What To Do With a Frozen Shut Garage Door

Is winter your favorite season? It’s not ours either. Sure, winter can be fun when skating on a lake, sledding with your family, or skiing at your favorite resort, but winter snowstorms aren’t much fun.

Knowing you’ll have to shovel out two feet of snow Monday morning before work is quite the unpleasant thought. Do you know what’s worse?

Having to deal with your garage door, frozen shut, that same Monday morning. Make sure this doesn’t happen to you! Follow our preventative tips and make sure your garage door gets the maintenance it needs to keep working all winter long. If you’re unlucky and your door is already stuck in the ice, see below for the steps to take to release it.

What to do if your garage door is frozen shut:

We recommend you don’t try to open your garage door with the automatic garage door opener. This could cause the motor to overwork and not respond properly.

Step 1: Make sure the garage door isn’t locked. Leave the side lock and wall console lock button in the open position.

Step 2: Deactivate your automatic door opener and tug on the emergency release cord, which allows you to open your garage door manually. The emergency release cord typically has a red handle and can be found dangling near the center of the garage door. You can now try to free the bottom of your door from the ice.

Step 3: Examine the whole operating system to ensure there’s nothing blocking the door. Also look for any broken parts.

Options to get rid of the ice:

• To melt the ice, you can try using a hairdryer. Just don’t hold it in the same spot for too long or set the heat too high, as you could damage your door.
• While being careful not to damage the bottom seal, you can chip away at the ice with a hammer, a knife, or a screwdriver. Make sure to wear safety goggles since the ice will most likely be flying everywhere.
• Hot water can be used to melt the ice. Have someone else gently test the door as you pour water along the bottom of the door. Once free, wipe down the weather-stripping and don’t let the door come into contact with the water again as it will refreeze.

Prevention tips

• Use a shovel or snow blower to clear the area near your garage door. You don’t want a pile up of snow as this is when ice is created.
• Open and close your garage door daily throughout the winter. Regardless if you want to go somewhere or not, opening your door once in a while will prevent it from sticking to the icy ground and will warm up the operating system.
• To prevent potential problems, you can coat the weather-seal found at the bottom of your garage door with a silicone spray. The silicone can keep the door from freezing into the ice.
• To guarantee you don’t run into any big problems during winter, make sure you give your garage door a proper maintenance throughout the year. Here at Door Pro Inc., we can make sure your garage door is functioning properly and is ready for the cold season. We’ll lubricate important parts and inspect every metal component to make sure none are damaged or worn out.