Garage door is grinding or screeching
Grinding and screeching is nearly always worn rollers or dry hinges and bearings. A full nylon roller set is $170 to $250 and a tune-up covering lubrication and hardware is $119. One noise is different and worth separating out: a bang, rather than a grind, usually means a section is catching on a bent track, and that one is urgent.
Check these first
Two minutes, no tools, and sometimes it's the whole answer.
- Watch the door run and listen for where in the travel the noise happens. A repeating noise at one point is usually one roller and one spot of track.
- Look at the rollers for flat spots or seized bearings. A seized roller drags instead of rolling.
- Check whether the hinges are dry. Squealing at the hinge line is a lubrication issue.
- Check whether bolts have backed out. Years of vibration loosen hardware and a loose door rattles.
What not to do while you wait
- Don't grease the track. Lubricant on the track collects grit and makes the wear worse. Track gets cleaned, not oiled.
- Don't ignore a banging noise, as opposed to a grinding one. That's usually a section coming off a bent track rather than lubrication.
What it usually turns out to be
- Worn or seized rollers The most common noise source and the cheapest part on the door to replace. Old steel rollers with no bearings are loud from new and worse with age.
- Dry hinges and bearings Nylon and steel running dry squeals. This is what a tune-up covers.
- Loose hardware Bolts back out over years of vibration and the whole door rattles in the opening.
- A section catching on bent track This one bangs rather than grinds and it needs looking at rather than lubricating.
What it costs
$170 to $250 for full nylon roller set. A tune-up on its own is $119. The diagnostic visit is $39 and it comes off that in full when you go ahead the same visit. Full detail on the garage door roller replacement page, and every other range we charge is on the cost page.
Where we cover
Newark, Fremont, Union City, Hayward, with Hayward limited to 94545 and 94544 in the south of the city. Call before noon and Newark, Fremont and Union City are same-day appointments. The areas we cover, in detail.
Questions we get asked
Will new rollers make my door quiet?
If the noise is grinding or screeching, usually a great deal quieter. Nylon rollers on sealed bearings run far quieter than plain steel ones and they don't gouge the track.
Can I just spray it with lubricant?
On hinges, rollers and the spring, yes, with a garage door lubricant. Not on the track. If the rollers are seized or flat-spotted, lubricant buys a few weeks and nothing more.
Other things doors do
- Garage door won't close Almost always the safety sensors.
- Garage door won't open If it feels heavy, it's the spring.
- Garage door spring broke The bang was the spring letting go.
- Opener runs but the door doesn't move The trolley or the drive gear.
- Garage door opener is completely dead Power first, then the logic board.
Tell us what it's doing
(510) 509-9998. If a car is shut inside, say so first and we'll book you ahead of the queue.
Newark · Fremont · Union City · Hayward