If your garage door has noticeable come off track, stop using it immediately. Continuing to use a door off track can cause expensive damage to both your track and your door. The damage caused by continuing to use a garage door that is off its track can turn a fairly inexpensive repair into an ordeal that could potentially cost several hundred dollars to fix.
Depending on the cause and the severity of the issue, it can be a simple DIY fix or it can end up being a semi-dangerous problem that requires professional finesse to fix properly. Let’s check out some simple garage door track issues that are easy to diagnose and fix.
Disconnect Your Garage Opener
Pull the emergency release cord hanging from your garage door opener towards the opener itself. You may hear a light click. Doing this will disconnect your garage door trolley from the opener and allow you to open and close the door manually. Reconnecting to the opener is a similar process, but you’ll be pulling the cord towards the door instead of the opener.
Locating and Fixing Bent Track
Carefully inspect your garage’s track and determine where exactly its wheels have slipped off. Next, block the door open in this spot with a pair of interlocking pliers. Grab the outer edge of the track with a pair of pliers and pull until it is just open enough to get the wheels back on the track. Take a rubber hammer (not a metal construction hammer!) and gently tap the track back into place.
Testing Your Work
Remove the interlocking pliers and test the door manually. Check to see if you can smoothly raise and lower it. Let the door hang midway open and see if it leans left or right. If it does, the door may be out of balance. If so, you should call a professional garage door company as your garage springs may be at fault here, which are fairly dangerous to unseasoned hands and will need to be replaced.
Otherwise, it’s time to reattach your garage door opener. Pull the handle towards the door to turn off manual operation mode, and allow the opener to naturally attach while operating You’ll hear a loud click. Check once more to see if it is opening and closing smoothly.
Realigning the Track
Chances are your door went off its tracks due to the track being out of alignment. This usually occurs when the bolts fixing the track to the wall become loose, causing the track to lean. Look at your track to see if it is completely vertical, ideally check it with a level. Now give the brackets a tug to see if they are loose.
If the tracks are loose, adjust them to a completely vertical position. If you do not have a level, hang a piece of string alongside to test for straightness. Once the tracks are absolutely straight, tighten the brackets back into place. Go ahead and test the garage doors movement again, preferably manually first and then with the automatic opener. If all this works out, then congratulations you have successfully fixed your garage door’s alignment issues,
Knowing Your Limits with Garage Door Repair
It’s important to know your limits with DIY work. Some of the issues that can crop up with garage doors, such as with springs, require a bit of know-how to safely handle. Fixing your door incorrectly can also be quite dangerous, especially if you have small children or pets. Furthermore, there’s a lot of knock-on effects that can occur over time due to misalignments and simply putting your garage door back on track may only be a temporary Band-Aid covering potentially serious underlying issues.
If you are not sure about a repair, there is no shame in calling a garage door repair professional for a few pointers or to even do a job through to completion. Not only is this safer, but it just might save your sanity!
Call a Pro if You Need Help!
Though this is a fairly easy DIY garage repair you reasonably may be able to handle yourself, sometimes small issues can be a symptom of a larger problem in your garage door that might not be as easy to take care of.
If you encounter any problems, reoccurrences of problems, or the door and the track have become too badly damaged to repair yourself, contact a professional.