For many homeowners, a well-adjusted garage door provides home safety, energy conservation and wildlife control. The best thing about it is that you can do the adjustment yourself. It’s a simple task that can be completed in just fifteen minutes or even less time. Most garage door openers have settings which determine the opening/closing height limits of the door. These settings need to be properly adjusted so that the door height can have a correct seal, and also allow for sufficient clearance. Below are some steps on how to adjust garage door height correctly:

How to Adjust Garage Door Height

1. Put up your step ladder directly below the garage door opener, while ensuring that the ladder is adequately aligned and stable.
2. Look out for the limit adjustments screws found on the rear part of the opener. Typically, these are plastic-built and written with the symbols ‘Open and Close’ or ‘Up and Down.’
3. If you want to increase the height of your garage door opening simply rotate the screw ‘Up’ or ‘Open’ to a clockwise direction. Preferably, wind it to just a quarter of a turn.
4. Proceed by testing the opener to see whether your door height has reached the desired level. If this has not yet happened, then repeat Step III above until the correct door height is achieved.
5. If your garage door isn’t closing fully after the adjustments have been done, simply rotate the ‘Close’ or ‘Down’ screw a quarter turn in the anticlockwise direction. Finish by checking again the door opening as highlighted in Step IV above.

Points to Remember:

Typically, when adjusting your garage door height, you’ll need to handle two main parts which include; the garage door track that controls the door’s direction and the garage door springs which support the weight as it moves up and down. Usually, this is an easy task that can be done in a few minutes, and unless there’s something broken you won’t require any replacement parts.

Additionally, when modulating the height of your garage door always ensure that the springs are in proper tension. Make sure that you don’t apply too much tension on them since this will make the door not shut completely. Similarly, applying too little tension will make the door hard to open and this may also be dangerous during closing.

Sometimes, when the garage door height isn’t properly fitted it may lead to a condition known as binding garage door. This causes the door not to shut completely and instead have a small gap at the end. Typically, the track found in most garage doors is designed to close the door tight to the weather-strip during the final few inches of its movement downwards. However, when the door tightens too rapidly, then it may not close.

If you have a garage door that is made of any material beyond steel, you should also be sure to maintain it adequately to see the best results. This applies for full view aluminum and glass garages all the way to a real wood garage.

So, Can I Adjust My Garage Door’s Height?

To conclude, the answer to this question is yes. It’s possible to adjust the height of your garage door by yourself. However, you do need to know how to adjust garage door height adequately, so that the process goes on smoothly and you don’t incur any damages to your garage when doing the modifications. The steps include: setting up your ladder below the garage opener, looking for limit adjustment screws and turning them accordingly, and then testing your garage door until you get the desired results. Good luck!