What is Your Noisy Garage Door Trying to Say?

Learn to interpret the noises made by ailing garage doors so you can get the necessary repair.

While some types of garage door openers are inherently noisier than others, no garage door should be so noisy that you can’t hear yourself think in the garage. Over time, you may notice your garage adding new noises to its repertoire and getting louder and louder. Don’t ignore these sounds! Your garage door is trying to tell you something. Here are some possibilities for what it’s trying to say:

The springs are wearing out. Screeching and groaning sounds are often caused by ailing garage door springs. Because letting a spring break while the door is in motion can cause serious damage to your garage door, you will want to get this kind of sound checked out quickly by an expert in garage door repair who can replace your springs safely.

The bearings are shot. The pulley or rollers in your garage door opener have little bearings inside them to help them move. When these bearings wear out, you might hear a loud ticking noise whenever you operate the garage door. Again, this is a repair best left in the hands of the professionals.

The door is unbalanced. If your garage door is just generally noisy and also seems to have a halting or uneven motion, it may be unbalanced. The balance should be checked regularly during your annual garage door maintenance, but you can also check it yourself simply by turning off the garage door opener and using the emergency cord to open the door halfway. Now let go. If the door is properly balanced, it should stay up, but if it is unbalanced, it will start to fall.

Something’s loose. Miscellaneous rattling or clanking noises are most often caused by loose parts, especially hinges and hinge plates. Take a close look and listen and you can usually locate the protesting parts and tighten them up yourself with a screwdriver. If you have a chain drive garage door opener, another possibility is that the chain needs to be tightened or lubricated.

You need a new garage door opener. Grinding, whirring, or other motor-type sounds are coming from your garage door opener. You can call Dynamic Garage Door to diagnose the problem and let you know if the opener can be fixed or you need to install a new one. This could be a great opportunity to invest in a different kind of opener that will be quieter in general.