GarageDoorBossPro Blog — Tune-Ups & Maintenance Plans

The Garage Door Tune-Up Checklist on the Tech's Phone, Item by Item

A paper checklist on a clipboard works until the clipboard gets left on a workbench, the page gets wet, or someone has to type it all into the office computer at the end of the day. A checklist on the tech's phone is filled in once, at the door, and it is on the job the moment the tech taps Complete.

Why a Fixed List

The case for the inspection as the real product of a tune-up is in The Door Safety Inspection Is the Product: What a Garage Door Tune-Up Delivers. This guide goes through the list itself, from the point of view of what each item means on the record. It is not a repair guide. How your techs check each part is a matter of their training and your company's standards.

A fixed list does one big thing: it makes every tune-up the same. Two techs on two vans check the same items, and the office reads both reports the same way.

The Moving Parts

The first group on the checklist covers the parts that carry and guide the door:

• Springs. Torsion or extension, whatever is saved on the house. The tech notes what they saw.
• Cables & drums. Recorded as checked, with anything worth flagging written in the issues.
• Rollers. A common recommendation when they are worn or noisy.
• Hinges & brackets. Checked across each section.
• Tracks aligned & secured. Whether the tracks are where they should be and fastened.

Springs and cables are for trained techs only, and nothing on the checklist suggests otherwise. If a tech finds a problem, it goes on the record as a recommendation for your company to fix.

Balance and Safety

The second group covers how the door behaves and whether the safety features respond:

• Door balance. Paired with the “balance lbs off” reading.
• Auto-reverse safety test. Whether the door reverses as it should.
• Photo-eye sensors. Whether the sensors are aligned and working.
• Opener force & limits. Whether the opener's settings are where they belong.
• Emergency release. Whether it is present and works.

These are the items homeowners tend to care most about once they see them listed, because they are the ones that sound like safety. Make sure they show on the printed report.

Seals, Lubrication and Controls

The last group is the everyday stuff the homeowner touches or sees:

• Lubrication. Done as part of the visit and checked off.
• Bottom seal & weatherstripping. Cracks and gaps are easy for a customer to understand and often an easy yes on an estimate.
• Keypad & remotes. Whether they work, and whether the customer wants extra remotes.

That makes thirteen items. A tech who has done a few tune-ups in the app moves through them quickly, because the order is always the same.

Houses with more than one door are common, and each door on the house is saved separately with its bay, such as Bay 1, Bay 2 or the detached shop. When the tech writes up issues and recommendations, naming the door matters: “Bay 2: bottom seal cracked” is clear to the office, the homeowner and next year's tech. “Seal cracked” on a three-door house is a guessing game. The keypad and remotes item also tends to turn up small add-ons, like an extra remote for a new driver in the family.

Readings and Notes Alongside

Below the checklist, the tech fills in readings: door size, spring turns, balance lbs off, door age, opener age, estimated spring cycles used and issues found. The equipment saved on the house helps here. If the door was installed in 2014 and that is on the house record, the tech is not guessing at the door age. Readings are covered in Recording Readings at a Garage Door Tune-Up: Door Size, Balance, Spring Turns and Age.

Before and after photos can be taken in the app and saved with the job. A photo of a cracked bottom seal or a worn roller makes the recommendation much easier to explain later.

Phone Habits That Help

The tech app runs in the browser on the iPhones and Android phones your techs already carry, and installs to the home screen without an app store. A few habits make the checklist easier in the garage:

• Open the job and tap Start before touching the door, so the office knows the visit is underway.
• Work the checklist top to bottom while at the door, not from memory in the van afterward.
• Write recommendations in plain words a homeowner will understand.
• Take the photo when you see the problem, not after the fix.

For how the checklist fits into the full tune-up program, visit the garage door maintenance software page.