Open Sesame: How to Service a Garage Door

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Modernise Your Garage Door

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Times have changed. This change has been accompanied by great innovations meant to make life easier for the regular homeowner. If you live in an older home, your garage door was probably installed by the previous owner, and it is most likely an older style of garage door.

Now that you're thinking of undertaking repairs, here are some modifications that will make your garage door as modern as they come.

From AC to DC

Without a doubt, the opener is the single-most important component of a residential garage door. In its absence, opening and closing of the door would not be as effortless as you find it to be.

The older garage door openers were designed to be powered using alternating current. One not-so-good characteristic of AC-powered door openers is that they are quite bulky, and their installation consumes a significant amount of headroom in residential garages.

Thanks to advancements in technology, the motors of newer garage doors are designed to operate using direct current (DC). DC-powered doors are smaller in size, so their installation will not consume as much space.

From Extension to Torsion Springs

Another great way to modernise your residential garage door is to replace old-style extension springs with torsion springs, which are a newer version of the garage door spring mechanism.

True to their name, extension garage door springs extend upwards to facilitate the opening of the garage door and downwards to close it. On the other hand, torsion springs use a mechanical force referred to as torque to facilitate door opening and closing.

Torsion springs remain in their original position during all this, which makes them less vulnerable to natural wear and tear. This makes them more durable compared to extension garage door springs. Their maintenance requirements are also not as rigid as the maintenance requirements for extension garage door springs.

From Chain to Belt Drive

Residential garage doors either use a metallic chain or a rubber belt as their operation mechanism. The chain-driven mechanism is the older of the two, and it is increasingly losing popularity due to the noisy nature of its operation and the rigid type of maintenance it requires.

The belt drive mechanism is considered a quieter alternative, and it presents less of a challenge when it comes to garage door maintenance.

For more information on different improvements that will modernise your old garage door, contact a garage door company in your area..


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