Winter garage door problems in Attleboro follow a pattern. The first week of real cold brings broken springs. January brings doors frozen to the floor. By March, the salt has done its work on cables and bottom brackets. Knowing the pattern helps you get ahead of it.
Why cold weather is hard on a garage door
Three things happen when the temperature drops. Steel becomes less flexible, so parts that bend with every cycle are closer to their limit. Lubricant thickens, so everything takes more force to move. And metal contracts, which tightens the gaps between rollers, tracks and hinges. The door gets heavier to move at the same time the parts are at their weakest.
Broken springs on the first hard frost
Springs fail from fatigue after thousands of cycles. A spring that was nearly worn out in October will often snap on the first morning in the teens or twenties. You hear a bang, and the door will not lift. If that happens, follow the steps in what to do when your spring breaks and leave the opener unplugged.
If your springs are older than seven or eight years and the door feels heavier than it used to, it is worth asking about garage door spring repair before the cold arrives.
The door is frozen to the floor
Snowmelt runs under the door during the day and freezes overnight, gluing the rubber bottom seal to the concrete. If you press the opener button, one of two things happens. The opener senses the resistance and stops, or it pulls hard enough to tear the seal or strip a gear.
If the door will not budge on a freezing morning, stop. Pull the emergency release and try lifting gently by hand. If it is stuck, free it with a plastic scraper along the seal or warm it with a hair dryer. Do not use boiling water, which refreezes, and do not chip at the seal with a metal tool. A thin wipe of silicone spray on the seal helps keep it from sticking again.
Road salt, cables and bottom brackets
Massachusetts roads are salted heavily, and your car brings that salt home. It drips onto the garage floor and collects along the door threshold, right where the lift cables attach to the bottom brackets. Salt water wicks into the cable strands and rusts them from the inside.
Rinse the floor near the door a few times each winter and look at the bottom six inches of each cable. Broken strands or rust flakes mean it is time for garage door cable repair. A cable that lets go leaves the door hanging by one corner, which we describe in our cable guide.
Frost heave and gaps under the door
Freeze and thaw cycles move concrete. A driveway apron or garage slab can lift or settle enough to leave a gap under one side of the door, or to make the door hit the floor early and reverse. A new bottom seal takes up small gaps. A door that reverses needs its close limit adjusted, which is explained in why a garage door won't close.
Thick grease and a struggling opener
Old grease on the opener rail and in the rollers turns stiff in the cold. The opener reads the extra drag as an obstruction and stops partway. Fresh lubricant made for low temperatures usually cures it. If the opener still strains, the door itself may be out of balance, which is a spring issue and not an opener issue.
Power outages
Nor'easters and ice storms knock out power across Bristol County most winters. Know where your red emergency release cord is and how it works before you need it. Use it only with the door fully closed. If you are replacing an opener, a model with battery backup will run the door through an outage. See our notes on choosing an opener.
A short fall checklist
- Lubricate rollers, hinges and springs with a cold-rated garage door lubricant.
- Check the bottom seal and side weatherstripping for cracks and gaps.
- Look over both cables near the floor for rust and loose strands.
- Test the door balance by hand, and test the opener's safety reverse.
- Clear leaves and grit from the tracks and the threshold.
The full version is in our garage door maintenance checklist.
Winter garage door help in Attleboro
Johnny Garage Door Service has been repairing doors for 30 years. If yours is stuck, frozen or will not lift this winter, call (508) 709-6644 and tell us what the door is doing. For everything we fix, see garage door repair in Attleboro, MA.