When one of my children was playing with our garage doors a few years ago, we heard a piercing scream that we will never forget. She had gotten her fingers pinched in the side of the door, and we knew that we had to help her--and fast. Because of our quick actions and first aid, we were able to take care of the problem. After we returned home, I started thinking about ways to keep our kids safe around garage doors. This blog contains loads of helpful information about maintaining your garage doors, looking after your curious children, and preventing serious injury.
Microbursts may not be as well known as tornadoes or hurricanes, but these sudden gusts of intense wind can do just as much damage to your home. Garage doors can be particularly vulnerable to microburst damage. If a microburst has recently passed over your property, your garage door may need to be repaired by a professional garage door repair service.
What Are Microbursts?
During a summer rainstorm or thunderstorm, heat rising from the ground can create strong updrafts of warm air, which rise through the clouds. As these updrafts rise, they lift and carry large amounts of rain, water vapor, and cold air. In the largest thunderstorms, these updrafts can reach several miles in height.
A microburst occurs when sudden temperature changes within the storm cause an updraft to collapse. When this occurs, all of the cold air and moisture that was lifted and suspended by the updraft is suddenly released and falls back to earth at incredible speeds.
The sudden downdraft of cold air that occurs during a microburst can reach the same speeds as a minor tornado and can be accompanied by sudden and extremely heavy rain. Fortunately, microbursts only last a few minutes, but they can cause severe damage to any structure in their path.
How Do Microbursts Damage Garage Doors?
Microbursts can damage garage doors in a number of different ways, and some types of damage may be more obvious than others:
Door Buckling
When a microburst reaches ground level, the cold air within it is displaced violently in all directions, causing sudden and severe horizontal winds. If a microburst occurs near your home, your garage door may bend and buckle inwards as these winds make impact.
Timber garage doors usually have enough weight and thickness to resist these sudden winds, but steel and aluminum garage doors can be badly buckled. A buckled garage door will be difficult or impossible to open and close correctly, and may cause damage to other garage door components if you attempt to use it.
Professional garage door repair services should be called in to assess the scale of the damage. If the buckling has not caused any severe damage or puncturing of the metal, it is usually possible to straighten the door and hammer out any dents or creases. Your repair service may also install reinforcing struts on the reverse side of the door, which will compensate for any metal fatigue caused by the buckling.
Track Damage
If your garage door runs on tracks when it opens and closes, the strong winds impacting against the garage door can place the tracks and rollers under immense strain. Bent garage door tracks are commonly seen after microbursts, and the rollers that run along them may be cracked, broken, or missing entirely. Damaged tracks and rollers will prevent the door from operating smoothly.
Bent tracks can be repaired or replaced by garage door repair services, and any damaged rollers can be replaced quickly and inexpensively. You may wish to have stronger, reinforced door tracks installed to guard against future extreme weather patterns.
Torsion Spring Damage
Many lifting garage doors are also fitted with torsion springs, which are held under constant tension and make the door easier to open and close manually. If a microburst impacts the garage door, the impact can knock torsion springs out of alignment or cause them to snap entirely if the door is violently forced open.
Damaged and misaligned torsion springs should only be repaired by qualified professionals. These springs are held under immense tension, and tampering with them can cause this tension to be suddenly and violently released, with potentially deadly results.
Contact a local garage door repair service to learn more.
Share20 July 2022
