A Clark County garage door needs different attention in different months, and the schedule we suggest follows the weather, which swings from weeks of steady rain to a dry, sunny July. This checklist puts each job in the month where it does the most good and marks which ones are yours and which we take on at a tune-up.
Once a year, a tune-up covers the spring, cable and opener work that is not safe to do yourself. The rest of this list takes a homeowner well under an hour a month.
How Clark County weather wears on a garage door
Rain and frost, not snow, do most of the damage here, and it shows as rust at the lower corners of the door, swollen or torn bottom seals and doors frozen to the slab.
The 1991 to 2020 NOAA climate averages for Vancouver’s Pearson Field show about 19 to 20 wet days in each of November, December and January, and about 10 to 11 freezing nights in each winter month.
July and August average under an inch of rain between them, so summer is when seals dry out, wood finishes bake and the slab stays clean long enough to work on. Away from the river the numbers climb: the Battle Ground station averages about 15 inches more rain a year than Pearson Field and about 25 more freezing nights.
Cold mornings also thicken the grease on hinges and rollers, so an opener works harder in January than it does in July.
What a homeowner can safely do on a garage door
You can look, listen, clean, lubricate and test; you should not adjust, loosen or remove anything connected to the springs.
DASMA’s checklist for homeowners is direct about it: springs and spring hardware are under high tension, and the springs, cables, brackets and the wood or steel they fasten to should be removed, repaired or adjusted only by a trained door systems technician with proper tools.
That still leaves plenty for you: clearing the tracks and slab, wiping and lubricating hinges and rollers as the door maker’s manual directs, checking the seals, testing the reverse and the photo eyes, doing a careful balance check, and keeping the release cord where an adult can reach it.
The Clark County garage door checklist, month by month
Each month carries one or two jobs, timed to what the weather is about to do next rather than what it did last week.
| Month | What the weather is doing | What to do at the door |
|---|---|---|
| January | Wet, with frequent freezing nights | Check that the bottom seal is not frozen to the slab before you open the door; test the release cord |
| February | Still freezing on many nights | Look up at the spring for a gap after cold mornings; run the reverse and photo eye tests |
| March | Rain easing, milder mornings | Rinse grit and ice melt off the bottom section; look for rust at the bottom brackets and cable ends |
| April | Spring showers, warming | Lubricate hinges, steel roller bearings and spring coils as the manual directs, then wipe off the excess |
| May | Drying out | Do the balance check; note anything loose on the spring side for the tune-up instead of tightening it |
| June | Dry and warm | Clean the photo eye lenses and check their alignment; wipe the tracks clean without oiling them |
| July | Driest month, strong sun | Look for cracked or shrunken seals and faded finish on the sunny face of the door |
| August | Dry, hot afternoons | Test the battery backup, if the opener has one, by running the door with the opener unplugged |
| September | First fall rain | Clear leaves and grit from the slab and the bottom of each track; watch where rainwater runs |
| October | Rain returns in earnest | Replace a torn bottom seal while the rubber is still pliable; book the yearly tune-up before winter |
| November | Wet days most of the month | Check for water coming under the door after a storm; dry the slab before a freeze |
| December | Wettest month, freezing nights back | Keep the door fully closed in storms; leave a flashlight by the release cord for outages |
The reverse and photo eye tests sit in February on the table, but they belong in every month. The federal opener rule’s instructions to owners say to test the opener monthly.
How to do a garage door balance check
Disconnect the opener, lift the door to about waist height and let go: a door that stays put has springs that still match its weight, and the whole check takes a few minutes.
- Close the door fully with the opener.
- Pull the red release handle to disconnect the opener. DASMA cautions that a door may begin to open on its own when disconnected, so step back if it moves.
- Lift the door by its handle a few inches. If it feels very heavy, set it down and stop.
- Raise it to about three or four feet above the floor and let go, keeping your hands ready.
- A balanced door stays put. One that drifts down or climbs needs its springs adjusted by a technician.
- Close the door by hand and reconnect the opener.
Never try to fix a failed balance check by adjusting the springs or cables yourself. The adjustment happens at the winding cone, with bars made for it, under full spring tension, and a balance check and adjustment is part of every tune-up we do.
How to run the monthly reverse and photo eye tests
Run both tests from the wall button: close the door onto a board on the floor for the reverse test, then break the photo eye beam while it closes for the second one.
For the reverse test, put a 2x4 flat on the floor under the middle of the door and press the wall button. The federal standard sets the pass mark in the owner instructions it requires: the door has to back up as soon as it touches a 1 1/2 inch object or a board lying flat. If it keeps pressing on the board, unplug the opener and call.
For the photo eyes, open the door, start it closing, and pass an object through the beam near the floor. DASMA’s checklist expects the door to reverse and return to fully open. A door that ignores the beam, or a blinking light on the opener, points to the eyes or their wiring.
What to lubricate, what to keep clean and how to keep water out
Lubricate the moving metal, keep the tracks and slab clean, and keep water moving away from the bottom of the door.
Springs given the lubrication their door maker calls for last more cycles, according to DASMA’s technical sheet on spring life. Use a lubricant sold for garage doors on hinge pivots, steel roller bearings and spring coils, then wipe off what drips. The tracks themselves stay clean and dry.
Water under the door is a common enough complaint that DASMA has a sheet on it, recommending a slightly sloped lip or a notch in the slab for the door to rest on. If your slab drains toward the garage, a fresh bottom seal helps, and our weather seal replacement page covers the options.
Keep storage off the tracks. DASMA advises against hanging anything from a garage door assembly, because added weight can twist the horizontal track and throw the springs out of balance.
Garage door maintenance to leave to a technician
Anything that touches spring tension belongs to a technician every time, whatever the month and however small the job looks.
- Winding, unwinding or adjusting torsion springs.
- Moving extension spring hooks or cable clips.
- Loosening or replacing bottom brackets, which hold the cable under full spring tension.
- Replacing lift cables or cable drums.
- Straightening a bent track while the door still hangs in it.
If squeaks or grinding carry on after lubrication, the grinding or squeaking door page sorts the likely causes, from dry rollers to a worn bearing on the spring shaft.