Jammed garage doors are not something unheard of. It can be very irritating when your door gets busted and you have a vehicle, valued at thousands and millions of dollars, stuck inside! Normally, the garage doors require fixing up on a regular basis so it is quite informative and helpful to have the basic knowledge about how to go about the best way of repairing it.Repairing a garage door is not much of an art or technical science; in fact it is quite simple and easy. This might be the reason why nearly everyone tries to handle these issues on their own.

Let us first familiarize you with basic structure of a garage door. The overhead garage doors work on spring tension- even if they roll up altogether or in sections. The heavy and strong springs provide the energy to the door so that it may move on metallic tracks on the walls of the garage.

Now, we shall look for repairs required to the metal tracks. These tracks are held up on the walls with the support of brackets. Check closely to see whether they are in just the right tightness or not. The bolts need to be screwed in case they are loose. Now, go inside and close the garage door. Inspect the metallic tracks for any dents, crimps or flat spots. If you find any impaired area, try to hammer it with a rubber tack hammer i.e. a mallet. If you see that the damage is beyond repair, it is advised to replace the door as soon as possible.

Now check the alignment of the metal tracks by using a level. Are they properly aligned? Oh…so you don’t know exactly how they should be if they are? Well, that's not a problem! The horizontal metallic tracks are supposed to slant a little downwards towards the back of the garage. In case the roll up doors, the vertical sections of the track are to be exactly perpendicular. The tracks- vertical as well as horizontal- should be at the same height level on the walls of the garage. So, now you come to find out that oh no! Your garage doesn’t have accurately aligned tracks! Now what to do? Simply, try to loosen the screws or the bolts that are used to hold the mounting brackets on the walls, but do not really remove them. Now, try tapping the tracks into their exact place. Before, tightening the screws, use a level to check whether you have done proper alignment or not. If yes, congratulations, you are done… after you tighten the screws again!

Now just for long term relief from metal track problems, use a household cleaner and the clean the tracks with it. Try removing any slightest sign of dirt or toughened grease. After you are cleaning, wipe the tracks dry and make sure that it’s properly done! Next use a lubricant the tracks.

Next, look for loose rollers, plates and hinges. If you are good at spotting them, you might be equally good at tightening and replacing them, as per requirement. Now coming to the spring section, it is advisable to seek help from a professional service as the tension of the spring is too high, which could cause you considerable damage! Therefore, try not messing around with it as it can be really harmful!