Garage doors should be seen and not heard. Ok, maybe that’s pushing it just a bit. When your garage door is in operation, it will produce some noise, but it shouldn’t be overly noticeable. If your garage door starts to make a lot of noise, it’s a sure sign that something is not quite right and an indication that either you’ve skipped some of your garage door maintenance tasks, or one or more components are showing signs of wear and may need to be replaced.
As Arvada garage door installation and repair pros, we’ve been tasked with getting to the bottom of a fair few noisy garage doors in our time, and below we’re going to run through a number of the common causes of this issue to help you either get to the bottom of the problem yourself, or get the help you need.
Important Note: If you find that your garage door won’t actually move or is extremely hard to move, the rollers are jumping out of the tracks or your door opens much quicker than usual, we’d advise you to contact a garage door repair pro for your own safety.
Top Reasons Why You Might Have a Loud Garage Door
In no particular order, here’s a list of some of the things we’d recommend you check if your door has suddenly started producing significantly more decibels when opening and closing.
Loose Nuts and Bolts
This might sound quite trivial and unlikely to be the root cause of all of the excess noise you’re hearing. But it really might be.
Garage doors cause a lot of vibration as they open and close, and over time the nuts and bolts that keep components in place can loosen. When they do, they'll generate a sort of rattling noise as the door goes up and down.
Luckily this is easy to resolve. Grab a wrench and go round the door, tightening any nuts that are loose. Be careful not to overtighten them though, as this can strip the thread. And don’t go near the springs, as this can be dangerous and is best left to a garage door repair professional.
Key Components May Need Lubricating
When was the last time you applied lubricant to the key components of your garage door? If "I don't remember" is what you're thinking, it was probably too long ago. Ideally, this is an essential maintenance task that should be done every 6 months or so. If you forget to do it yourself, a garage door repair company could do it on your behalf as part of an annual check-up.
If you hear some rather loud screeching or grinding sounds as your garage door opens, this could well be the issue. Pay particular attention to the rollers here and make sure you apply a suitable lubricant to them, as well as other moving parts like the springs, the bearings on the torsion spring system, hinges and lift cables.
If lubricating the rollers doesn’t improve things, more serious action might have to be taken…
Damaged Rollers
A lot of the time, applying a suitable lubricant to the rollers works wonders and solves the problem. But if the rollers are old and worn, it might not be enough. The noise that you’re hearing might be a sign that they’ve reached the end of their lifespan and need replacing.
If this is the case, although we're biased here, we seriously recommend you let a garage door repair pro handle this for you, as it can be a dangerous undertaking if you don’t know what you’re doing.
We’d also recommend that you consider having nylon rollers installed instead of metal rollers. They will cost you more upfront, but they don’t require lubrication and operate much more quietly.
Worn or Damaged Garage Door Springs
Torsion springs for a garage door are absolutely essential. Without them, the door wouldn’t open and close, as these springs bear much of the door’s weight (and they’re damn heavy).
They can also be the source of garage door noise if they’re worn or damaged, or not properly lubricated. These springs have a lifespan of about 10,000 cycles, and after that point, may show signs of wear. If the condition of one of your springs has deteriorated, it may have thrown your garage door out of whack (does it look a little crooked?) and the extra pressure it’s putting on other parts of your system may be causing the noise.
This is rather like issues with your feet leading to joint issues further up your leg, in the knee for example. Have a garage door repair pro check the condition of these springs, and if they deem them to be fit for purpose, it could just be that you need to apply some lubricant to them.
Your Garage Door Opener
The noise you hear may not actually be coming from the door at all. If you have a garage door opener, this could be the cause of your headaches.
If the chain or belt drive has worked itself loose, this can generate a whole lot of noise. So be sure to check that. Chain drive garage door openers also need lubricating periodically.
Need Our Garage Door Repair Pros to Check It Out?
If you've looked into your noise issue and have not been able to get to the bottom of it, let our overhead door repair team handle it for you. We've got more than twenty years of experience helping Arvada home and business owners with this sort of thing.