Previous owner of my house installed the cheapest metal garage doors he could get. The panels make a lot of racket as the doors open/close. Any suggestions on how to deaden the sound? Glue some foam sheets to the inside of the door panels? Anything?
The foam sheets sound like a good idea. My first thought was some kind of sprayed product, like you see applied to the bottom of stainless steel sinks, but that could be heavy by the time you coat the entire door.
Pack alot of grease into those cheap bearings , Oil hinges, not wd40 with 90 wt gear or 50 wt oil, Oil chain 10 wt not WD 40 , Any place that has friction lube it good Even grease the track the door bearings are in. Tighten all bolts, everything. Ck motor for oil ports.
and check the alignment of the track. often a little tweak in the track is cause for a horrible noise. you dont need any fancy tools, just raise and lower the door with the gdo detached and see if its hanging up anyplace as it goes.
randy
Replace the rollers with nylon rollers. Check the door panels to see if the panels have separated from the stiles, if so you can apply a bit of epoxy and some pop-rivets to hold it together. The foam panels do help but they also contribute to a "screeching" sound as the styrofoam rubs against anything that is shifting (i.e. loose door panels and stiles). Make sure the styrofoam is glued in place to help prevent noise from rubbing. Get your level out and check to see if your vertical tracks are plumb. While you have your level out raise the door slowly and check to see if the door is level as you raise it. If one side lifts more than the other you are going to have to balance the door. Lift the door so that only the bottom section is in the opening make sure it's level, check to see if the horizontal tracks are running parallel to the rest of the sections or if it binds or runs out away from the sections. DO NOT use grease in the track or anything else for that matter. Grease just collects dust and dirt which in turn will act like an abrasive and just contribute the wear and tear(not to mention it just makes for a filthy mess). Use a light weight oil, silicone spray or WD-40 (don't lube any plastic or nylon components, unless instructed to do so in your owner's manual.)
If you plan to live there for awhile don't be cheap like the previous owners, go ahead and shell out the bucks for a decent door.
Rich
----- Original Message ----- From: "xrongor" Newsgroups: alt.home.repair Sent: Tuesday, July 06, 2004 8:39 AM Subject: Re: Making garage doors quieter?
WD 40 is a temporary lubricant and actualy washes away oil film and doesnt last . Our 80 yr old 700 lb wood door has always had grease and isnt worn and doesnt squeek. I just keep packing it when it makes noise, even the tracks. So what if its dirty , the bearings are not outside , they are in the garage. Wear ? Well I dought threy would have lasted 80 yrs without grease. WD 40 is not a true Lubricant that lasts.
WD40 is good for driving out moisture, after which it should be wiped off and a different lubricant added.
Nowhere on my can of WD-40 does the word "lubricant" appear!
It talks about stopping squeaks, protecting metal, loosening rusted parts, freeing sticky mechanisms, displacing moisture, cleaning, dissolving grease, etc.--nuthin' about lubing!
Exposed to air, it gets very gummy itself after a while.
--JWWells
Yes, in fact the WD in WD-40 stands for "Water Displacement." It was developed for the military to clean and displace water from early circuit boards on aircraft.
It's essentially aerosol'd kerosene. Like K, it doesn't eat rubber (why we use it to clean motorcycle chains with O rings) and it leaves behind some lubricating oil. I wouldn't use it (or any thin surface oil) to handle a 700# door. Grease gun jumps to mind.
Packing runners in cotton worked on Twin Peaks... who knows?
Will nylon rollers make a huge difference or a small difference...I checked out the site in your sig and $35 seems like an inexpensive enhancement to quite my door some.
Is that your site? Thanks.
Thanks for all the suggestions and ideas.
I think that most of the noise (and I likely didn't make this clear although, as always, it was crystal clear in my mind as I wrote the post) comes from the cheap thin panels of aluminum vibrating and popping ("snap-through" buckling as mathematicians or engineers would say). I think that deadening the vibrations from the panels will quiet the doors effectively...until I find the new-found quiet itself to be bothersome due to rollers screeching, etc; it always seems to work that way, doesn't it?
Buckling indicates uneven tension of door springs , does door move up and down with equal force, evenly, and close very evenly. Look at the bottom just as it closes does one side hit first. Is the closer mounted in the middle.
No. Just the movement of the door causes the panels to vibrate. It's like holding a thin sheet of steel, etc, in ones hands and shaking it slightly; the sheet will sound like thunder. I need something to dampen the vibrations of the panel. You're right though, probably time to tune up the hardware, too, after 2 years use.
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