, it almost certainly has a pair of sensors designed to activate the reversal mechanism. After this time, that was the law. If something activates the sensor while the garage door is going down, the garage door should automatically reverse. This prevents people and adults from getting accidentally injured.

The sensors work by casting an infrared beam between one another. If the beam is disturbed (e.g., someone walks through it) the reversal mechanism is activated and the garage door returns to the open position.

As part of your inspection, the sensors should be tested. It’s important! If they aren’t working, it would be quite difficult to know until it was too late and someone got hurt.

This is one of the few cases where you need to work on your garage door with the door in the open position. Stand near the garage door (not underneath it). Hold a long object you can use to test the sensors—you’ll be using it to break the beam between the sensors.

Use the remote or have someone help you by pressing the wall button to close the garage. As the garage door is closing, put the object between the sensors. The door should immediately go back up. If this happens, your sensors are working properly.

However, if the garage door continues to go down even though it appeared as if you disturbed the beam, it means that your sensors aren’t working. Assuming a visual inspection doesn’t present any obvious damage to the sensors, it may be that they simply need to be cleaned. With the garage door closed, use a dry cloth to wipe down the sensors and remove dust or debris.

Examine the sensors and to the best of your ability ensure that they’re both aligned to face each other. Note that when sensors are working properly their alignment doesn’t have to be perfect, in almost all cases “eyeballing it” will be good enough. If they look aligned, they probably are.

Repeat the test with the broom handle. If the problem was resolved and the door reverses when you interrupt the beam, odds are the sensors were out of alignment or dirty. If the garage door still comes to a complete close, you should have your sensors replaced immediately.

How to Know When to Call a Garage Door Repair Professional

Knowing how to do basic inspections and minor repair work are both excellent skills for any homeowner to have. However, in some cases over the lifespan of your garage door, you’ll almost certainly need to call a professional garage repair technician. Maybe it’s for a problem you just can’t track down or for a specific part you can’t replace by simply going to the hardware store.

Whatever the situation may be, the staff at Parker Garage Doors would be pleased to diagnose and repair your garage door. Is it time for an upgrade? We’ve got you covered there too. We offer a large selection of new garage doors to choose from. Please feel free to call us at (602) 870-9848.

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