Garage Door Parts

There is a list of the garage door components in the owner’s manual that comes with a garage door. You should familiarize yourself with each garage door part and its use so that if a problem occurs you will have some idea of the part that needs to be replaced before you call in an expert and have to pay out a lot of money for a job you could do yourself. There are parts in a garage door that could be dangerous if you do not know how to handle them properly. These include the corner brackets and the springs.

Corner brackets are attached to the lower corners of the door. The cables that lift the door are attached to these brackets. If you disconnect them and don’t really know what you are doing, they could fly off unexpectedly and injure you or someone standing nearby. There are two types of springs used to balance garage doors – extension springs or torsion springs. Extension springs are usually located above the horizontal track and help to lift the garage door by stretching an expanding. Think about how an elastic band reacts when you stretch it and let it go. The extension springs react the same way, except they are much heavier and can inflict serious damage. Torsion springs are tightly wound and when they are unexpectedly disconnected they unwind with tremendous force. Tampering with these springs can cause damage to you and your property and A professional is the only one who should do the repairs.

There are other features to a garage door that are intended to make them more convenient for you to use. You can open a garage door manually if the power goes out or if you forget your remote for the garage door opener. There are lift handles supplied with every door and you should use them to prevent doing any injury to your back muscles by lifting a heavy door. You can have a garage door opener installed that lets you open the door with a press of a button and you should also have sensors installed on each side of the door to automatically open the door if there is something in the way.