No matter where you live, weather can get crazy sometimes. While it may seem like garage doors can hold up to pretty much anything, there are just a few things that should be checked throughout the year that can help prevent the weather from creating or doing any damage to your door or the mechanics. Read on to learn our top tips to protecting your garage from weather damage.
Weather Stripping
Weather-stripping is a seal between your garage door and the ground it touches. When the door closes, this prevents rain, snow, or wind from getting into your garage. Over time, the weather-stripping can wear out and dry out. It can become cracked which will allow air to leak into your garage. The weather-stripping can become frozen to the ground during the winter which will cause holes, ripping, and tearing. This can also make the overhead door mechanisms to have to work much harder which will cause them to wear much faster and possibly break much faster. If you want to replace the old seal, try to remove as much as possible so the new seal can bond much better to the surface and protect your garage much better.
Insulate
Insulating your garage doesn’t just make it more comfortable, but it makes it a more inviting and versatile space. Insulating the walls and the garage itself can make a huge difference and there are a variety of ways to do this. Fiberglass batt insulation is easy to get into your hands, but it does take some skill when starting the process of installing it. Make sure you measure very carefully. You wouldn’t want the insulation to be too short or too big.
Reinforce Your Door
Some places are very windy. If you live somewhere that is very windy, you know the damage it could do to your garage door. If your current garage door isn’t standing up to wind very well, there are two fairly easy ways to protect your door.
Solution One
The first solution is to install some new type of struts to the inside of your garage. You don’t necessarily need to know what a strut is, just know that they help reinforce your door so that when it is down it stays in place. Now steel struts are most recommended because of their strength. In weather-proofed garages the struts are much larger. Now garage struts can’t be found at just any hardware store, but your local garage door contractor will have them on hand.
Solution Two
The second solution is to add a vinyl seal to your garage door. This helps your garage door keep an airtight seal when closed. The damages caused to a garage door when there are very high winds are usually felt inside the home. Keeping your garage door properly sealed will definitely help prevent any damage and make it much safer.
Moving Parts
Overhead garage doors rely on several metal components to operate. When the weather gets cold, the metal in your garage door will contract which will cause your garage door to perform poorly and it might even stop working. Take a few moments to look at the metal parts when the weather gets cold to prevent breaking your door or knocking something out of place.
