One of the major noise complaints homeowners or tenants have is hearing and/or feeling the garage door open and close. This is especially true when a bedroom or other noise-sensitive space is located above or next to the garage. A noisy garage door can make the adjacent living space somewhere nobody wants to be – but how can you silence it?
The noise heard above and/or next to the garage is caused by vibration produced by the motor, track and rails of the garage door system traveling through the rigid connection of the garage door’s infrastructure to the structure of the building. This type of noise transmission is called structure-borne noise.
Structure-Borne Noise & Isolating Your Garage Door
Structure-borne noise travels along the framing and can often be heard throughout the building. The most effective way to reduce structure-borne noise is to address it at the source by acoustically isolating the connections between the garage door system and the building structure itself.
In most situations, acoustically isolating the garage door from the ceiling is all that is required to achieve a comfortable noise level. The products and basic installation steps presented herein are provided to inform about options and general effort required to install the acoustical isolation for a garage door system.
Don’t forget: always follow the manufacturer’s safety and installation instructions on any project. It’ll reduce risks of errors and accidents. First, though, check the warranty policy – which you should do with any new door part, panel or opener you purchase. Some products require professional garage door technicians to install or you’ll void the warranty.
Anyway, back to isolating your noisy garage door –
Major Components that Affect a Garage Door’s Noise Level
When deciding on a new garage door installation, work closely with your door installer to determine the best course of action for keeping your new garage door as quiet as possible. Before considering an acoustical isolation structure, set yourself up for success with:
- Garage door opener with DC motor
- Soft start/stop function
- Belt drive trolley track
- Nylon rollers in the garage door track
DC Garage Door Opener Motors Reduce Sound with Soft Stops
Historically, garage door motors have been driven by noisy AC motors. Today, motors are typically DC powered, resulting in quieter operation and additional capabilities such as soft start and soft stop. The soft start/stop function gradually increases speed as the door begins to move and gradually decreases speed as the door stops. This eliminates the hard impact sound of the motor starting at full speed or instantaneously stopping.
Non-Metal Garage Door Parts Reduce Vibration & Associated Noise
The vast majority of garage doors use a chain drive, which is the loudest system. Belt drive systems are identical to chain drive systems, except, the chain is replaced by a steel-reinforced rubber belt similar to car tires. Chain drive systems can be converted to belt-drive by replacing the sprocket on the motor and pulley near the connection to the wall bracket.
The other piece of this operational puzzle is the rollers in the garage door track. The rollers in the door tracks are typically metal with or without bearings. Using ball bearing nylon rollers will decrease the noise and vibration produced in the track. Plus, nylon doesn’t rust or corrode.
How to Isolate Your Garage Door’s Vibrations for Quieter Operation
You also have to consider the reality of the garage door – no matter how great the components of the garage door are at keeping quiet, the fact is it’s still a huge moving door that weighs several hundred pounds; it simply can’t be silent and zero-vibration. However, isolating the vibration can solve this issue.
There are different levels of isolation to consider when deciding how much of a noise reduction is desired. In order of importance, they are as follows:
- Isolate the garage door opener from the ceiling structure.
- Replace door track rollers with ball bearing nylon rollers.
- Isolate the two side door track supports from the ceiling structure.
- Isolate the top tracks from the wall structure.
1. Isolate the Garage Door Opener from the Ceiling.
The critical first step is isolating the motor from the ceiling structure. There are two typical methods: complete isolation with an acoustic product or partial isolation with an additional garage door opener part:
Separating the Garage Door Opener with an Isolation Kit
The best approach is to isolate the motor from the structure above with either:
- Kinetics Noise: Isomax UniBrace Single L (Requires 2)
- Pac International: RSIC-DC04x2 or RSIC-04HD/DD (Requires 2)
Two isolators are required (one on each side) to support the motor. The installation can be performed in a few steps and typically takes less than an hour. Here are the basic steps:
- Remove the motor from the angle iron and rest on the ladder.
- After tracing the outline on the ceiling, detach the angle iron from the ceiling joist.
- Attach the isolators to the ceiling joist using the traced outline as a location guide.
- Cut a section of the angle iron off to account for the depth of the isolator.
- Attach the angle iron to the isolators.
- Attach the garage door opener to the angle iron.
