Garage doors are the largest moving part of your home so you want to make sure it’s completely safe when you use it. When your garage door comes off its tracks it can slam down and hit the ground, making it very dangerous to anyone around. It’s a good idea to know what some of the reasons are that this happens so you can keep an eye out for any potential problems.
What Causes a Garage Door to Come Off Track
• The biggest reason is you’ve hit your garage door with your car. Just a little bump into the door as you back out of the garage before it’s totally opened is enough to cause the door to come off its tracks. Some people have even backed into the garage door while it’s still closed! Garage doors that are hit with a car will become damaged to the two lower sections but can also cause damage to the whole door system as well. Real damage can occur at a very slow speed. It only takes 3 to 5 mph. Usually a couple of rollers will come of the tracks and leave the door hanging from the lift cables. After this happens safety comes first. Turn off the car and go into the house. Call a professional garage door company to fix it and then call your auto insurance and home insurance companies.
• The weight of the door can bend the horizontal tracks or the tracks are not aligned properly. The next common cause depends on the quality of the horizontal tracks of your garage door. The total weight of a typical double garage door can be between 225 to 400 pounds. If the horizontal tracks aren’t strong enough to support the weight just a little impact to the door is enough to have it come off the tracks and slam to the ground. If tracks aren’t parallel with the vertical rails it can also cause problems. If the bolts on the bracket that the secure the horizontal tracks become loose there can cause wobbling with slight vibrations when the door is used and the rollers will come of the tracks more easily because the tracks can become unparalleled.
• Worn out or broken rollers. Rollers of lower quality or ones that have become weak form normal wear and tear can cause problems. Additional stress is added to the other rollers in the system, causing them to break or come off the tracks. When weight isn’t evenly distributed it will add weight to other rollers causing the horizontal rails to bend and previously mentioned problems will occur.
• Broken lift cable. This rarely happens but can cause the garage door to come off its tracks. This will more likely happen with older garage doors. The lift cables are located on both sides of the door and wind around grooves in a drum. The drum is attached to a steel shaft that secures a torsion spring. If there is any disturbance to the alignment of the door it can cause the cable to get out of alignment, unravel and break. This will cause the door to hang on one side causing the rollers to come off the tracks.
Garage Door Replacement & More in Aliante, Anthem, Desert Shores, Eldorado, Enterprise, Green Valley Ranch, Henderson, Inspirada, Mountain’s Edge, North LV, Paradise, Providence, Rhodes Ranch, Seven Hills, Silverado Ranch, Spring Valley, Summerlin, Sunrise Manor, The Lakes, Tuscany Village & Las Vegas Nevada
Call professionals when your garage door comes off its tracks. It’s the safest and most effective way to make sure it gets fixed the right way and that everyone stays safe! Contact Quality Garage Door Repair for all issues related to your residential garage door.
