The last thing you or anyone else wants is to be rudely awakened in the middle of the night by a noisy garage door. This is truer if your bedroom happens to be above the garage. Yet, some garage doors cause so much racket that people at the other end of the house can hear them! From vibrations to squeaks, squeals or otherwise, garage doors can be very noisy. But it does not need to be this way. Noisy garage doors are not normal. There are many mechanisms involved in the smooth operation of a garage door, and a failure or lack of maintenance within any of those mechanisms could make your garage door howl.
Is It Your Garage Door Opener?
If your garage door opener is older than 20 years old, you are likely feeling the vibration, which is not a normal sensation. It might be time to replace it. It is also important to consider that chains or blends of steel wire and chains are noisier options, even brand new. A garage door opener trolley could also be the problem if the bolts are loose. Over time, loose mechanisms grow worse and create a lot of noise and friction.
For those looking for the least-possible noise options, a garage door opener operated with a metal-reinforced rubber belt would be the best best. Some older garage door openers have a three-piece trolley. Newer systems designed around a one-piece trolley aren’t as prone to loosen and become noisy over time. It isn’t difficult to tell whether your garage door opener is the problem or not. Simply follow the noise to its source!
Could It be Other Garage Door Hardware?
There are many different operating components to a garage door. Indeed, there are many different types of garage doors. Whether your garage door is made of steel on one side with insulation on the other matters. Partially-insulated panels running along inside the door could create noise over time as they wear. Tracks that are bolted together tend to come loose, which also creates noise. Consider that steel rollers will create noise if they do not roll freely. They should never slide.
Garage door spring problems might also be the culprit. A garage door spring system should provide itself as a good counterweight for the garage door. If the weight ratio is off, you may be needlessly straining the garage door opener, belts, or other components. Sandwich-type garage doors with two layers of steel and a layer of insulation between are generally light and quiet. Newer garage door systems also come with steel rollers covered in nylon and driven by ball bearings.
A garage door system with anchor plates welded to the tracks provide a greater level of strength and don’t amplify door noise or transmit vibrations. To be very thorough, you could also invest in a torsion-type spring system. As opposed to an extension-style system, torsion-types don’t amplify as much noise. Since these systems are placed above the door, noise and vibration is not transmitted through the ceiling material.
When It’s More Than the Garage Door
Depending on the type, garages act like echo chambers. The construction of the house also plays into how loud the garage is. If you have hardwood floors, your floors could amplify the noise coming from the garage door, especially the floor directly above it. To mitigate these problems, you could insulate the garage ceiling, but you do need enough overhead room to do that. Adding carpet to the room above also damps out noise, though that may not be aesthetically pleasing when you try to show off your beautiful wood floors.
If you are working with a concrete garage, pieces of semi-rigid rubber or another type of noise isolator between the ceiling and track anchors should do the trick. Semi-rigid rubber and noise isolators also work great if you have a wooden garage door attached to a rafter. Over time, rafters tend to lose their rigidity.
Why You Need Regular Maintenance
Garage doors take some of the biggest beatings out of anything else built into a home. Just as anything you use all the time, it is critical that you ensure a minimal maintenance schedule is performed. All you need have done is a simple visual inspection and verification that the individual components that make up your garage door are in good working order. Lubrication is just one important example of what may seem like a small thing creating a big, noisy problem with your garage door. If you have a double garage door that is 16 feet or greater, proper maintenance is even more important.
There are items you can check off yourself as you inspect your garage door. The first, and easiest DIY garage door maintenance hack is to pull the emergency cord on the garage door opener to ensure it works. The garage door is the largest moving part of your house and could be dangerous if does not operate properly. Once you have released the emergency cord, attempt to manually open and close the garage door. If the door is difficult to lift or move, there may be a problem with the springs.
Always remember, if there is a problem with your garage door springs, it is critical that you contact an expert technician. Attempting to repair or replace garage door springs yourself could result in serious injury. Still, you can use a metal lubricant, even something like motor oil, to lubricate your garage door components. You will also want to lubricate weatherstripping or other PVC parts with a silicone-based lubricant.
Most likely, however, you are pretty busy and would rather have a professional maintain your garage door. Well, that’s exactly what we are here for! For expert garage door repair in the Akron and Uniontown area, choose Prestige Door!