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Are you looking for a garage door repair in Alexandria VA or a garage door repair in Arlington VA? Do you need a roll up steel garage door installed in Washington DC? Look no further than Next Day Garage Door, a garage door repair company that prides itself on expert professionals and top-notch service. We’ve been in the business for over 10 years, and we’re hoping to help out homeowners that are struggling with common garage door repair issues. We want our customers to be well-informed homeowners that make intuitive decisions.

The garage door dies sometime during its 13,476th operation, while it’s being closed. It goes out without much drama—there’s no audible snap as the torsion spring breaks, no parts dangle loose in telltale failure, and the motor sill lights up, strains and stops. Maybe its decline started that day you closed the door on the Buick bumper, or maybe during the last big freeze, when ice swelled the door sections. Or maybe it was just the mechanism’s time. The average American garage door opens and shuts 1500 times a year, and this torsion spring—rated for 10,000 cycles—was positively geriatric in garage-door years. Regardless, you’re in the market for a new system. Here’s everything you’ll need to know!

The first thing in the system is the door itself. The size, shape and weight of the Garage door will determine what is needed for the other parts of the garage door system. For your door you can choose many different materials from wood to metal to vinyl. The styles range from very modern smooth panel doors to carriage style, decorative doors. The garage door can have windows or no windows and you can choose to have your door built with or without insulation. Depending on where you live you can even choose to have a wind rated garage door.

The next component you need to decide on is the spring system. In all cases we recommend a torsion spring system although you could choose to use extension springs. You must know the weight of the garage door to determine what spring(s) you will need and the number of springs your garage door will require. The weight of the door will also help you decide on the gauge of steel needed for the garage door tracks and even the hinges. The heavier the garage door the stronger steel you will need for the tracks and hinges. If the steel is too light weight it will lead to premature failure. There are also a selection of cables and drums designed for larger heavier garage doors. It is important with large heavy doors to use larger drums and heavier gauge cables. Remember the springs provide the strength to counter balance the weight of the garage door while the cables and drums do the lifting.

Finally are the rollers that help the door travel smoothly up and down in the garage door tracks. The choices are start with plastic rollers with no ball bearings, steel rollers with or without ball bearings and then nylon rollers with different numbers of ball bearings and even sealed ball bearing designs. For large heavy doors we recommend nylon sealed bearing rollers (z-bearing) while with lighter doors other rollers will work as well. Much of the noise from a garage door system come from the rollers, so you have choices in quality that will affect the noise the rollers produce.

The final component is the garage door opener. There are many choices and manufacturers to choose from. The first decision is whether you want a screw drive, chain drive , belt drive and even a jack shaft garage door opener. First let’s consider the screw drive opener. This opener utilizes a motor that turns the screw that opens and closes the garage door. This system utilizes a slider that the screw drives when opening and closing. The chain drive and belt drive utilize a similar system. The opener motor is attached to a gear and sprocket. The sprocket driven by the gear moves the chain or belt to open and close the garage door. A chain is very strong, but can be noisy while the belt made of Kevlar is almost as strong as the chain and much quieter than either the chain or the screw drive. The chain or belt pushes the slider up and down as the garage door opens and closes.

Finally is the jack shaft designed garage door opener. The jack shaft opener does not utilize overhead rails like the screw, chain and belt drive. This system utilizes a motor that turns the torsion tube/spring bar to open and close the garage door. This system is very strong and quite, but is more expensive than the other systems available. This system will only work with a torsion spring system, but will also work if head clearance is an issue with the other openers. This system does require enough clearance on the sides of the garage door as the opener motor mounts to the side of the garage door as opposed to being mounted in the center of the garage.

Next think about the difference between garage door openers you buy at your local home improvement store and professional models. The biggest difference is in the rails, professional models utilize one piece rails while the models you buy at your local home improvement store use sectional rails that must be bolted together. The single piece rails in professional models are much stronger and easier to install than sectional rails. There are also differences in the some of the gears and electrical components inside the motor of the professional model making them stronger than the ones you buy at a local home improvement store. These components along with the associated hardware all make the garage door system work efficiently in opening and closing the garage door. Your personal style and budget will determine what type door you are looking for.

At Next Day Garage Door, we promise to provide the very best service possible and offer a myriad of affordable options to help you make the smartest choice possible. Our ultimate goal is for all our customers to be informed homeowners. As this blog progresses, we will continue to help homeowners diagnose and perhaps even fix their garage door repair on their own. We offer Garage Door Repair Maryland and Roll Up Garage Door Washington DC. We also serve Garage Door Repairs all over Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia. We have technicians available 24/7 to service any of your garage door repair needs. Garage Door Repair Cost can be high; however, we promise to offer professional top-notch garage door repairs at an affordable price guaranteed. Please feel free to give us a call or text at (301)-500-0475 or (571)-327-6285 if you have any questions or inquiries.