How to Lubricate a Garage Door

• Noise Sources: Garage door noise may be due to loose components, worn rollers, old springs, or rusty hinges. Tighten parts and inspect rollers and springs for wear.
• Lubrication Guide: Use a spray lubricant like WD-40 on hinges, tracks, rollers, and chains. Apply sparingly and gradually to avoid over-lubricating.
• Professional Help: If uncertain, it’s advisable to get professional assistance for both identifying issues and lubricating the door.

If you’re reading this article, the chances are your garage door has started to make a fair bit of noise recently.

Of course, some creaks are to be expected with such a large mechanism, but if your door has started to become much louder and more sluggish recently, there’s a good chance that it needs some TLC.

Why is my garage door making so much noise?

Before we get straight into the lubrication guide, firstly we will take a look at some other reasons why your garage door might be making a lot of noise, so you can exhaust these options first.

• Loose components: One of the reasons why your garage door might be making so much noise is that some of the components are loose, causing them to rattle around and make noise when the door opens or closes. To fix this, we would recommend giving the garage door an inspection and tightening any nuts or bolts that you can find. Be sure not to overtighten them though!
• Rollers are worn out: Even rollers that are well lubricated will be useless if they are completely worn down, so take a look at your rollers to see how they’re doing. You also might want to consider nylon rollers as they tend to be quieter and require less lubrication.
• Old springs: The springs in your garage door are responsible for the smooth arcing motion that we want. If your springs are old or damaged, then there’s a good chance that the movement will be jerky and loud. Inspect the springs to see how they’re doing and assess the way the door moves as it closes.
• Rusty hinges: Old, rusty or damaged hinges can also be to blame for a noisy door, so of course, these will require an inspection too.

Remember: for all of the above problems, if you feel in any way uncertain about how to go about dealing with them or even looking for them, the best course of action would be to call up your local garage door professionals and let them take a look. This will be a much safer way of going about things.

Lubricating your garage door

So you’ve taken a look at your garage door, you’ve assessed all the components and you’ve decided that what you need to do is properly lubricate them.

The first thing you’re going to want to do is find the right lubricant. A spray lubricant is preferable as this will be the easiest to apply to all of the different components. Something like WD-40 will work absolutely fine for this sort of job, but feel free to investigate further.

Once you have found yourself a lubricant, you need to apply it to all of the areas that you think might benefit from it. These are:

• The hinges
• The insides of the tracks
• The rollers
• Along any of the chain assemblies

Don’t go too crazy during the application. The best thing to do would be to keep applying more in small increments to check and see if the desired effect has been produced. Just like with the tips above, if you don’t feel confident properly lubricating your garage door, then this is something best left to the professionals.

Associated Garage Doors are the garage experts you need in Sevenoaks, Maidstone, Oxted, Tunbridge Wells and the wider Kent area. We also offer a stunning range of front doors and composite doors. 

If you can’t work out why your garage door is so noisy and you would like some professional assistance, all you have to do is give us a call and a member of our team will be there to assist you.