Separating the Garage Door Motor with a Rubber Isolator
A lower performing option to separate the garage door opener from the ceiling is a rubber isolator similar to the LiftMaster 89LM or L Continue Garage Door Opener Vibration Isolator. This is the easiest method, however, there are several limitations and drawbacks:
- It only provides a limited amount of acoustic isolation.
- On occasion there have been customer reports of this type of isolator falling apart.
- Once installed they can only support limited weight and should not be used for garage door tracks.
If this is the isolation technique you choose, make sure you use a heavy zip-tie as a safety back up. And as always, you can call SACS GARAGE DOOR REPAIR for any DIY-able garage door repair or installation you don’t want to deal with. It’s cost v convenience situation.
2. Use Ball-Bearing Nylon Rollers in the Garage Door Tracks.
The vast majority of garage doors use steel rollers, which are problematic for a couple reasons. Metal-on-metal contact is rickety and noisy. Plus, metal-metal friction encourages wear, chipping, rust, and corrosion. Steel rollers can easily seize.
Nylon rollers with ball bearings will significantly decrease noise and vibration levels. The nylon rollers should have 13 ball bearings equal to one of the following products:
- Dura-Lift: Ultra-Quiet
- ABN: Quiet Garage Door Rollers Nylon Door Wheels
- National: HD-R13B
If additional weight capacity is required or extended life is desired, the nylon rollers should use 6200Z ball bearings equal to one of the following products:
- Dura-Lift: Ultra-Life Max
- AOD: AOD6200z
- XiKe: Nylon Garage Door Rollers
And the good news is that this is another noise-reduction method you can safely do at home if you want – it’s easy and doesn’t take a lot of time or money. Here are the basic installation steps:
For Rollers on the Vertical Tracks:
- Open the garage door.
- Place a clamp on the vertical door tracks a few inches below the bottom of the door and the curved section of the door track as a safety stop.
- Unplug the garage door motor and pull the safety release cable.
- With pliers, bend the inside top edge of the vertical section of the door track (just below the curved section) inward slightly to create a gap wide enough for the door rollers to be removed from the door track through.
- Lower the garage door so the bottom roller lines up with the gap you just bent for the roller to be removed from the door track through.
- With a screwdriver, pull the roller towards the door and out of the track
- Pull the garage door inward and slide out the roller.
- Insert the new roller and slide it back into the track.
- Repeat steps 5 through 8 for all rollers, except the top roller, incrementally lowering the safety stop clamp as each roller is replaced.
- With pliers, bend the top of the vertical door track back to its original position.
For Rollers on the Top Tracks:
- Open the garage door and get on a ladder.
- Slightly push the garage door track away from the door.
- Remove the roller and insert the new one.
- Return the roller to the track.
- Repeat steps 2-4 for the door track on the other side of the garage door.
3. Isolate the Side Garage Door Tracks.
The side door track isolators are installed with the same method as the motor isolators using either the Kinetics Noise or Pac International isolators previously mentioned. The one difference in the installation is, when the angle iron is cut to account for the depth of the isolator the diagonal support angle iron will need to be adjusted and ideally also cut to length.
The isolators must be attached to the support joists of the ceiling. If the isolators have to be rotated 90 degrees to properly attach to the angle iron, securely attach a 2×4 between the two adjacent ceiling joists and attach the isolators to the 2×4. Note that this will require an additional length of angle iron to be cut to account for the additional depth of the 2×4.
4. Separate the Garage Door’s Top Tracks from the Wall.
The top track can be isolated from the wall using two Shore A Durometer 40 or 50 rubber grommets. Yet another easy DIY fix for your garage door! –
- Detach the track from the wall bracket by removing the pin.
- Slightly bend the wall bracket apart.
- Insert the grommets through the wall bracket holes from the inside of the bracket.
- Attach the track and wall bracket with a high-quality machine thread bolt and lock nut.
Finishing Touches: Adjusting Your Newly-Isolated Garage Door
After the acoustical isolation products are in place, it may be necessary to adjust the start and stop points programmed into the garage door opener. These are known as the garage door’s limits. Most garage door openers have buttons behind the light cover to perform the adjustments for you.
As always, please refer to the garage door opener’s user manual for specific instructions for your specific garage door opener unit, and don’t forget to check the terms of the warranty. Don’t want to be bothered? Give us a call for professional fine-tuning for your garage door.Not all garage door repair companies understand the science of garage door acoustics or acoustic isolation products. Our technicians are experienced and knowledgeable in quieting noisy garage doors; they’ll have you up and running in no time with precision installation.