Garage doors can be noisy pieces of equipment. They can cause piercing squeaks and pulsating vibrations when they are opened and closed. This can disturb you, your family, and your neighbors, and generally be an annoyance every time you need to get into the garage. Fortunately, there are a few easy ways you can reduce the noise of your garage door through some routine maintenance. Regular maintenance of your garage door and a few measures to quiet the clanking of the door can go a long way to reducing most of the worst noise.

Tighten Connections

The first thing to do to reduce noise is to tighten connections on the door, track, and opener. Doing this will help prevent the shaking and rattling of the door during opening and closing. Often, this is the only thing that needs to be done to significantly reduce the noise from garage doors. In the cases of older doors or doors that are otherwise functioning fine, tightening bolts and screws may be the best solution. Loose mounting points are a common cause of the garage door noise but are an easy fix.

Lubricate Moving Parts

Often the moving parts of the garage door, such as the tracks, springs, and metal rollers, get caked in grime or corroded. These parts of the door may also just stick and slow down over time. Adding a spray lubricant like WD 40 can allow the door to open and close more smoothly. Spray the lubricant on the tracks, the metal rollers, and the base of the springs. Also, oil the chain assembly so it slides more easily around the gears and add some lubricant to the hinges around the door. Doing this should reduce noise in the entire unit and allow for overall smoother operation.

Swap Out Metal Rollers

Exchanging noisy metal rollers from softer nylon rollers can significantly reduce the noise your garage door makes. Since garage doors have metal tracks, the metal over metal creates a lot of noise and vibrations. Using nylon rollers instead can give you the benefit of reducing both noise and maintenance. Since nylon rollers don’t require lubrication, you won’t have to worry about maintaining squeaky rollers and you will get a much more pleasant opening and closing. This can be a more time consuming job for reducing noise, but if you want to quiet the door bad enough, it will be worth the effort.

Add Rubber Buffers

Adding some rubber buffers to the door and opener supports can reduce some of the vibrations and noise of the door. Much of the garage door noise may come from the rollers sliding around on the tracks and the door clanking against the sides of the track. Rubber buffers essentially act as a dampener to the noise. These can be attached to the opener supports. This job will require some tools and a little bit of time, but can be a good way to reduce noise. Attaching the rubber to the opener and the frame will help absorb vibration before it gets to the support frame and reverberates into the floor.

Garage door noise can be particularly annoying when the garage is attached to your home. Every time the door opens or closes, you will know it. While you will never eliminate all of the noise, these steps can help to reduce some of the obnoxious vibrations and rattling. The key to reducing noise overall, however, is simply regular maintenance. Keeping the rollers and track well lubricated and free from dents will help ensure smooth operation. 

by +Ben Vaughn

Ben Vaughn writes for A Plus Garage Doors about the importance of keeping your garage door and opener well-maintained. Ben recently started working on getting his own garage ready for the winter and knows how important it is to keep up on routine maintenance.