Tag Archives: diy

DIY Fixing a Garage Door That Sticks

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The past two months, we been fighting our garage door that sticks.

By “garage door sticks“, I mean that it would start down when we push the garage door button, but then get stuck about 1 foot down and come back up.  To get around this, we would have to push the garage door button at the point where it first gets stuck, then push it again so that it would continue down from that point.

This technique, while obviously not preferred, worked for the past few months.  After we came back from vacation though, it would sometimes require 2 or 3 stops and continues to get the door to close.  Well, that was ridiculous, so I decided to have it fixed.

First I asked the guys in the office that I work with, and they said to bite the bullet and hire someone to fix it.  They said it would run between $200 to $300.  As a frugal guy, I decided to try to fix it myself (staying away from the spring that opens the door, since touching it isn’t the safest thing to do).

So what I did was to climbed up a ladder and watch the garage door as my son opened and closed it a few times.  During this observation stage, I noticed a few thing that could be the cause of my problem, like the fact that the chain was very loose and that practically everything could be cleaned and oiled.

I googled the problem with the keyword phrase “garage door sticks” and basically read articles that suggested oiling the track and rollers.  Next a few articles suggested replacing the gears.

Next I googled my particular model, which was a craftman 1/2 hp model:

Garage Door motor

Garage Door motor

 

The few articles that I recommended stated stuff that I already knew and already read (oil the track and hinges).

Another article recommended to oil the bottom roller that rides in the track very well.  I check and it did look a bit rusty and not as easily moving as it should have been.

Garage Door Roller

Garage Door Roller

 

The last thing I didn’t find online via google, but the fact that the chain was so loose bothered me.  I was sure that it shouldn’t be that loose!  So I started looking from some type of tension screw or mechanism to make the chain a bit tighter.

Garage Door Screw Tension

Garage Door Screw Tension

 

So after climbing the ladder a few times, thinking about it for a while, and reading google a few times, here is what I did:

  1. Wiped clean the track that the garage door uses to slide on, then oiled it.
  2. Oiled the rollers, especially the bottom ones with WD40.
  3. Search for a tension adjustment screw, and figure out how it works.
  4. Tightened the chain via the tension screw.  I left a little bit of slack though, but it’s was much tighter than before.
  5. Pat myself on the back for a job well done.

And there you have it!  After doing all of the above, I tried the garage door and it worked like a champ!  If you follow what I describe in the steps above, it should take you about 10 minutes to perform versus the hour that it took for me.

Now I wish I had fixed it about a month ago…  Oh well, better late than never.

MR

Do It Yourself (DIY) To Save Money

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When I was in school, I remember a particular teacher that taught that it’s better to great at one job, than to be mediocre at many jobs.  I humble disagreed.

I think it’s better to know how to do as much as possible!  Some of the things that we pay professionals, is quite entertaining.

I just want to say that it really pays to be able to do things yourself.  Anymore, labor costs are the biggest expense of fixing things.

List of some of the things I’ve fixed myself are:

  • Rotated my tires
  • Fixed my electrical garage door rail (just needed oiled really), It was getting stuck.
  • Changed car brakes in both our cars
  • Fixed countless toys
  • Washing Machine (twice)
  • Laundry Dryer
  • Lawn Mower (multiple times)
  • Shower head
  • Alarm radio
  • VCR (a long time ago)
  • Cassette Player (4 years ago)

Being able to fix things myself has helped me with my saving goals.  Now, I almost always try to figure out how to fix my things first, before calling in the professionals.

Do you have a list of DIY things you’d done?

Saving Money Using Google

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Google is great for searching for your favorite topic of interest, but did you know you could use it to save money too?

Last Feburary, my dryer started making a horrible metal grinding sound (I tried turning up the TV to drown out the sound, but it got louder). I didn’t want to buy a new dryer (these are hard time afterall…), so I decided to try to figure out how to repair it myself via google.  So for the search criteria, I entered “whirlpool dryer squeak” and I was able to find some good site on what the problem and how to fix it.  I like to put just the key words in the search windows.

I tried to type things like “whirlpool dryer is making a squeak sound“, but that wouldn’t give me as good of results as “whirlpool dryer squeak“.

I didn’t even know how to get the dryer apart to figure out the problem… until I googled it. It turned out to be the felt gasket, that the drum twists around over. It cost me $20.00 in total to fix the dryer.  I ordered the part (off of ebay), and install it. Normally, to get a repairman out, it would probably cost me at least $150 to $200 and they would do exactly the same thing that I did myself.

I’ve been able to do this with my car brakes and with other car repairs too.

During one of the coldest days of last winter (-10F), my heat pump decided to stop working.

Using google, I was able to quickly figure what the problems was, but I didn’t have time to order the part. From a few websites, I was able to determine what to do, and I was also able to determine that the part would cost me only $26. Unfortunately, I didn’t want my pipes to freeze, so I called a repairman so they could get it fixed that day.

The repairman did exactly what the websites stated to do, but instead of costing me $26 by doing it myself, the repairman’s fee cost me $234.

The moral of the story, the internet (using google to find a fix-it guide) is a great resource for saving money by diy (doing it yourself).

Google rules!

-MR