Your door still works, but it is louder than it used to be, or slower, or it shudders on the way up. A tune-up catches worn parts before they leave you stuck.
Quick answer: A tune-up is a full check and adjustment of the door, the springs and cables, and the opener. Most home doors need one every two years. Doors that run many times a day need it more often. Call for the tune-up price. It depends on the door and what it needs.
| Part | What we look for | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Door balance | With the opener disconnected, the door should stay put when lifted halfway. | A door that drops or rises means the springs are off, and the opener is doing work it was not built for. |
| Springs | Gaps, rust, stretched coils, and lost tension. | Relaxed torsion springs can be adjusted. A worn spring is better caught now than after it snaps. |
| Cables and drums | Broken strands, rust at the bottom corners, and cables sitting straight on the drums. | A frayed cable can let one side of the door drop. |
| Rollers | Wobble, flat spots, cracked wheels, and dry bearings. | Worn rollers make a door loud and shaky. |
| Hinges and fasteners | Cracked hinges and loose bolts on the hinges, brackets, and track. | Vibration loosens bolts over time. |
| Track | Bends, dents, and alignment from top to bottom. | A bent track makes the door bind and can let rollers slip out. |
| Opener force and travel | How hard the opener pushes and where it stops at the top and bottom. | Too much force is a safety risk. Wrong travel leaves gaps or strains the door. |
| Safety reverse | The door must reverse when it touches an object on the floor. | This is the check that keeps the door from coming down hard on someone. |
| Photo eyes | Alignment, clean lenses, and a solid wire connection. | Eyes out of line cause the door to reverse for no reason. |
| Seals | The bottom seal and the side and top weatherstrip. | Cracked or flat seals let in cold and water, and can freeze to the floor. |
We also lubricate the moving parts that need it and tighten what has worked loose. If we find a worn part, you get the price before we replace it.
For most homes, every two years is enough. Book sooner if the door is the main way in and out of the house, if it runs many times a day, or if it is on a shop that opens and closes all day. A tune-up in the fall is a good habit. Cold weather is hard on springs and seals, and it is better to find a worn part before the first cold snap. There is more on getting a door ready in our note on a garage door tune-up before a Wisconsin winter.
A few simple habits keep the door running well between tune-ups.
A few times a year, spray a garage door lubricant on the hinges, the roller bearings, and the springs. Use a silicone or lithium spray made for garage doors. Skip the tracks. Grease in the track collects dirt and makes the rollers slide instead of roll. Plain WD-40 cleans, but it does not stay on long enough to lubricate. Some sprays thicken in the cold, so check which lubricants hold up in a Wisconsin winter.
Once a month, stand inside and watch the door open and close. Look for a gap in the spring above the door, frayed cables near the bottom corners, and loose bolts. Listen for new grinding or popping sounds. If you see a broken spring or a frayed cable, stop using the door and call. Those need a spring repair or a cable repair.
Lay a 2x4 flat on the floor where the door closes. Close the door with the opener. When it touches the board, it should stop and go back up. Then wave something through the beam of the photo eyes while the door is closing. It should reverse right away. If either test fails, stop using the opener to close the door until it is fixed. You can often check and align the photo eyes yourself.
Lubricating and looking are safe. Adjusting springs, cables, or bottom brackets is not. They hold a lot of tension, and they are the parts that hurt people.
Call or text with the kind of door you have and anything it has been doing lately. If we find something that needs repair, we explain what we found, and you decide.
Every two years works for most home doors. A door that runs many times a day, such as the main entry for a busy family or a door on a small shop, may need one every year.
Not in its first year or two, as long as it was installed and balanced correctly. After that, the springs relax a little and bolts loosen with use, so the regular schedule applies.
Often it helps a lot. Most noise comes from dry hinges, worn rollers, and loose hardware. If the noise is from worn rollers or a failing opener, we tell you what we found.
Sometimes. A heavy door usually means the springs have lost tension or one is broken. We can adjust torsion springs that have relaxed. A broken or worn-out spring needs replacing, which is a separate repair.
Yes, light commercial doors on small shops and outbuildings. Call with the number of doors and their sizes for a price.
Call for the price. It depends on the door, the opener, and how many doors you have. Parts are extra.
