Clemmons is a village just west of Winston-Salem, stretching along Interstate 40 toward the Yadkin River, with Lewisville to the north and Bermuda Run across the river. Tanglewood Park anchors its western side, and much of the housing is in subdivisions built between the 1970s and the 2000s, a good number of them with homeowners associations.
Houses of that age bring a predictable set of garage door issues: openers older than current safety rules, original builder doors starting to wear through, and hardware that has never had much attention. Most local questions are about upkeep and repair, so this page focuses on keeping an existing door healthy and knowing when a fix is a job for a professional.
Is your opener older than 1993?
Federal safety rules require residential openers manufactured from 1993 onward to include an external entrapment protection system, typically the pair of photo-eye sensors near the floor that stop and reverse a closing door when something crosses the beam. Some houses built in the 1970s and 1980s still have openers from before that change.
If your opener has no sensors near the bottom of the tracks and no sensing edge along the bottom of the door, it lacks that protection and should be replaced, especially in a home with children or pets. Older openers whose remotes have a row of tiny switches inside also use a fixed code that is far less secure than modern rolling-code systems.
A seasonal maintenance calendar for the Piedmont
Forsyth County's seasons each leave a mark on a garage door. Working through the year with a short checklist keeps small issues from becoming repair calls.
- Spring: once the yellow pine pollen settles, wipe the tracks, clean the sensor lenses and lubricate hinges, roller bearings and springs.
- Summer: watch for a door that stalls or reverses after afternoon thunderstorms, which often points to a tripped outlet or a surge-damaged opener board.
- Fall: clear leaves from the threshold, inspect the bottom seal for cracks, and watch the door move to spot jerky or uneven travel before cold weather.
- Winter: keep the floor at the door free of ice, and pay attention if the door starts to feel heavier, a common sign of a tiring spring.
Repairs you can handle, and the ones to leave alone
Homeowners can safely take care of a fair amount: replacing remote batteries, cleaning and realigning the photo eyes, swapping a worn bottom seal, tightening the screws on hinges between sections, lubricating moving parts, and adjusting the opener's travel limits following its manual.
Springs, lift cables, cable drums and the bottom brackets where the cables attach are a different category. They hold the full counterbalance load of the door, and working on them without training and proper winding bars is how people get badly hurt. The same goes for a door that has come out of its tracks, since it can drop without warning.
Builder doors from the 1980s and 1990s
Many Clemmons garages still have the original non-insulated steel or hardboard door. These dent easily, rust or swell at the bottom, and get noisier every year. Sometimes a set of new nylon rollers, a couple of replacement hinges and a balance adjustment bring an old door back to smooth, quiet operation for a modest cost.
When the bottom section is rotted or rusted through, or several panels are damaged, replacement makes more sense. A new insulated door is quieter and stiffer, and if your neighborhood has an architectural committee, clear the style and color with it before ordering.
Last updated by the American Garage Door Team.