Maintaining the beauty and usefulness of your wooden garage door requires you to provide it with a little TLC through regular maintenance. Wood that is exposed to the sun and changes in the weather can begin to deteriorate and potentially break if it isn’t properly maintained. If you have invested in a beautiful wooden garage door, then I’m sure you want to help to keep it looking like it did when you first installed it. Below you will find 5 Tips for maintaining your wooden garage door so it will serve you proudly for many years to come.
1 Maintaining The Garage Door Opener on A Regular Basis
Maintaining your wooden garage door means making sure that your garage door opener is working properly. If the garage door opener is not properly maintained, it may break or not operate correctly, which can potentially cause damage to your garage door.
You should have your garage door serviced at least once a year. If you’d like to do some of the maintenance yourself, you will want to check both the quality and stability of all of the parts, including the springs, clamps, rollers, hinges, etc. It is important to make sure they are all clean and clear of dirt and other harmful debris. Also make sure every part involved in rolling the garage door up and down is properly lubricated. You’ll want to make sure all screws and other mounts are tight and secure.
Finally, you should also test the sensory system. Approximately every 6 months put a small piece of 2x4 underneath the door and test if it senses it – the opener should automatically go into reverse. If you find that it is not operating properly, then you will probably need to call out a specialist to fix or replace it.
2 Lubrication
Another important part of keeping both your garage door and opener safe is ensuring that the garage door components are consistently lubricated. Ensure that you only use one small coating of lube, as over-lubing can cause future damage by attracting dirt that interferes with the timber garage door’s mechanisms. You should consider checking the garage door for lubrication every couple of months.
3 Keep Your Door Clean
Regularly cleaning the inside and outside of the door helps keep dirt and dust from sticking to the wood. Doing this will help your door maintain its beauty and will also help keep you from having to repaint or re-stain the door as often.
Cleaning the inside and outside of the garage door is easy, and only requires a few minutes of your time. Simply grab some mild soap and mix it with hot water and scrub the door to remove any stuck-on pieces of dirt or other types of debris. Make sure you clean both sides of the wooden garage door.
4 Repaint or Re-Stain
Repainting and re-staining your garage door not only helps to keep the door looking beautiful, but it also helps protect the wood. Therefore, you should paint and stain your wooden garage door on a regular basis. How often you need to do this will depend upon changes in your area’s weather climate. Garage doors that endure multiple weather seasons will need to be painted or stained more often. You should probably consider repainting or re-staining your garage door every 2 to 3 years. If you want your garage door to maintain its beautiful design year round, then consider having it done every year.
5 Re-Sand and Refinish
Once again, depending upon your area’s climate, you may want to sand down the wooden garage door and refinish it from time-to-time. This can be done every 3 to 5 years or so. By completely re-sanding your door, its beauty will be reborn and its appearance will be just like it was when you first purchased it.
