When your garage door makes incredibly loud squeaking or grinding noises while it's operating, you have an annoying problem on your hands. Depending on the amount of noise your garage door is making, it might be a significant frustration for your neighbors as well.

Often, this problem is caused by inadequate maintenance. The best thing that you can do for the health of your garage door is to schedule a yearly tune-up service with a garage door service company. If you don't, you at least need to lubricate all of the metal parts on the garage door yearly. White lithium grease is the best type of lubricant to use for this purpose.

You can often fix a noisy garage door by applying a lubricant to its moving parts. This prevents metal parts from grinding against one another while it's operating. If that doesn't work, read on to find out some other problems that can result in an extremely noisy garage door.

Rollers Are Worn or Loose

The rollers on a garage door are often the culprit behind squeaking and grinding noises during operation. Rollers don't last forever — friction against the track will slowly wear them down. In some cases, the stem of the roller that connects it to the garage door can become loose. This causes it to wobble within the track while the door is operating, which will cause a substantial amount of noise.

If you have metal rollers, try lubricating them with white lithium grease. Plastic and nylon rollers don't need to be lubricated. If this doesn't stop them from squeaking, you may need to have them replaced by a garage door repair service. The bottom rollers on a garage door are attached to the high-tension springs, so it's dangerous for a homeowner to work on them alone. Leave roller replacement to trained professionals.

Lift Cables Are Misaligned

In some cases, the lift cables that raise your garage door can become misaligned. This often occurs due to wear on the cables, and it causes one side of the garage door to raise faster than the other. When this happens, it usually results in a grinding noise as the rollers are pushed into the track.

You can sometimes diagnose this problem by engaging the emergency release on your garage door and holding a leveling tool to the bottom of the door. If the door isn't level, it may be a problem with the cables. The cables, like the springs, are under extreme amounts of tension, so it's very dangerous to replace them yourself — call a professional garage door repair company to have the cables and drums inspected.

Door Is Out of Alignment

A minor collision with your garage door may not have caused any visible damage, but it might have pushed it out of frame. Once it's out of alignment, it will start to make grinding noises whenever it operates. This is another problem that requires a garage door repair company since the door will need to be carefully realigned with the track.

As you can see, all of the problems above will require professional garage door repair. Working with a garage door is quite dangerous for individuals who are untrained due to the extreme amount of tension held in the springs, which are connected to several other garage door components. If lubricating your garage door doesn't reduce the noise, call a garage door service to have it inspected and repaired.