Choosing to add an automatic gate to your Bay Area property brings a functional and stylish entranceway to your property.
However, as with most mechanical things, there is a certain amount of maintenance involved to keep them working well and lasting year over year.
Fortunately, most of this can be done at home without the help of a professional.
Here are some tips to ensure that your automatic gate works well into the future.
1. Clean Your Automatic Gate
The first thing that you want to do is make sure that you always keep your automatic gate clean.
This is a very simple, yet very effective, form of maintaining your gate for years to come.
Minor cleaning is required when necessary, but each year you should give your automatic gate a thorough clean.
What does this mean?
A good wash and wax are necessary, as this can help to prevent rust and maintain your paint.
When you let your automatic gate go without cleaning, dust and dirt can easily build-up, and this causes things like rust.
So, you should always regularly check on the cleanliness of your gate, especially around any exposed metal parts.
By doing this, you make sure that your gate not only looks good but also works well.
If you don’t, you will face a time consuming, and rather expensive, gate refurbish before you know it.
2. Keep Your Gate Well-Lubricated
Another tip for you to consider is this: you must keep your gate well-lubricated so that it works well.
Of course, you don’t have to lubricate the entire gate, but you should lubricate the important parts.
The manufacturer or installer of your gate should have recommended a lubricant to you when your automatic gate was installed.
If you have questions about that, you can also ask the team at Bay Area Automatic Gates. Generally, this lubricant should be applied every six months or so.
The parts that make the gate work should be maintained as well as possible.
This will ensure that you can save money now and avoid any costly repairs down the road.
You should lubricate the hinges, wheels, chain, pully, screws, and any other important parts that you see…or don’t see, as if you have a slide or swing gate, it might have internal chains that you must lubricate, too.
Just make sure that you do not any heavy oil or WD 40 to lubricate your automatic gate.
Instead, only use oil for gates, lithium grease, or silicon-based lubricant.
3. Be Aware of Pests
Finally, you should be aware of pests. This is an often-overlooked part of owning an automatic gate, but rodents, insects, and even reptiles can cause destruction to the electrical parts of the gate.
Snails and slugs, for example, can be a problem if they get to the circuit board of the gate.
The slime that they leave behind can absolutely ruin the circuitry.
Spiders can do the same with their webs, and ants, for some reason, like to build nests in these gates, which can wreak havoc on the circuitry, too.
You also might have to deal with mice in the Bay Area, who like to chew through wires, and even snakes and other reptiles, who might be looking for shelter.
Because of this, it is always a good idea to have your gate inspected each year by a pest control professional.
If you are looking for some of the best automatic gates on the market for your home or business, Bay Area Automatic Gates is a trustworthy, local option.
You can browse our website to see examples of our work, or we invite you to look at our gallery of work.
If you are looking for a new gate or maintenance, you can contact us online at our website or via telephone.