When the door freezes

What the cold snap does to garage doors

A Snohomish County winter freeze does two things to a garage door. Water at the bottom seal ices the door to the concrete, the opener pulls against a door that is stuck fast. And metal contracts, the door hardware, the springs, the tracks all run a little stiffer when it drops below freezing for a few days.

The safe response

Do not keep hitting the button, a door iced to the driveway will tear its bottom seal, strip the opener's gears, or pop the door out of its tracks pulling against the ice. Warm water along the bottom seal or a space heater pointed at the door breaks the freeze without breaking the door. If the opener release is pulled first, the door lifts by hand once the ice lets go.

The preventable version

The bottom seal is what lets water reach the door-to-concrete joint, a torn or flattened seal is what turns a cold snap into a frozen door. A fresh seal before the cold arrives is cheaper than the torn seal, stripped gears, or off-track door that the freeze produces.