You may not think of it this way, but your garage door is one of the largest, heaviest and most powerful pieces of machinery in your entire house. All of this power equates to security, protection and convenience. However, it also means that things can go wrong in a big way if the garage door is not treated properly. Keep reading to learn about garage door disasters and how to avoid them.
Garage door failures can sometimes be caused by an accident, a haphazard repair job, lack of maintenance, an aging system, misguided DIY tinkering or just plain bad luck. No matter the cause, when garage doors fail, it can sometimes be spectacularly so.
For this reason, we recommend that you only use experienced, trustworthy professionals when installing an overhead garage door or having it repaired. Otherwise, you could end up in one of these scary and often dangerous situations described below.
The Binding of the Doors
Binding is one of the most common major issues with a garage door. The cause stems from issues like a misaligned track, an out-of-place chain, or blockage. It could also be cause by a door that needs to be realigned and reset within the tracks themselves.
Usually, a binding garage door means sticking and erratic performance. It can also often mean that the door simply refuses to budge, or that it will raise again before completely lowering.
Sometimes, however, it can be a much more frightening and epic occurrence. Here you are, attempting to merely shut the garage after coming home from work, then everything goes awry. In this worst-case scenario, the drive chain still wants to pull the door even though it has nowhere to go. The result? Crunch!
As you can see in the above video by YouTube user Johnny Faber, a malfunctioning garage door that binds can quickly turn into a garage door taco. The force of the drive chain will make quick work of stamped steel in certain conditions and leave you with an unusable door leftover.
Note Johnny’s huge mistake in trying to reach up and somehow stop the door. Do not do this! You will risk getting your hand caught and mangled, among other things.
Snapped Torsion Springs
Torsion springs carry a huge amount of tension within them. When older, rusted springs or improperly-installed springs snap, they can often do so in a fantastically-terrifying way. They can whip the garage door and often yank themselves out of their retainer cone.
In this video, you can see this going on under controlled conditions. But, imagine what would happen if you were standing next to it or if your overhead garage door was in mid close.
All Heck Breaks Loose
This next video is a completely unlikely incident, but it shows you to what extent things can go wrong when you perform improper repairs on your overhead garage door equipment.
There is no telling exactly how this happened. It was perhaps a bad rewiring job that led to an electrical short. However, the results are quite spectacular.
Avoid These Disasters with Expert Garage Door Repair Services
Your garage door may not burst into flames, crumple like a piece of paper or snap its springs like a twig. However, minor problems can turn into these major ones if left ignored or addressed by someone who is unqualified.
Go with Atlanta’s best garage door repair services to avoid the worst garage door disasters. Spare yourself from the anxiety and pain of something going wrong.