Tips to Quiet Down Your Garage Door

A loud garage door can be quite annoying, especially for people who may be trying to sleep nearby. Fortunately, in many cases, noisy garage doors can be fixed easily and quickly. If you’d like to quiet down your garage door, the following useful tips may be able to help:

1. Tighten the Hardware. When a garage door is activated, it vibrates. This can cause screws and bolts to loosen in the system, which can lead to a noisy door. You can remedy this problem by using a socket or adjustable wrench to tighten all of the screws and bolts in the system. When tightening hardware, be sure to check for any worn out parts that may need to be replaced.
 
2. Lubricate Moving Parts. Rusty parts and/or a lack of lubrication can also lead to noisy garage doors. To prevent this, you can apply a garage door lubricant onto your system's moving parts about two or three times per year. Be sure to wipe away any old grease before applying new lubricant. Some of the areas you will want to lubricate are:
• Roller Stems
• Steel Rollers
• Springs
• Pivoting Portions of Garage Door Hinges
• End Fixture Area Bearings
3. Replace the Rollers. Metal rollers can make a lot of noise when they roll up and down the tracks of your garage door. If this is what is causing your door to be loud, consider replacing your metal rollers with rollers made out of nylon. Nylon rollers are much quieter and they don’t need to be lubricated regularly. However, since replacing rollers can be a bit tricky, you may want to have a professional do this for you.
 
4. Replace the Hinges or Springs. Many garage doors become loud due to worn-out hinges or springs. In some cases, greasing the hinges will help. If it doesn’t help, you may need to replace them. Additionally, if the coils in the springs become bent, they will rub together and cause an annoying noise. In this case, the only solution is to replace them.

However, if you need to replace your torsion springs located at the top of the door, you should have a professional handle the problem. Replacing or adjusting these springs can be very difficult and dangerous if you don’t know exactly what you are doing.  Do not attempt to repair or adjust torsion springs yourself.

If you have a noisy garage door in your home, you have probably found that it can be very annoying. Fortunately, there are many things you can do to remedy your problem. In fact, if you follow the useful tips described above, you will have a quiet garage door in no time at all!

If you are uncomfortable with performing any of these repairs or maintenance items please call a garage door technician.