How Salt and Sand May Force You to Hire Los Angeles Garage Door Repair
Believe it or not, your garage door can be significantly affected by salt and sand damage. While it’s obviously worse if there is a lot of salt and sand in your area, even a small amount can cause damage over time. This will tell you more about the damage, how to best maintain your garage door and when it’s time to get professional Los Angeles garage door repair services.
How Salt and Sand Appear
This all depends on location. Some people will constantly be around salt and sand, but others might be wondering how salt and sand comes in contact with their garage door. If you live near a beach, then the answer should be obvious. There will be more salt in the air from the ocean. You will also be near sand, so of course it will eventually come in contact with your garage door.
But what if you don’t live near a beach? That’s when it becomes more of a mystery. If you go to the beach or other sandy areas, then you will be tracking sand on your shoes and car tires, which will eventually end up on your garage door.
It’s similar with salt, but this likely won’t be coming from the beach. This happens most often in winter when temperatures drop and roads get icy. Salt and sand are laid down to increase traction and reduce accidents. The problem is that the salt and sand collect on your feet as you walk outside. Your car tires will also pick them up.
From there, it’s easy to see how they end up on your garage door.
How Does Sand Affect a Garage Door?
Sand particles are coarse and hard, which is bad for any type of garage door. It doesn’t matter if the door is made from wood, aluminum, steel, PVC or any other material. Sand can scratch the surface, remove paints and get under the surface layer to do deeper damage.
This is especially true if it’s windy. This puts significant force behind the sand particles, which allows them to do more damage. If this damage isn’t fixed in a timely manner, either by yourself or with a Los Angeles garage door repair service, then this can lead to rust and permanent scratches in the material.
How Does Salt Affect a Garage Door?
Salt is similar in many ways, but it also creates chemical reactions that you won’t encounter with sand alone. Salt also tends to be coarse and tough. This means that it can scratch your garage door and lead to rust.
Unlike sand, salt can be diluted by water and turned into a brine. This allows the salt to penetrate deeper into your garage door, especially if it’s made from wood or another porous material. The salt can now affect the garage door deep beneath the surface. It may also interact with metals and paints to create strange colors.
While damage from sand usually occurs faster, the damage from salt can be significantly worse.
Don’t Use Power Washing
Now that you know the damage salt and sand can do, you might be tempted to clean your garage door. In most cases a power washer would be a great idea. It thoroughly cleans surfaces and does so very quickly.
The problem with power washing is that it cleans by exerting tremendous force on the water. This effectively pushes the salt and sand deeper into the garage door, which can lead to even deeper scratches and more damage.
While power washing might not the best idea, it’s fairly easy to clean salt and sand from your garage door in Los Angeles if you know what to do.
Cleaning Your Garage Door
Cleaning your Los Angeles garage door is fairly easy. Start by using either a hose or a bucket of water. If you’re using a hose, put the water force to about medium. You simply want to wet the surface and remove any loose particles. This won’t clean everything, but it will remove a lot of the salt and sand.
You should then use a cleaning solution to remove the rest. This is especially true with salt because a fine layer might stay on your garage door unless you use a solution. There are plenty of cleaning solutions that you can buy, but you can also mix your own by combining water, vinegar and dish soap.
Scrub the garage door with the solution. You might need a stiff brush if the particles are firmly attached to the garage. Clean the entire surface and then use your hose again to wash the door. That’s all it should take to clean your garage door.
When Is Los Angeles Garage Door Repair Needed?
If there are only superficial scratches, then you probably don’t need a Los Angeles garage door repair service. It all depends on how much damage has been done to your garage door.
The first thing to check for is rust. Both of these particles can form deep scratches. If aluminum or steel is scratched, then rust could form. This can then grow and cause even further damage to your garage. You should consider garage repair in Los Angeles in this case as to prevent more damage. Professional might be able to remove the rust, or the panel might need to be changed.
If there isn’t rust, then check to see how deep the scratches are. Superficial scratches can be ignored or removed. Very deep scratches will likely require a garage door service in Los Angeles. Not only can this lead to rust, but it also significantly reduces the longevity of the door in general.
You should also check to see how well your garage door is functioning. If there is a significant amount of salt and sand, then this might jam the garage door and make it difficult to open or close. Forcing the door often just exacerbates the issue.
Get professional garage help in this case. In the best-case scenario, the garage can be thoroughly cleaned to restore its mobility. If the damage is more severe, then the whole garage door might need to be replaced. In either case, professionals are the best for this to ensure everything is done quickly and accurately.
