How to Fix a Noisy Garage Door

Is there anything more irritating than a noisy garage door? The loud whirring, rumbling and rattling of a garage door every time it goes up or down — it makes you feel like something is very wrong even if it isn’t and alerts everyone in the house, also possibly all the neighbors, that you’re coming or going.

While it’s probably not realistic to expect that your garage door will glide noiselessly up and down every time you use it, or even that you’ll have it purring like a kitten, it shouldn’t be unbearably noisy.

What the Problem Could Be

If your garage door sounds like there’s a herd of buffalo headed straight for your living room every time you use or you open it, you need to do something about it. Here are some possible solutions:

1. Tighten Screws and Bolts

If you look at your garage door, you’ll notice there’s a lot of hardware going on there. Any loose screws or bolts could be interfering with the operation of your garage door and leading to excessive noise. Check all the screws, nuts and bolts, and if any are loose, tighten them with a basic wrench and socket set and see if that doesn’t solve your problem.

2. Check Your Rollers

Open and close your garage doors and watch the rollers to see if any seem loose or broken. You can also move the rollers back and forth a little bit manually to see if they seem to be functioning properly. Be sure to disconnect the garage door opener before you do this.

If you have a roller problem, you need to call in a professional. Untrained replacement of garage door rollers can be dangerous, and there’s a good chance the replacement rollers you use will be of poor quality. If you do call a professional to replace your rollers, you may want to request quieter nylon rollers over your existing metal rollers.

3. Check the Garage Door Opener

Many times, the source of most of your garage door noise is the garage door opener. A garage door opener with an old, failing motor that needs replacement can make a very loud raucous. If you determine that this is the problem, you will probably want to have your garage door opener replaced as soon as possible.

Annual Maintenance

Another way to avoid a noisy garage door is to make sure to have annual maintenance performed. Complete annual maintenance on a garage door entails lubricating all moving door parts with light household oil. These parts include:

• Full length of torsion springs
• Lift cables
• Lock hardware
• Bearing of sheaves
• Steel rollers — but not nylon rollers

It’s also recommended that you check for and tighten, replace or straighten loose or bent hinges. Checking the roller for worn out bearings, bent shafts or broken wheels is also important. Other key components to look out for are:

• Properly run extension cables in the sheaves
• Missing or loose bolts and screws from the door and track supports
• Bent tracks
• Worn cables at the bottom of the bracket button

Annual Maintenance Cautions

If replacing a hinge or roller, make sure door is down and locked, and only remove one hinge at any given time. It’s important you don’t attempt to repair a bent track by yourself. Any extension spring hardware, such as cables, springs, sheaves and sheave forks, containment cables or bottom brackets must be repaired with the door open, and should only be worked on by a trained professional. A spring assembly and wood anchor pad for torsion springs should also only be repaired or adjusted by a trained professional.

Contact Us Today

Continental Door Company sells and installs Linear and LiftMaster® garage door openers, considered by many to be the most reliable, efficient and effective garage door openers on the market today. If you’re ready to get rid of the noise and upgrade to a brand new Linear or LiftMaster® garage door opener — or if you need roller replacement or any other type of garage door repair in the Spokane or Northern Idaho Panhandle areas — contact Continental Door for a free service estimate today.