Zanesville grew up where the Licking River meets the Muskingum, and the town and its surroundings are known for hills. Streets climb, driveways slope, and many garages were built into a grade or squeezed onto narrow lots.
Those conditions produce a particular set of garage door problems, from doors that do not sit flat on the floor to openers working harder than they should. The sections below cover what to look for and the usual fixes.
Sloped driveways and uneven floors
When a garage slab is out of level, or the driveway pitches sharply at the threshold, a garage door touches down on one side before the other. That leaves a wedge-shaped gap where rain, snow and mice get in, and it can cause the opener to sense resistance and reverse.
Fixes depend on how much the floor is off. Small differences are often handled with a taller or tapered bottom seal. Larger ones may need a threshold seal fastened to the slab, or concrete repair at the opening so the door has a level surface to close on.
- Close the door and look for daylight along the bottom edge.
- Check whether the gap grows in winter, which suggests frost movement.
- Do not loosen the bottom brackets yourself; the lift cables attach there under tension.
Older homes and single-car garages
A lot of Zanesville homes were built before 1950, and their garages were sized for the cars of that era. Narrow single-car openings, low headroom and doors made of heavy wood are all common.
Older wood doors are heavy and often run on extension springs. Converting to a lighter steel door with a torsion spring system makes the door safer and easier on the opener. If the opening is a nonstandard size, custom-sized doors are available.
River-valley moisture and rust
Humid summers and fog along the rivers keep garages damp. That moisture attacks hinges, roller stems, track bolts and the bottom brackets. Rust in those places is more than cosmetic, since a corroded bracket can fail while holding the cable.
In a damp valley it pays to keep hinges and roller bearings lubricated, and to ask for galvanized or coated hardware whenever parts are replaced.
Locked out or locked in
For homes where the garage is the main way in, a stuck door is an emergency. During a power outage, pulling the red emergency release separates the door from the opener so it can be raised by hand, but only if the springs are intact. With a broken spring, the door can weigh well over a hundred pounds; leave it down and wait for a technician.
A keypad, a battery backup and a spare remote kept outside the garage solve most lockout situations before they happen.
Last updated by the American Garage Door Team.