Garage Door Lube & Tune Service

Once a year for most of the city; every eight to nine months if you're in the fog belt or within a dozen blocks of the ocean, where salt-heavy moisture strips lubricant and starts corrosion noticeably faster. Doors that cycle heavily — four or more times a day — also benefit from the shorter interval regardless of neighborhood.

All moving metal gets lubricated (springs, hinges, roller bearings, opener drive), all track and hinge fasteners get checked and snugged, the door is balance-tested at half-travel, weather seal and cables are inspected for wear, and the opener's force and photo-eye safety systems are tested. You get told about anything developing — with a price — but there's no obligation attached to the findings.

Please don't use WD-40 specifically — it's a solvent and water displacer, not a lubricant, and it actually strips the grease your door needs. If you want to DIY between visits, a lithium- or silicone-based garage door lubricant on hinges and roller bearings is genuinely helpful. What the annual professional visit adds is the balance test, fastener torque, and safety checks a spray can can't do.

It can't stop a spring from aging — those wear by cycle count — but it catches almost everything else early: fraying cables before they snap, loosening track bolts before the door binds, dry bearings before rollers seize. Just as valuably, the balance test tells us when springs are weakening, so you can schedule that replacement on your calendar instead of the spring's.