# Garage Door Tune-Up & Annual Maintenance > An annual garage door tune-up: balance test, spring and cable inspection, roller and hinge check, safety reversal test and lubrication. Serving Hamilton, Grimsby, Stoney Creek, Burlington and Niagara from a Grimsby base. - Canonical HTML: https://www.garagedoorman.ca/services/garage-door-tune-up/ - Section: Home > Services > Tune-up & annual maintenance - Business: Garage Doorman, 6 Chestnut Dr, Grimsby, ON L3M 0C4, Canada - Phone: (905) 536-5369 | Email: info@garagedoorman.ca - Page updated: 2026-08-31 --- One visit a year that checks the counterbalance, the cables, the rollers and both safety functions, and lubricates the parts that need it. The point is not to polish a working door. It is to find the spring, the frayed cable or the dead sensor before it strands you, and to keep the door quiet in the meantime. [Call (905) 536-5369](tel:+19055365369) [The monthly test you can do yourself](https://www.garagedoorman.ca/guides/garage-door-safety-sensors/) ## What gets checked The visit follows the same shape as DASMA's residential inspection checklist, which is the document home inspectors work from. That checklist is designed to be completed in about fifteen minutes with a tape measure, a flashlight, a one-and-a-half-inch solid object such as a six-inch length of two-by-four, and a remote control. Source: DASMA Technical Data Sheet [#167, Residential Sectional Garage Door and Electric Operator Checklist for Home Inspectors and Consumers](https://www.dasma.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/TDS167.pdf) (PDF). Checked 31 August 2026. The annual visit, item by item | Warning labels | Spring label, general warning label and bottom-bracket labels present, or the tamper-resistant brackets that replace them. | | --- | --- | | Springs | Visual inspection for damage, gapping, rust and corrosion pitting. Rust reduces the effective area of the wire, which reduces strength and shortens cycle life. | | Cables and drums | Fraying, broken strands, corrosion at the bottom, and whether the cable is seated properly in the drum groove. | | Rollers and hinges | Rollers turning freely and sitting in the track without tension; hinges and roller brackets tight and not cracked. | | Track and fasteners | Alignment, and lag bolts into the jamb that have worked loose. | | Sections | Cracks, dents, buckling, and rust perforation from the inside out along the bottom section. | | Balance | Opener disconnected, door lifted to a balance point and released. A correct door stays roughly where it is put. | | Photo eyes | Height above the floor, alignment, and a live reversal test with an object in the beam. | | Reversing mechanism | Contact reversal tested against a solid object on the floor. | | Manual release | The red cord works, and the door can be operated by hand safely. | | Weather seals | Bottom seal, side and header stripping, and where daylight is getting through. | | Lubrication | Hinges, rollers, bearings and springs, per the door manufacturer's instructions. | ## The balance test, and why it is the important one Everything else on that list is a symptom. Balance is the system. DASMA's homeowner procedure describes lifting the door to a point "where it takes as much force to lift the door as it does to close it" and observing whether it stays. A door that drops or flies up from that point is not counterbalanced correctly, and it is quietly destroying the opener, the cables and eventually itself. Source: DASMA Technical Data Sheet [#174, Building Occupant — Checking a Residential Sectional Garage Door for Damage](https://www.dasma.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/TDS174.pdf) (PDF), Operational Inspection. Checked 31 August 2026. The same document is clear on when to stop: if the door is too heavy or difficult to move, stop. If there is any sign of binding, swaying, or stress on rollers, brackets, hinges, sections or track, stop. That is our cue to fix something, not to keep testing. ## Lubrication is not optional, and it is not WD-40 DASMA lists lack of counterbalance assembly maintenance as one of the door-usage factors that shortens spring life, and says that regular greasing or lubrication of springs as required by the manufacturer's instructions helps maximise cycle life. Source: DASMA Technical Data Sheet [#190, Factors Affecting Spring Cycle Life](https://www.dasma.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/TDS190.pdf) (PDF), Door Usage Factors. Checked 31 August 2026. Two things to avoid if you do this yourself between visits: penetrating sprays such as WD-40 are solvents, not lubricants, and they strip the grease out of a bearing rather than adding to it; and the track itself should be kept clean, not greased, because grease in the track collects grit and makes rollers drag. ## Why this corridor is harder on doors than most DASMA names extreme climatic conditions and corrosive environments as factors that shorten spring life, singling out climates subject to extreme heat or cold, frequent precipitation, or proximity to a saline location. The stretch from Burlington to St. Catharines gets all of that: lake-effect precipitation, freeze-thaw swings either side of zero, and salt carried off the QEW into every driveway on the corridor for four months a year. The practical effect is that the bottom of the door, the bottom brackets and the lowest few inches of cable corrode faster here than they do inland. That is where a technician looks first, and it is why an annual visit pays for itself more on this stretch than it would in a dry climate. ## What a tune-up will not do It will not make a twenty-year-old spring young again, and it will not turn a rusted-through bottom section into a sound one. What it does is tell you which of those you are facing while you still get to choose when to deal with it, instead of finding out on a Monday morning with the car inside. ## Between visits, the one-minute monthly check DASMA asks homeowners to test the photo eyes and the reversing mechanism monthly. Both tests are on [the safety sensor guide](https://www.garagedoorman.ca/guides/garage-door-safety-sensors/), and neither requires a tool. ### Book a tune-up Best done before winter, while a worn cable is still a scheduled visit rather than an emergency. [Call (905) 536-5369](tel:+19055365369) ### Signs you are overdue - The door has got noticeably louder. - It shudders or jerks on the way up. - It closes faster at the end than it used to. - The opener strains where it used to glide. - You cannot remember the last time anyone looked at it. ### Where we go [Grimsby](https://www.garagedoorman.ca/areas/grimsby/) · [Beamsville & Lincoln](https://www.garagedoorman.ca/areas/beamsville/) · [Stoney Creek](https://www.garagedoorman.ca/areas/stoney-creek/) · [Hamilton](https://www.garagedoorman.ca/areas/hamilton/) · [Ancaster](https://www.garagedoorman.ca/areas/ancaster/) · [Dundas](https://www.garagedoorman.ca/areas/dundas/) · [Waterdown & Flamborough](https://www.garagedoorman.ca/areas/waterdown/) · [Binbrook & Glanbrook](https://www.garagedoorman.ca/areas/binbrook/) · [Burlington](https://www.garagedoorman.ca/areas/burlington/) · [St. Catharines](https://www.garagedoorman.ca/areas/st-catharines/) ## Related - [How long springs last](https://www.garagedoorman.ca/guides/how-long-do-garage-door-springs-last/) - [Safety sensors](https://www.garagedoorman.ca/guides/garage-door-safety-sensors/) - [Ontario winter failures](https://www.garagedoorman.ca/guides/garage-door-winter-problems-ontario/) - [Weather seals](https://www.garagedoorman.ca/services/garage-door-weather-seal/) - [All services](https://www.garagedoorman.ca/services/) Once a year · about an hour ## Find the spring before it finds you. [(905) 536-5369](tel:+19055365369) [Contact and hours](https://www.garagedoorman.ca/contact/) --- Garage Doorman repairs and installs residential garage doors from Grimsby, Ontario. (905) 536-5369. Full site: https://www.garagedoorman.ca/