Love summer? Yeah, it’s pretty awesome — but it’s also hard on your garage door. You’re living the sweet life with BBQs, watching the game outside in the garage, outdoor parties and other summer recreation. But all that humidity and can be harsh for garage doors. It’s a good idea to do some preventative maintenance and repair to keep the door in shape and guarded against the weather. Here are a few summer weather conditions you should be aware of and how they affect your garage door when it comes to repair.
Baking in the Sun
California is known as the sunshine state. In the summer, Sacramento is at its absolute sunniest. While that’s great for your tan, brighter than usual sunlight might trick the photo eyes on your garage door into thinking there is something in the way. The photo eyes work to sense obstructions and stop the door to prevent it from hurting a person, a pet, or ramming into a car or bike and damaging your door. If your door suddenly has problems going down and it’s sunny out, this could be the cause.
You could craft a tiny sun visor out of cardboard just above the eye to shade it and prevent sun interference.
Garage doors can also malfunction due to hot temperatures. This can be a problem considering the hot summers we’ve been having in Sacramento lately. If this is a recurring issue, contact your garage door repairman.
Power Outages
Power outages can become more common in the summer during electrical storms. And since you’ve got to go to work regardless of whether the power’s out, you might consider installing a backup battery for your garage door opener.
Hail
Hail storms in California can be pretty intense, especially during the summer. You can’t exactly stop the weather, but you should check your garage door for damage following a heavy hail storm. Consider gently hammering out these dents with a rubber mallet. Talk to your insurance company. Perhaps the garage door dent repair will be covered in your policy.
Wind
Like hail, windstorms can get pretty intense during the summer, blowing around and knocking down lawn furniture, trees, and other things in your yard that can do serious damage to your garage door, house, and other property. After any serious storm, be sure to inspect for damage so you can get it reported to your insurance agency to make a proper claim. And if your garage door is damaged, try to repair it yourself or call a professional garage door repair company for a free consultation.
Before any storm, put away lawn furniture, tools, kids toys and other items that could potentially cause damage. Tie down larger items with rope or bungee cords.
Humidity
The heavy humidity of summer does more than just cause your T-shirt to stick to your armpits. Working off the same principle, it can also cause the components of your garage door to stick to the track. This can sometimes impede its ability to raise and lower smoothly.
If your garage door is getting harder to work during periods of high humidity, try adding a coat of garage door lubricant to any moving parts as well as the track. (Don’t use WD40 as this will cause the door to rust.) This is a fairly easy DIY repair you can use to fix your garage door during periods of high humidity.