How to Fix a Noisy Garage Door
Having a garage is a great benefit to owning a home, but when that garage door becomes noisy, it can be a nightmare. A noisy garage door can irritate your neighbors, wake up people who are sleeping in the home and generally irritate everyone in its vicinity. Fortunately, we have some advice on how to make a garage door quieter.
DO NOT attempt to quiet your garage door if your door is difficult to move, opens very quickly, or the rollers derail from their tracks. If any of the above conditions are present, to avoid risk of serious injury or death, stop using the garage door and contact a Clopay Dealer immediately.
Do you want peace of mind that your door is being serviced properly by an experienced professional? Find a Clopay Dealer near you.
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The following are methods to quiet your garage door:
Method 1: Tighten Nuts and Bolts
The garage door noise you are hearing may simply be due to the fact that the door and track supports have loose or missing track bolts and screws, causing the door to rattle in its rails.
Using a wrench and socket set to retighten these bolts and screws can potentially quiet the garage door almost completely. Take care not to overtighten this hardware as you risk stripping the lag screw holes or pulling the carriage bolt heads through the garage door. It is essential you take safety precautions before working on your garage door. Adjust your track bolts and lag screws with a friend or family member and disconnect your garage door opener to ensure no one opens it while you’re working.
DO NOT adjust, repair or remove springs or parts to which springs are connected such as steel brackets, cables, wood blocks, fasteners, bolts or other parts of the counterbalance system. WARNING – High spring tension can cause serious injury or death. Adjustments or repairs of the springs or counterbalance system should ONLY be made by a Clopay Dealer or trained door systems technician.
Method 2: Lubricate or Replace the Rollers
If your garage door makes a loud noise when opening or closing, especially a squeaking or grinding noise, the problem may be with the rollers. Learn how to lubricate a garage door — be sure to thoroughly lubricate the rollers and all other moving parts.
Regularly lubricate all moving parts of the door with Clopay Pro Lube Synthetic Garage Door Lubricant or a similar synthetic lubricant until the garage door noises subside.
These parts include the steel roller shaft where it sits in the hinge, the hinges, lift cables at the bottom bracket button, bearings on the spring system, and the full length of your springs. Continue to lubricate once every two months, even if the symptoms of a loud garage door subside before your next garage door maintenance session.
DO NOT lubricate the nylon portion of the rollers or other plastic garage door components, like the EZ-Set Spring, as petroleum degrades these materials.
If lubricating does not quiet the garage door, it’s time to call a Clopay Dealer or trained door systems technician to inspect and repair the garage door. If you do decide to replace your rollers, nylon rollers are recommended over metal rollers. You may pay more, but you won’t need to worry about periodically lubricating them.
It is essential you take safety precautions before working on your garage door. Disconnect your garage door opener to ensure no one operates it while you are working and complete the job with a friend or family member. You may also want to wear gloves to keep your hands clean from the non-petroleum lubricant.
Method 3: Lubricate or Replace the Springs
Your garage door may have torsion springs and extension springs. You’ll find the torsion springs above the door after you have closed it, and the extension springs by the tracks on the sides of the door.
A broken spring will definitely make for a noisy garage door, if the garage door works at all. If this is the case, DO NOT adjust, repair or remove springs or parts to which springs are connected. WARNING – High spring tension can cause serious injury or death. Adjustments or repairs of the springs or counterbalance system should ONLY be made by a Clopay Dealer or trained door systems technician.
Call a Clopay Dealer or trained door systems technician if the spring looks worn out or if the door has been opened and closed over 10,000 times since the last spring replacement. If the springs are operating properly and are not worn out, lubricating them, following the steps in Method 2, using Clopay Pro Lube Synthetic Garage Door Lubricant or a similar synthetic based lubricant, may reduce the garage door noise. Be careful not to over lubricate as the lubricant can drip on to the door surface when the door is operating.
Method 4: Lubricate or Replace the Hinges
As you are realizing by now, your garage door has a lot of parts that will eventually wear out, and if you’re figuring out how to fix a noisy garage door, you’ll want to look at all of them. As with the other parts, check the hinges to see if they are broken, worn out or have dust or metal filings around the hinge area. If any of the above conditions are present, contact a Clopay Dealer or trained door systems technician to repair or replace the hinges.
DO NOT adjust, repair or remove hinges on your own or even with a buddy. WARNING - Removal of the bottom bracket may cause your garage door to fall, leading to severe injuries or death. Repairs or replacement of hinges should ONLY be made by a Clopay Dealer or trained door systems technician.
If your hinges are in good condition, we recommend that you lubricate them with Clopay Pro Lube Synthetic Garage Door Lubricant or a similar synthetic lubricant. It is essential you take safety precautions before working on your garage door. Disconnect your garage door opener to ensure no one operates it while you are working and complete the job with a friend or family member. You may also want to wear gloves to keep your hands clean from the synthetic lubricant.
Clopay Pro Lube Synthetic Garage Door Lubricant
As you can see, there are several major components on your garage door that depend on timely maintenance using a safe and effective garage door lubrication product. For these applications, we recommend Clopay’s Pro Lube Synthetic Garage Door Lubricant. It is not prone to dripping or running the way conventional oil-based lubricants are, and it’s a great choice for other home and marine applications, too.
Noisy Garage Doors and Your Garage Door Opener
If your garage door itself isn’t the problem, maybe it’s the garage door opener. Refer to your garage door operator maintenance manual for assistance.
Check to see if the chain or belt drive seem loose, as this can cause jerky garage door movements and loud sounds. If the mechanism is loose, you’ll need to contact a Clopay Dealer or trained door systems technician to inspect and repair the garage door operator. DO NOT adjust, repair or remove the garage door operator or the operator’s chain or belt drive on your own or even with a buddy. Repairs or replacement of garage door operators should ONLY be made by a Clopay Dealer or trained door systems technician.
If the chain or belt drive is in good condition and not loose, lubrication may resolve the noise created by the garage door operator. Do refer to the garage door operator maintenance manual before performing any lubrication. You cannot lubricate a belt-drive garage door opener, and if you are lubricating a chain drive system, the manual may indicate a specific type of lubricant.
If you find your garage door operator is the source of the noise and you choose to replace it, we recommend a steel-reinforced rubber belt drive system, as these are usually less noisy than the typical chain-drive system. We also recommend vibration isolators to reduce garage door noise caused by your garage door operator.
Regular Maintenance Checks
Hopefully, one of these methods has solved your issue of how to make a garage door quiet. If not, your best approach is to hire a Clopay Dealer or trained door systems technician to inspect your garage door. A Clopay Dealer or a good garage door technician should be able to identify the problem quickly. Once they resolve the problem, be sure to have your Clopay Dealer or trained garage door technician back each year for a regular maintenance check, and lubricate your parts every few months. If you have a quality door like the ones we offer at Clopay, this should keep your garage door running smoothly for a long time to come.