A friend of mine sent me a link to a "garage door tune up service".
I've never heard of getting a garage door tuned up… but I've never owned a house before either. A couple weeks ago I had trouble with the door getting stuck and one of the "wheels" was stuck out of the groove, and another kept slipping out. Once I got them back in place and gave them a couple good whacks with a mallet it seemed to be fine though.
So is there any point to something like this, or is it just an excuse for them to come out and upsell me on a bunch of other crap?
Best Answer
You should check the operation and safety mechanisms of any automatic garage door opener probably twice a year or so, to ensure that they are operating safely. If you place a 2x4 flat on the floor, the door should reverse when it hits it. If you remove the 2x4, the door should close fully but not try to close after it's closed (the opener should not be trying to drive it through the floor once it's closed.) Likewise, the door should stop or reverse if the electric-eye beam is broken when it's closing.
If you don't have an automatic opener, adjust when needed as the door gives you issues with manual operation. If it gets hard to open or tries to close with excessive force, check for a broken spring and consider calling someone.
Lubrication, alignment, etc. can be addressed at the same time. No particular need to hire someone else to do it unless you are going to start messing with adjusting a torsion spring. If the spring is not broken (and needing replacement), there should be no need to adjust it for many years.
Garage door torsion springs, if not treated with great care and respect, can kill/maim you. OLD extension springs that lack safety cables (a cable running in the middle of the spring to keep parts from flying if it breaks) can also hurt you, as can a garage door without spring support if it comes crashing down from the raised position. Malfunctioning or misadjusted or safety-mechanisms-bypassed automatic openers can crush people/children/pets.