Giving your house a nice decor and high-quality fittings can make all the difference in how it looks. Your house will stand out from the rest of the houses in a neighborhood. To make it even more pleasing, you can also get wooden garage doors. They’re not so dazzling by modern standards but you get a nice look. But, there’s a problem: wooden garage door maintenance isn’t exactly easy. That’s because conventional garage doors don’t need any maintenance at all. So, if you’ve already got wooden garage doors, it’s important you know of the basics of maintaining a wooden garage door. Let’s get right into it.
Maintaining your wooden garage doors: The basics
Let’s start off with the basics for wooden garage doors. Many of these doors come with a coat of varnish and a decent amount of polish already on them. So, for the first few months, maintenance won’t be all that necessary. But, once a certain amount of time has passed, the wooden garage doors will let you know of the time for maintenance. Creaking is the primary indicator of doors needing maintenance. We’ll discuss some of the most common and easy ways of wooden garage door maintenance you can go about, DIY style.
Lubrication is key
Lubrication is imperative to maintain your wooden garage doors. Greasing the hinges or the edges of the door is important. An adequate amount of lubrication will mean your wooden garage doors will stay pretty and functional. By greasing the hinges and the door itself, you’ll work out any issues in the hinges. These contribute to the creaking sound so characteristic of unkept wooden garage doors. Moderation is key: lubricating the door with too much oil or varnish will affect the door’s performance. It will also attract a lot of dirt which would defeat the purpose of maintaining your wooden garage doors.
Refinishing the doors every couple of years
Your doors come with a beautiful finish that would make even normal wood seem like teak or mahogany. That would be the finish that is applied to the garage door. A good way of maintaining that look and the integrity of the doors is to re-finish the doors every couple of years. Depending on how much they have been exposed to the elements of the environment, like rain, or excessive dirt. This wears off the finishing of the garage door, since its the part of the house that is always out and exposed. Getting them refinished or even doing it yourself will help give the doors a new life and a new look. And it will keep them functioning perfectly through the years.
Re-sanding the doors alongside finishing
With refinishing, you’re essentially applying a layer of paint on the wooden garage doors. Re-sanding means smoothing out the rough edges and splinters that may have surfaced after years of usage. Re-sanding is particularly important, especially when it comes to wooden garage door maintenance. These splinters can also pose a health hazard if not dealt with and resanding keeps the door looking sharp and new. It also rids the door of these other imperfections. Just make sure you re-sand and refinish the doors at the same time; the process goes tandem.
Use wood filler
Another great tip in maintaining a wooden garage door? Using wood fillers for doors that get old. Had this been a conventional garage door, this would not have been a problem. Wood tends to crack with usage, especially garage doors. This is because they move frequently and are pretty heavy themselves. This not only cracks the surface but also leaves blemishes on the wooden garage door. The solution is to use wood filler material to fill out the cracks and clean up any blemishes that might appear. The cracks are detrimental to the functioning of the wooden garage doors. For example, one slam and a crack just might get big enough for you to replace the doors. Wood filler helps keep the cracks at bay and also deals with blemish problem effectively.
Wood primer works like a charm
Much like starch for clothes, wood primer doesn’t necessarily have any functional benefits to wooden garage door maintenance, rather its all about the look. Wood primer works to increase the beauty, the look and the feel of the wooden garage doors. You can use it during the refinishing and repainting stage of the maintenance process and you wont be disappointed at all. Wood primer will make those doors look like new again and work like an absolute charm. If you’re the kind of person who has the mantra ‘form over function’, you’re going to want wood primer for your wooden garage doors.
Now before we go into why maintaining a wooden garage door is important, if all of this feels a bit too overwhelming for you, remember: getting wooden garage doors is all about improving the aesthetics of your house, and should you miss out on the maintenance, its not going to look all that great, and could, instead, end up actually making your house look old and decrepit.
Why maintaining a wooden garage door is worth it?
As stated beforehand, getting wooden garage doors is all about the aesthetic effect and increasing the beauty of the fascia of the house. Maintenance, therefore, is going to be paramount and will keep the doors looking like new.. Why should you invest time and resources into wooden garage door maintenance? Lets look at a few reasons and expound on them.
Keeps them looking new
Again, form over function. Wooden garage doors are aesthetically pleasing, and the primary purpose of having them installed is to elevate the look of the house. Regular garage doors do the job just as well, they dont look good doing it, that’s all. With wooden garage doors, your house looks almost regal; and to make them look the part, maintenance is going to be very important. Following teh aforementioned steps will help you achieve just that: the look that transforms an ordinary house and takes it up a notch, onto a whole new level.
Keeps garage doors working smooth
Its universally accepted that hinges tend to wear out; be it on electronics or massive gates, since its friction that essentially puts them out of commission after a certain period of time. Wooden garage doors are no different: aside from the hinges, the wood itself is something that needs to be taken care of. Proper maintenance will mean that both the structural elements of the garage doors will stay in top shape and function efficiently. Since these are wooden garage doors, they will be guarding some expensive vehicles presumably, and it wont do them any favour should one of them come tumbling down and crash. Maintenance, will help you prevent that.
Keeps them durable
Wood is durable, but not as durable as say, metal or any other synthetic material designed to take the punishment the climate deals out. Wooden garage doors, what with them stayign exposed to the elements at all times, also go through this cycle: rain, harsh sunlight, even harsher snow and sometimes windstorms that kick up a whole lost of dust. Thus, the lifetime of a wooden garage door is subject to the kind of maintenance it gets on a regular basis: leave them be and you wont have a garage door to close in a couple of years. Good maintenance practices, like the ones mentioned above, will lengthen the lifespan of the doors, making them more resilient to the forces of nature.
Keeps your house looking 10/10
To further drive home the point of beauty and aesthetics, garage doors form a significant portion of the fascia of the house, even dictating how the house looks and feels in a row of houses. As such, people with an eye for details who want to stand out in the best possible way get wooden garage doors. So, doors that dont get maintenance look the part of a rundown, decrepit place, looking like the poster for a horror book. Good and timely maintenance leaves the doors looking absolutely rad, further enhancing the look of the house and the fascia.
In a nutshell,
Wooden garage doors are all about that look. That regal look that graces a house and makes it feel really upclass. The price for this is obviously maintenance. And here’s what you get with good upkeep of wooden garage doors.
- Doors that look unique and stand out.
- An uplift to the front of the house.
- Work absolutely flawlessly.
- Extends the life of the doors.
- Maintains the door and keeps them safe from the elements.
Taking into account the job they have to do, the image they have to uphold and the way they need to be looking at all times, maintaining a wooden garage door is important, and makes all the difference in the world for a person who likes wooden garage doors and appreciates the beauty they have to offer.
Universal Doors: Making wooden garage door maintenance a breeze
Simplifying wooden garage door maintenance, Universal Doors makes it easy for you to keep your door with their expert advice and tips on the upkeep of garage doors. Since maintaining a wooden garage door can be rather difficult, costly, and time-consuming, Universal Doors makes it a simple affair by perfecting the maintenance part for you and applying it to every job that’s on hand. Having a wooden garage door maintained by Universal Doors is like coming home to a new garage door every day; it just keeps getting better and better and certainly gives the house a look unmatched by any other service out there.