I was on an inspection yesterday at a beautiful house in the country with a spectacular view, on a beautiful piece of property, and gorgeous interior. The house is a million dollar house and home maintenance has been performed on a regular basis. The buyers were excited to have the opportunity to purchase the house. During my inspection, I found very little deficiencies with the property, but I noticed the double garage door was erratic when I opened and closed the door. I wrote a comment in the inspection report that the door was not operating properly and should be further evaluated and repaired by an overhead door technician.
After completing the inspection and reviewing the report with the clients and their realtor, they left the house and I was returning the house to the condition it was in when I arrived. All the lights were turned off, the thermostats were set back to their original settings, and the garage doors were lowered. While lowering the double car garage door, I noticed it was erratic in the operation as before.
I walked out the front door with my tools and locked the door behind me and as I was walking down the sidewalk to the driveway to put my tools in my truck, the homeowner had arrived to find the garage door would not open. She was understandably in a rage and was asking what I did to her garage door. I replied that I simply tested the door as I have done in thousands of other inspections and noticed it was erratic. I told her I had made an entry in the report that the door was not operating properly and needed to be repaired. This did little to calm her and in fact, increased her anger. She proceeded to inform me that she had lived here for five years and the door always opened and closed and never had any problems. She even asked her neighbor, who was outside his garage, if he had ever seen the garage door not operate properly. He replied that it has always operated properly since he had lived there.
I felt badly this event happened to her but I was helpless in my attempt to calm her feelings. She asked me to leave, so I went to my truck parked on the street and stored my tools. I couldn’t let this situation escalate, so I went back to the garage area and knocked on the door. When she came out to greet me, she was still in a rage and, again, understandably so. I offered to pay for any damage I might have caused and the situation started to de-escalate. She then turned her attention to the partially opened garage door and indicated her house was not secure and that anyone could enter through the opening and enter her house. I offered to lower her door so that it would at least be secure and she allowed me to go into the garage to secure the door.
We both looked at the door and I was able to lower it so that no openings were present at the bottom of the garage door. As we were looking at the door, we noticed the cable on one side of the door had become unwound while the other side was still intact.
At that point, I looked at the torsion springs and noticed one of the springs had broken. I told her, and she agreed, that a broken torsion spring is normal wear and tear and nothing I did in testing the door would have caused the spring to break.
I apologized for the situation but told her I could not be responsible for a broken spring and I would not pay for the repair of her door. Her anger subsided and we started talking about all the positive aspects of her house. She was at ease and we parted, maybe not as friends, but with the understanding the garage door problem was not caused by my neglect but by normal wear and tear of the torsion spring.
For those of you that may not know what a torsion spring is, it’s the tubular spring or springs that are at the top of the garage door that balance the door. These springs make it possible to open and close the door with ease. Without any kind of torsion or rail springs, the door is too heavy and impossible to open and close. The garage door spring on this $1,000,000 house is the same spring that is used on a $250,000 house. The fact that it was a million dollar house does not mean the components are of any higher quality that are used in less expensive houses – at least as far as the garage door tension springs are concerned. The springs are under tight tension and every time the door is opened and closed, the springs are wound and released to balance the door. When the spring breaks, the door cannot be raised.
Tips for proper home maintanence of your garage doors:
- Periodically check your garage doors for loose hinges, cracked hinges, or broken hinges. It would be good habit to at least look at the hinges and rollers every time you are in the garage.
- Make sure all the rollers are in place and inside the tracks of the garage doors.
- Periodically lubricate the garage door hinges, rollers, and torsion springs with white lithium grease.
- Listen for abnormal sounds from your garage door. If the garage door is noisy and is binding on the travel up or travel down, it might be time to schedule a technician to maintain the door.
- If you notice abnormalities with the operation of the garage door, don’t park your car in the garage. The components of the garage door are mechanical and mechanical parts fail. If the hinges break, rollers come off the track, or the torsion spring breaks, your car will be trapped inside the garage until a technician can repair the door. The possibility exists of the door actually coming out of the track and falling on your car or anything else in the garage.
- Schedule at least an annual maintenance of the garage door to help ensure the garage door and the opener are in top working condition.
I know it’s human nature to blame the inspector for anything that happens during an inspection, but please don’t jump to conclusions and at least give the inspector the benefit of the doubt. Most inspectors will do the right thing to repair any damage they might have caused. Follow the seasonal checklists I’ve included at the back of each of my books to help keep your home in top condition so that you Don’t have to Worry about the home. Be Happy! If you take care of your home, it will take care of you.