Garage Doors in StroudThe bang you heard
at seven this morning.

Often not. A track that is simply out of plumb, spread at the lip or loose on its brackets is re-formed and re-fixed. Replacement is for rail that has been crushed, kinked or torn by an impact, because a roller passing a tight spot will pop out again. The technician measures the damaged length against the door's roller size and tells you which case you have before any track is ordered or cut.

An opener is built to guide a balanced door, and every wheel that binds, wobbles or grinds adds resistance it has to overcome across the whole travel. It works harder, runs hotter, and may trip its force limit or reverse partway through a cycle. After roller replacement the technician confirms the door holds its own weight with the opener released, then checks the opener's force setting and its reversal on a test block, since a door that moves freely often needs those settings reduced.

Gauge runs backwards: a larger number means thinner steel. Light single doors often come with 18-gauge hinges, 14-gauge is the heavier standard for most residential doors, and 11-gauge is commercial stock. A heavy insulated double door, a door used many times a day, or a door whose hinges keep cracking benefits from the thicker option. The technician matches or improves on what was fitted, provided the width and hole pattern suit the stiles.

It depends on the door, and manufacturers disagree, which surprises many people. Some want the track kept clean and dry, since lubricant there can collect grit and let the wheels skid instead of roll, wearing the roller and the track edge; others specify lubricant at the track bend. The moving parts, roller bearings, hinge pins and springs, get their own lubricant either way, in the type the manual specifies, with a few cycles of the door to spread it.