Commercial garage door maintenance tips for small business owners

For small businesses, a garage door is never small. Not small enough, that is, to fall into the residential category. These doors are typically around 12 feet high, which means they belong to the commercial garage door category.

Like residential doors, commercial garage doors need routine maintenance and care, too. Even if you only open and close the door a few times a day, it’s still getting used and still needs some TLC from time to time.

If you do use your door frequently, it might be better to consider something like a Preventative Maintenance Program that can keep your door in good shape throughout its lifetime.

Read on to find out about what maintenance your sectional door needs, including what you can do yourself and which jobs are best left to the pros.

Stop, look, listen: Inspecting your door for proper operation

Your eyes and ears are your best asset when it comes to commercial garage door maintenance. You can easily see and hear a lot of common garage door problems if you take a minute to check things out. Your door should be inspected monthly, or at least every other month at the very least. When visually inspecting the door, check out areas like:

• Horizontal and vertical tracks: look for flaring, rollers that may come loose, and other track defects or inconsistencies. Also, make sure rollers aren’t so damaged that they aren’t going to roll when the door moves.
• Hinges, springs, and other hardware: look for loose screws, damaged or loose hardware, or other things that aren’t properly installed and functioning.
• Lift cables: Lift cables should be made of a material that is durable and designed for commercial door use. The cables should be free from frays and knots and any damaged cables should be replaced or repaired immediately.

Manual doors should be easy to lift. With a properly balanced door, it should feel like it weighs almost nothing to lift by hand. If it feels like your overhead door weighs more than 100 pounds when you try to lift it, there may be a problem.

If your door is electric, you can use the manual release to check the door operation. Simply pull the red emergency cord to release the door from the opener. Then, you should be able to easily lift the door with only one hand. If you can’t, there may be something wrong with your door. Rather than trying to figure it out for yourself, it’s best to call a licensed technician right away. A‑1 Overhead Door Systems can diagnose and repair a variety of commercial garage door issues, and get your door working properly in no time.

DIY garage door solutions

One thing that you can do without calling a garage door technician is to lubricate the moving parts of the door. Keep in mind that there are different lubricants available for metal and PVC components. Also, you will never have to worry about the electric opener itself because commercial motors and openers are designed with little to no maintenance, including no lubrication, required.

For metal parts, you can use 5W30 motor oil. Using a shop cloth, you can apply oil to the rollers, hinges, and spring system on the door. Basically, every metal part that touches another metal part will need some type of lubrication for prolonged life, rust prevention, and proper operation. White grease is NOT advised for use in this instance, and especially not on the track system. Rollers, after all, will not roll properly if they are caked with grease. A liquid lubricant is always recommended.

PVC weatherstripping on the bottom of the door and in between door sections should be lubricated using a silicone-based product. A‑1 Overhead Door Systems carries lubricant products for all metal and PVC door components that are specifically designed for use in commercial garage doors.

When to call a professional

There are some aspects of garage door maintenance and repair that should only be handled by qualified technicians. Serious injuries happen all too often from people attempting DIY garage door maintenance and repair. Call A‑1 Overhead Door Systems if you have any of these dangerous issues:

• Broken or damaged garage door springs
• Frayed or broken lift cables
• A lift cable incorrectly wrapped or off the drum that needs replaced
• Garage door off track
• Broken hinges or brackets on the door
• Reseating a garage door knocked out of place by a vehicle

You should ALWAYS leave spring repairs and any issues related to the counterweight system to the professionals because these can lead to serious injury or even death if they aren’t handled properly.

You can find out more about the DIY maintenance that you can perform on your commercial door to keep it in good working order by reading our useful guide.