We have 3 types of garage doors in South Africa, some made out of different materials but all do need maintenance.

Tip up garage doors are made of steel and some out of wood, these doors are almost maintenance free. But are not manufactured

anymore so if you have one of these kind of garage doors, it’s best to keep them in a good condition so you don’t have to replace them. 

They have either counter weights or a spring and kicker plate system. 

The main issue to look out for on steel tip up garage doors is rust, so make sure it’s treated well with a primer and painted properly, also have a look at the cables and pulley’s but rarely do these give any issues.

On the wooden tip up garage doors that work with a spring and kicker plate set up, the most important is your wood make sure it’s treated yearly with proper oil and if varnished you would have to use varnish again to avoid any of the wood rotting. 

With the hardware one would look out for any type of abnormalities with the springs or bearings on the kicker plates, as these tend to take a lot of strain but again a very low maintenance type of garage door so make sure to look after them as they can’t be replaced.

Roll up garage doors are the cheapest of the 3 and also need little maintenance and can last years if looked after properly, roll up garage doors are made from steel and zinc. The zinc garage doors are excellent for any weather types and do excellent in rainy climates as they don’t rust so a good choice when staying in costal areas. 

On the sides of your roll up garage door it has noise reduction material strips with rubber inners that do perish but is not necessary for your roll up to still operate normally.

Inside the roll you find guide wheels which guides the mat of the rollup to make a roll when in operation, these tent to get brittle after years and can be replaced, the torsion springs are connected to the guide wheels and can break these wheels after years of operation. The last thing is the springs they do need to be maintained every once in a while to ensure the door operates properly and can also be replaced if they snap. 

Sectional garage doors are made from zinc, fibreglass, chromadek, wood and aluminium in many different styles and colours but require the most maintenance out of the 3 types of garage doors.

Sectional garage doors have the most moving parts and need to be checked annually, to make sure it’s in proper working order as they can be dangerous when left with out maintenance.

Most Important things to look for is the springs and cables as they can cause the most damage when they break, be sure to check the spring is replaced every 5 to 8 years or for any abnormalities especially where the centre bearing is mounted to the wall that it has not pulled out of the wall and if you see any of these don’t touch as the garage door springs hold high tension and can hurt or kill you.

Garage door cables should not be frayed or rusted if you see this definitely get your garage door company to replace them. 

For sectional garage doors to operate properly the spring tension needs to be set correctly to ensure there is no strain on any parts of the garage door that shouldn’t be taking strain, especially important on steel, zinc and chromadek garage doors because they with form tears in the panels if the tension is not set correctly. It’s very important to keep your garage door balanced so nobody can get hurt, a unbalanced garage door is a problem and would need a spring replacement.

Other parts that can give issues but rarely would be the rollers that run in the guides and side bearings or pulleys on a tension garage door system, but these rarely give any issues only after years of operation you would need to replace these parts. 

All garage doors are dry systems and should not be greased or sprayed with lubricants, as it will attract dust and cause parts of the garage door to perish much quicker. If you think you need to grease up your garage door to make it work properly, you would be in need of a garage door company rather to help you sort out the bigger problems on your door.