We love the “do it yourself” enthusiast but there are some repairs related to garage doors that need to be done by a professional. We have known many people who have been seriously injured trying to fix their garage door after watching a YouTube video. It’s not as easy as it looks and can be very dangerous. Here are 3 DIY Garage Repair Warnings to help keep you and your family safe.
1. Repairing a Broken Spring
We have customers call all the time wanting to purchase a spring for their garage door so they can repair it themselves. We do not sell torsion springs to customers unless we, as professionals, install them. Why? because there is an enormous amount of tension on the springs and if you don’t know what you are doing you can get seriously injured or even killed. Yes, this really happens. Most people think you can just buy a “one size fits all” spring but that is not true. The springs are calculated to fit each individual garage door according to the weight, height and drum size among other things. When a professional comes to repair a broken spring he measures the spring using a specific spring gauge. He can then figure out exactly what size of spring fits that particular door. If the wrong size spring is installed it will cause damage to your garage door over time.
When a professional installs a new spring he uses special tools including a winding bar and is trained on how to use it. If you try to install a spring yourself and don’t have the correct tools you could end up getting injured. Having a professional repair your broken garage door spring is definitely worth the money.
2. Undoing Bottom Brackets
Never remove the brackets on the bottom corners on the bottom section of your garage door. Garage door manufacturers are now putting red fasteners on these brackets as a warning to not tamper with them. Why? Removing the bottom brackets while the springs are under tension will cause the bracket to forcefully shoot off the garage door and the door will drop and bind in the track. If the bracket hits you, you will be seriously hurt. This could also cause damage to your garage door. When a customer has a cable come off they usually try to remove the bottom bracket. This is a very dangerous mistake and is not the way to repair the cable. Don’t risk it and call a professional.
3. Opener Force Adjustments
The last of our 3 DIY garage repair warnings is about adjusting the force on your garage door openers. When a customer has a garage door opener that is reversing or not opening and closing all the way they will try to fix it themselves by increasing the force on the opener force adjustment. When you tamper with the force adjustment it makes the opener push harder, both up and down. If the door pushes up hard it can rip the opener arm away from the door causing severe damage to the garage door. If the opener pushes the door down hard is can bend your top section causing damage to the garage door and the opener. Just a small turn on the force adjustment can be a very costly mistake. Your garage door professional can usually fix this problem in a short amount of time but when customers try to make adjustments themselves it can make the repair a lot harder and more time-consuming.
Fixing things yourself can bring a great deal of satisfaction and can usually save you money but some jobs are not worth the risk. These 3 DIY garage repair warnings are important and should be followed for many safety reasons. We at Anderson Garage Doors care about our customers and want you and your family to be safe. If you have questions about a garage door repair please call us at (435) 752-6677 before trying to fix it yourself. We are happy to help in any way we can!