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8 Signs Your Garage Needs Renovating

8 Signs Your Garage Needs Renovating

Since it keeps your cars and other valuable protected from weather effects, a garage is an important aspect of a home. The compartment or room’s condition also affects the overall aesthetic value of homes.

Additionally, if you’re looking to sell the home, buyers would be interested in inspecting the garage. On the other hand, periodic maintenance can mitigate accidents, improve the working environment, and the overall curb appeal of garages. Thus, it’s important to conduct regular garage maintenance and renovation.

Below are the signs that your garage requires renovation:

1. Garage Door Defects

Since it offers additional security and access control to the garage, the garage door requires periodic maintenance. If you have the latest door technology, you know that it already embraced automatic opening and closure. This requires an extra need for maintenance.

By using the garage door as a gauge, below are some of the signs that your garage needs renovating:

  • Worn-out rollers: Rollers affect the mobility of garage doors. Because of this, it should be regularly maintained. If the door movement is slow or jams frequently, the rollers could be having a problem.

Also, ensure you replace rollers that are chipped, cracked, or worn out.

  • Cable and pulleys: If you notice broken strands or dysfunctional pulleys, you need to call for assistance. Doors that fail to close completely, un-even closing, or jamming midway can be due to dysfunctional pulleys or cables.
  • Garage door coming off the rack: The frequent movements of the door causes a lot of tension to the door components. This could be due to a vehicle ramming on the door, excessive force when a door jams, and cable breaks or alignment issues.

You may need to call for technical assistance from reputable firms, like Portes De Garage MB, to investigate rollers, pulleys, or make hardware repairs. 

  • Creaking sound along the rails: If you notice this kind of noise, it could result from the stress on the rollers caused by poor lubrication. Apply lubricants such as white grease and spray lubricants thoroughly.

Before applying grease, you can use a penetrating solution to clean any jammed parts. You should also apply lubricants on pulleys to enhance their smooth movement. The lubrication exercise should be conducted at least 2 times annually.

  • Failed auto-reverse function: To enhance safety, the latest garage door technology has the auto-reverse feature. The feature is enabled upon touching obstacles such as debris or any item on the path.

Other types of garage doors are installed with eye sensors that can detect hand or legs placed at the path without having to touch it. A garage door consultant can diagnose the problem to rectify the sensors or other issues, causing the feature to fail.

  • Door hardware problems: The door is made of different materials, like metal, aluminum, and a combination of wood parts. The continuous movements and the weather can affect the door, leading to warping or joints coming off.

You may use a fastener or a socket wrench to tighten any loose bolts, nuts, or joints.

  • Slow response time: If the garage responds slowly to prompts, the problem could be a combination of many factors. Ensure the pulleys, rollers, and hinges are well lubricated. If lubrication doesn’t work, there could be problems with cables, alignment, sensors, or debris in the racks.

The maintenance of garage doors is one of the key components of garage maintenance. A periodic check-up can reduce the overall cost and need for renovation.

2. You’re Forced To Put The Car Lights On During The Day

Every building is designed with air and light openings to improve the interior conditions. During the construction, little consideration is made to enhance these features. Structural defects like small windows or lack thereof and poor maintenance can reduce or affect your garage’s lighting.

If you’re forced to put on the lights while parking or moving out, the room might be too dark. You could be at risk of stepping on metal rods and other tools lying around, which can cause accidents.

Below are some renovations that can be done to rectify this defect:

  • Lighting system: To make sure they’re all functional, inspect the bulbs. An electrician can help you make repairs to the wiring and installation of additional bulbs. This is needed to light up the room during the night, winter, and early in the morning.

You can also ask the electrician to blind areas that need brighter bulbs.

  • Windows and Ventilation vents– Inspect the size of windows and any other opening in the garage. You can make structural adjustments by enlarging the openings. These adjustments can increase the entry of natural light, effectively eliminating the need to turn on car lights during the day.

8 Signs Your Garage Needs Renovating

3. A Defective Floor Covering

If you notice signs like squeaking floors, rips, and tears, stains, or persistent movement of the wood floor, this indicates that the floor needs some renovations. Hardwood floors can last over twenty years, but due to the continued use and change of ownership, sometimes, it doesn’t always hold.

Below are some of the solutions you can adopt: 

  • Tiles: The advantage of tiles is that you can easily replace a broken or stained part. If the damages are extensive, you could be required to conduct a major renovation, which includes replacing the entire floor’s tiles.
  • Warped Floor: Foundation problems can be manifested through the floor, if several tiles or wooden floors suddenly crack, you may need to inspect your foundation. The repairs should be done after a comprehensive audit.
  • Stains: During a car repair in a garage, oil leaks can occur, causing the floor to stain. Also, the car could develop mechanical problems that lead to oil leaks. If the floor has multiple stains, you may need to hire the services of a cleaning company.

4. A Recent Break-in/Burglary

A good security system is as strong as its weakest point. It’s a common occurrence to put light security measures to your garage. This security lapse can be the reason for thugs to breach your house. 

