The Main Causes of a Bent Garage Door

Modern garage doors are extremely dependable, energy-efficient, and available in a stunning variety of styles. At the end of the day, however, they are mechanical devices. And just like other mechanical devices they sometimes act up and, in their case, require garage door repair. One of the most eyebrow-raising ways a garage door can act up is to start hanging in a bent fashion. As strange as it might seem there are actually several reasons why a door might go rogue and start hanging akilter. So in this post, we'll look at the main causes of a bent garage door.

Some of the Most Common Reasons Behind a Bent Garage Door

The reasons why a garage door may be hanging in a bent fashion are many with some of them easily preventable and others the result of some type of trauma that requires the intervention of a garage door company. Below we'll cover the most common causes behind a bent garage door.

Discount doors

The common misconception is that garage doors are all pretty much the same, but that's not the case. Garage doors are like any other product. They run the quality gamut from low to high. Trying to save a few bucks by buying a discount garage door is likely to cost you a lot more in the long run as the problems pile up. One of those potential problems is the door hanging at an angle as various components of the lifting mechanism fail.

A lack of lubrication

If you don't have the various components of your garage door lubricated during regular service visits by the garage door company you will eventually hear it squeak and squeal as it rises and falls. But that's not all. A lack of lubrication can also cause one side of the door to stick as it moves, pulling the door out of alignment.

Extreme environments

The weather in Colorado can change on a dime with the temperature dropping like a stone over the course of just a couple of hours, sometimes less. Because garage doors are composed of metal and wood that expand and contract as they heat and cool, extreme temperature changes may result in the door becoming out of whack and hanging bent.

Using the door as a storage device

It's not common but it does happen that people attach hooks to the inside of the garage door panels and hang things from them in order to satisfy their storage needs. While we applaud the "think outside the box" nature of such a move it sometimes results in one side of the door hanging lower than another, and can eventually cause damage to the rollers and tracks.

Warped or damaged panels

DIY installation

The homeowner has the right to handle the installation process as they see fit. DIY installation, however, often produces a less-than-perfect result the faults of which become apparent in short order. One of those faults may well be the door hanging in a bent fashion. Of course, this will not be an issue when you entrust garage door installation in Broomfield or Northglenn to the proven team at A Better Garage Door.

A worn spring

It's not the opener that raises and lowers the door, it's the springs. Virtually every garage door made today comes with 2 torsion or extension springs with each responsible for lifting one side of the door. If one of the two springs breaks or wears out before the other the door can end up hanging unevenly.

Poor maintenance

For some homeowners having their overhead doors repaired when they break down constitutes maintenance. The thing is, if they schedule regular maintenance on their garage door it is extremely unlikely they will need to have the door repaired. And that will save them a lot of time and trouble and extend the life of the door.

The garage door opener malfunctions

The job of the garage door opener is to get the door moving and then to regulate that movement to ensure it is smooth and safe. But if the garage door opener malfunctions it can exert uneven force on the door causing one side to lag behind the other. If you have reason to think your garage door opener is acting up contact A Better Garage Door.

Contact between the door and a car

It is surprisingly common that people start moving too soon and make contact with their garage door while it's opening or closing. Even if the contact seems incidental it can push the tracks out of alignment resulting in the door hanging in a bent fashion. If you have accidentally made contact with your garage door call A Better Garage Door.

A broken cable

The house is settling

Unless your home is planted firmly on bedrock (and almost no homes are) then it's possible that under the right conditions (or wrong conditions, depending on how you look at it) such as heavy rain or flooding, that the foundation of the house could settle which can result in the door hanging at a strange angle.