3 Tips for a Quieter Garage Door

3 Tips for a Quieter Garage Door

While a garage door can never be completely silent when it’s operating, it should never sound excessively loud or grating. If yours is frequently disturbing your entire household as you come and go, your garage door might need some TLC.

Check out these three helpful tips on how to make your garage door much quieter — and likely safer and more functional to boot.

1. Check Your Garage Door Parts

Your garage door is made up of rollers and tracks designed to make it operate as smoothly and quietly as possible. When these metal parts are loose, worn, misaligned or damaged, they can create an annoying grating sound as they move and scrape against each other. You can easily tighten any loose nuts in the track by using a socket or adjustable wrench. Just keep in mind that you never want to overtighten any of these parts.

Next, make sure all the parts are working as they should. For example, as their name suggests, rollers need to actually roll and not slide along the tracks. Replace any worn and damaged parts to reduce excessive garage door noise. Be sure to have a professional handle the rollers in the bottom brackets as well as any adjustments required for the nuts and bolts on the springs or drums — these fixes can be more involved and potentially dangerous.

2. Lubricate the Metal 

Any metal parts in your garage door should be lubricated regularly. Doing so once or twice a year will help to reduce noise. While there’s a variety of lubricants to choose from, always ensure that the one you choose is made specifically for metal use. You’ll want to focus on a few specific areas when lubricating, including the:

• Rollers
• Hinges
• Tracks
• Springs
• Panel hinges
• Chain on the chain assembly

Following the lubrication process, gently wipe all areas with a rag to remove any excess material.

3. Make a Few Simple Swaps

If after you’ve tightened, adjusted and lubricated the metal you’re still not happy with the amount of noise your garage door is making, you can try some more permanent changes to reduce noise. Consider:

• Changing steel rollers to nylon rollers: This change will reduce noise and make the entire operation smoother.
• Choosing a rubber belt reinforced with metal: Instead of the typical steel chain used in garage doors, a rubber belt will help buffer sound.
• Adding a noise isolator system: This system will cut out any vibrations that are noisily occurring between the engine and metal support found on your ceiling beams.

Let Us Know How We Can Help

If while you’re working and fixing up your garage door you find that you need some extra help, remember that Halo Overhead Doors offers free estimates and full service. Whether you need a part maintained or repaired or require some help picking out a new garage door to replace or refresh your current one, the team will work with you to create a customized solution.