Category Archives: Floors

Remote Garage Door – How Often Should You Get It Serviced?

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Remote garage doors are very convenient to operate. You can open and close the door without getting out of your car. These doors not only save your time, but also protect you from bad weather because you don’t have to come out of the safety of your vehicle to operate them. However, the problem with remote garage doors is that they consist of an automatic assembly that is vulnerable to break down like any other mechanical equipment. You can avoid this problem by maintaining the door regularly. One of the most basic things to do is to get the door serviced as per a maintenance schedule.

Why does the garage door need to be serviced regularly?

Several problems could come up with remote garage doors. Sometimes, you notice that the movement of the door is not smooth. The door tends to get stuck while moving up and down. This problem is usually caused due to bad springs. Another common problem is noise. If the friction between mechanical elements of the door increases, you can hear a loud grinding kind of noise when the door opens or closes. In addition to these two problems, you also face problems with the door falling suddenly when you close it.

There could be several causes for these problems. From inefficient springs and problems with remote control box to worn out wheels and weak cables, automatic garage doors fall prey to numerous operational issues. The best way to avoid all these problems is to get them serviced regularly.

So, the question that arises now is, how frequently should you get your door serviced?

Frequency of servicing

Although the frequency of service depends on number of factors, all remote garage doors need to be serviced at least once a year. However, this frequency does not apply to all doors.

Doors that are of high quality and have robust mechanical parts can do with an annual service. However, doors that are of lower quality need to be serviced twice a year at least because the mechanical elements in them wear out quickly. Doors that are not used too frequently need servicing once a year but the ones that are used too frequently need more frequent servicing because of quicker wearing.

As a regular user of the door, you are the right person to decide about the time of service. Any efficient garage service technician will tell you that you should get the door serviced when you notice abnormality in its functioning. For instance, if you hear loud grinding noises or if the door wobbles while moving up and down, you know that it is time for service.

What does servicing involve?

Essentially, servicing a garage door involves inspecting all the mechanical elements in the assembly and repairing any part that is damaged. Gears, pulleys and other movable parts are greased. If certain parts are worn out beyond repair, they are replaced. In short, a garage door service makes the door function as efficiently as new.

With regular servicing and maintenance, you can prolong the life of the remote garage door.

Using Fire Doors For Passive Fire Protection

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Fire doors are critical components of a building’s interior plan because they will prevent the spread of fire as well as give the building occupants the safety they need. As a passive protection installation, it can control the spread of smoke, heat and flames for a definite number of hours such as half an hour, a quarter of an hour, one hour or 2 hours of protection.

There is always an impending danger when fire can spread freely around the location. When there are no other fire protective gadgets installed or stored in a building, like fire extinguishers, fire sprinklers, fire-resistant passageways or fire hoses, then everything and everyone is at risk of being damaged by fire in little time.

Building owners must accept the fact that any time, their structure is susceptible when there is no passive protection applied to it. in addition, the installation of doors that burn slow even in direct heat will also need fire door maintenance. Make it a priority to have these doors checked on a regular basis. Once these doors are used by people as passageway, no matter how sturdy they seem to be, would also succumb to normal wear and tear. They can be used in heavy traffic areas such as laboratories, so it is expected that they will be worn out in parts or experience wrong installation procedures. Some of these doors may also carry low-quality components so it is imperative that a certified inspector for these doors be contacted so that the issues can be determined early.

There are also other problems with regards to these doors, namely:

  • Defective doors
  • No certificates
  • Lacks intumescent strips or smoke seals
  • Inappropriate fire rating of installed door
  • Painting the fire-protective door
  • No self-closing device

It would be of great help when these issues are addressed by licensed inspectors and the replacement parts should be sourced out from sellers of fire-proof doors and not just from any hardware.

Door sets that are capable of withstanding fire can be bought from stores that specialize in these products. The fire door assembly should be composed of approved door leaf and frame, casing as well as components that are compliant to the standards of fire-proof materials.

How does the rated door protect? In case there is fire, the door will protect areas that are still intact, as long as the smoke seal and fire seal are properly installed around the door leaf. It would defeat the purpose of the fire door when the installation of these seals leaves a big gap between the floor and the edge of the door.

A smoke seal will disallow the passage of cold smoke, the term used for smoke that still builds up the fire. It can spread to other rooms and may cause suffocation and asphyxiation, although it does not carry the kind of temperature that will cause burns. This seal will seal off any smoke and when fire has reached the door, the intumescent seal expands, totally sealing off the passage of hot smoke and flames that may cause injury or death to occupants of the building.

Replace Your Front Door For More Curb Appeal

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I take pride in my home and while we plan to live here at least another 10-15 years, I still want it to look nice and have great curb appeal when it comes time to sell. It’s an older home (almost 100 years now!) and the front door is probably original. I’m tired of it’s design and want a new one.

Little did I know how much of a project this was going to be. When homes were built 100 years ago they didn’t have standard sizes for much of anything. In the case of a door they just hand made it whatever size they wanted (at least that’s the case for our older home). Consequently we have a very odd height for our door, but fortunately a normal width. This odd height eliminates the possibility of getting a nice fiberglass door, we have to get either wood or steel. Since my husband hates the look of steel doors we now have to pay for a custom door to be made. That can really jack up the price considerably.

There’s also the issue of the storm door. It’s actually a different height than the main entry door. In order to save money previous owners bought a standard size storm door and added a 4″ header piece above it. Most people don’t notice. But to remove that header piece and get the correct size door (for best energy efficiency) it’s going to cost double the price of regular size door.

There is the option of removing everything; molding, trim, door frames, doors, headers and rebuilding the plaster and lathe walls in order to shrink the opening by 4″ in order to make everything uniform and be able to buy a cheaper door. But wow, what a lot of work! The total destruction to the front of the house is probably not worth it.

So in the end we’re going to get the correct size doors, and pay a bit extra for the right. I think it also means we’ll be saving up a bit longer so we can afford it. But we should gain at least 30% of it back in tax savings for energy rebates and the rest could be made up in selling power when it comes time to sell the house. Pay now or pay later? That is the question.

After 3 months of working on this project we are no farther along. We have tried several vendors and the cost is so prohibitive we have to wait until the budget allows. Sometimes that happens.