Worn rollers
Steel rollers with exposed bearings, grinding as they drag instead of roll.
Fix: Nylon roller set with sealed bearings. Quieter, and much better in damp air.
Garage door grinding, squealing or banging
Match the sound to the cause. Grinding and scraping is nearly always worn rollers. Squealing is dry hinges and bearings. One loud bang is a spring. Rattling is loose hardware. Most of it is cheap to fix now and expensive to leave.
Call (510) 694-8090What causes it
Dry hinges and bearings
Squealing that gets worse in cold weather.
Fix: Proper lubrication, which is part of a tune-up.
Loose hardware
Rattling and vibration. A few thousand cycles a year shakes bolts loose.
Fix: Tighten through, then recheck the balance.
One loud bang
That's a spring, and the door won't open afterwards.
Fix: Spring replacement.
Chain drive slap
Normal for a chain opener, but it gets louder as the chain slackens.
Fix: Tension the chain, or move to a belt drive if the garage sits under a bedroom.
Before you call
Worth trying
- Listen for where in the travel the sound happens
- Look at the rollers for flat spots or seized bearings
- Tighten visible loose bolts
Leave alone
- Grease the track. The rollers are meant to roll, not slide
- Use WD-40 as a lubricant. It's a solvent and it strips out what's already in there
We fix garage door grinding or squealing the same day
You get the price before we drive out, and someone picks up whatever time you call.
The repair itself
Balance, lubrication, hardware tightening and a photo-eye safety test.