Maintenance
Garage Door Making Noise
A door that has got loud is telling you something specific. The sound narrows it down quickly.
What the sound means
Grinding or scraping: dry or worn rollers, or grit in the tracks. The most common noise complaint in Lubbock by a wide margin.
Squealing: dry hinges and rollers. Almost always a lubrication issue rather than a failure.
A single loud bang: that is a spring breaking. Stop using the door and read the spring page.
Rattling: loose hardware. Hinges, brackets and track bolts work loose over years of cycling.
Why is my garage door so loud?
Abrasive dust in the tracks is the single biggest cause of premature roller wear here. It works into the bearings, grinds the races, and the roller starts dragging rather than rolling. Once that happens the noise gets worse quickly and the opener starts working harder than it should.
Steel rollers suffer worst. Nylon rollers with sealed bearings cost a little more and last considerably longer in this climate, which is why we fit them as standard.
How to lubricate it properly
- Brush the tracks out first. Lubricating over grit makes a grinding paste and does more harm than good.
- Use a garage door lubricant, silicone or lithium based. Not WD-40, which is a solvent and strips grease rather than adding it.
- Apply to rollers, hinges, springs and the bearing plates. A light coating, not a flood.
- Do not lubricate the tracks themselves. They are a running surface, not a bearing, and oil there just collects dust.
- Twice a year is sensible here, and worth doing after a significant dust storm.
If lubricating does not quieten it
Then the rollers are worn rather than dry, and no amount of lubricant brings a ground-out bearing back. A full set of nylon rollers is an inexpensive job and usually transforms how the door sounds and how hard the opener has to work.
Questions we get asked
Can I use WD-40 on a garage door?
We would rather you did not. It cleans and displaces moisture but strips existing grease, so the door is quieter for a day and worse afterwards. Use a proper garage door lubricant.
Is a noisy door dangerous?
Not immediately, but it means something is wearing. Grinding usually means rollers, and a dragging door puts extra load on the springs on every cycle, which shortens their life.
Would a new opener make it quieter?
Only if the opener is the noise. A belt drive is quieter than a chain, but if the noise is the door itself a new opener changes nothing. Worth diagnosing before spending. See opener repair.
Get it fixed today
Cleaned and lubricated it and it is still loud? That is usually rollers. Call us.