If your home has suffered a recent break-in, some minor renovations can be used to secure the home. Below are some areas that can be reinforced to boost security:

  • Obscure windows: Potential thieves can use the little gaps in the windows to survey expensive tools and machinery. You can install metal grills to prevent people who may use it as an opening to enter your house.
  • Improve the CCTV cameras: The recordings and the presence of CCTV cameras are a good deterrent measure to potential burglaries. To scare away potential thieves, install cameras near the entrance of garages.

To ensure that there are no blind areas in the home, you can also optimize the current cameras’ position.

  • Install motion detector lights: Thieves attack homes under the cover of darkness. Fortunately, strategically installed lights can scare away intruders. Security light with motion sensors provides an element of surprise that doesn’t go well with thieves. 

Installing such security lights not only improves the security of the garage but also the home in general.

  • Change the door materials: Garage doors can be made from wood, glass, steel, aluminum, fiberglass, or vinyl. If you suspect the material used is to blame for the break-in, you need to make some changes. 

Use steel-reinforced doors, or fiberglass if the garage does not have an advanced security system.

5. Signs That Affect the Electrical System

Homeowners use a garage to repair items, conduct DIY experiments, or vacuum the interior of vehicles. An electrical system is, therefore, an important aspect while trying to perform any activity requires power. 

To ensure safety and determine if your garage needs renovating, below are some of the signs to look out for:

  • Flickering, buzzing, and dimming of lights
  • Frayed and scorched wiring
  • Strange smells and odor coming from electric accessories and wires
  • Circuit breaker trips

The above are signs that need further analysis to identify the root of the problem. You can involve the services of an electrician to check whether there’s power overload, substandard wires, or a need to replace certain components. 

 
8 Signs Your Garage Needs Renovating

6. Tools and Equipment Lying Around

A garage provides additional space to store old home accessories, car repair tools, spare parts, and other machinery. Tools lying around are hard to retrieve, keep records, or safeguard.

An accident, especially those that are caused by poorly kept tools, can also be a tell-tale sign of the need to better arrange items.

Below are some ideas on how to renovate the storage feature of a garage:

  • Declutter the garage: Before you start any renovation, remove any unnecessary items in the garage. This includes old bikes, non-functional electrical appliances, and any machinery that no longer has value.
  • Install a folding table: A folding table increases space for extra vehicles and working space. You can install a folding table to store spare tires, oils, and any other items. It’s also easily retractable when that space is needed.
  • Create a wall shelf and cabinets: A little organization will improve the safety and the visual appeal in the garage. Call a contractor to install wall shelves and cabinets, helping you in storing any items you may need.

As a tip, install wall shelves on areas where they won’t be a hindrance when packing the car.

  • Create a utility rack: You need a lot of space to hang garden tools like rakes, spades, and other long tools. By having a utility rack, you can improve the organization and reduce accidents within the garage.
  • Invest in a good pegboard: A pegboard offers quick access to work tools, like spanners, pipe wrench, and other hand tools. To avoid blocking natural light, the board can be installed on the wall that doesn’t have any windows. 

7. An Old Paint Job

As the garage and the home ages, there’s the need to give it a new look. When the home is being painted, it’s easy to forget the interior of the garage.  Though people don’t live in garages, it’s still important to keep it looking good.

Some of the signs that warrant fresh paint are:

  • Marks along the wall: Marks and scuffs can develop in walls with high activity levels. When retrieving and storing tools, the walls can get conspicuous scratches. These marks are hard to remove, even with frequent and thorough cleaning.

To eliminate such spots on the wall, it’s advisable to add a fresh coat of paint.

  • Peeling of paint: The paint’s condition affects the visual appeal of a room; peeled and faded walls negatively impact the curb appeal. This could be due to environmental conditions, such as scorching sunlight and high humidity.

If low-quality paint was applied at the onset, it could be a reason for such signs. To rectify that defect, you should talk to a professional painter.

  • Preparing to sell the home: The home’s value is directly affected by the condition of a garage. Some buyers need to feel their cars are protected, and the garage offers the versatility they need.

Fresh paint can be applied to improve the value of a garage before the sale goes live.

8. Signs of Mold in the Garage

Mold in homes is a health hazard and negatively affects the value of homes. It can be caused by moisture problems or poorly lit rooms like garages. If you notice persistent black, grey, or green spots, your garage might be under a mold attack.

You can work with a plumber to fix the drainage or water systems, which are why garages develop moisture problems.

On the other hand, you could work with a contractor to fix ventilation and windows. Such structural changes can improve sunlight reach and reduce humidity–factors responsible for eliminating mold in homes.

Conclusion

A garage is one of the essential utility rooms in homes. Renovations and periodic maintenance can be used to keep them functional, secure, and improve the homes’ value.

If your notice signs like defective doors, dimming of flickering lights, peeling off paint, or dark interiors, you need to conduct some renovations.

For instance, by doing door renovations, homeowners can enhance safety, improve door efficiency, and reduce accidents. You could also renovate the floor to remove defective tiles, chipped wood floors, fill up cracks, or check any foundation issues.