Stop Your Roller Shutter Sticking: A Practical Guide

Why shutters seize in the first place

Nine times out of ten the problem is not the shutter curtain, it is the guide rails either side. Grit, road salt, brick dust from nearby building work and the general grime of a busy street settle into the channels. Mixed with old grease, that turns into a sticky paste that grips the edge of each lath.

The other common culprits are a bottom rail that has been clipped by a delivery trolley or a vehicle, laths that have bowed slightly after an attempted break in, and fixings that have worked loose so the guides are no longer perfectly parallel. Shutters on older units around Digbeth and the Jewellery Quarter often sit in brickwork that has shifted a little over the decades, which quietly narrows the tolerance the shutter has to run in.

The ten minute check that prevents most jams

Do this monthly, and after any spell of heavy rain or gritted pavements. It takes longer to read than to carry out.

• Run the shutter fully up and fully down once, listening for a change in pitch or a catch at a particular height. Note where it happens.
• Look into both guide rails with a torch. You want to see clean metal, not a dark waxy build up.
• Clean the channels with a stiff brush and a dry cloth, then a little white spirit on a rag for stubborn residue. Let it dry off completely.
• Check the bottom rail sits flat and level on the threshold. A gap at one end means the shutter is running out of square.
• Sweep the threshold itself. A single stone bearing under the bottom rail is enough to stop a shutter dead.

Lubricate properly, and not with what is under the sink

Use a silicone based spray on the guide rails and the curtain edges. Silicone stays slippery without attracting dust. Avoid general purpose penetrating sprays such as WD-40 as a long term lubricant. They are fine for freeing a seized bolt, but the light oil evaporates and the residue collects grit, so within a couple of months the shutter runs worse than before.

Spray sparingly into the top of each guide rail, then cycle the shutter three or four times to draw it down the channel. Wipe off anything that runs onto the shopfront glass or the pavement, because silicone on glass is a nuisance to remove and slippery underfoot. Do not grease the motor, the crown wheel or the springs. Those are sealed or set up to a specific tension and are not user serviceable.

When it jams, stop pressing the button

The single most expensive mistake is repeatedly hitting the up button on an electric shutter that is already stuck. The motor will keep pulling, and instead of a jammed lath you end up with a bent bottom rail, a stripped drive or a curtain that has pulled out of its guides at one side.

If it stops halfway, release the switch, look for the obstruction, and use the manual override. Most electric shutters have a crank handle or a hand chain, and every member of staff who opens or locks up should know where it is kept and how to use it. If you cannot see an obvious cause, leave the shutter where it is and secure the premises another way rather than forcing it.

When to call an engineer, and what it tends to cost

Call someone if the shutter is running unevenly at an angle, if you can hear a bang or a sharp twang from the barrel, if a manual shutter suddenly feels far heavier than usual, or if it drops faster than it should. Those point to spring or barrel problems, and a shutter spring under tension is genuinely dangerous to work on without the right tools.

As a rough guide, a call out and basic service in the West Midlands typically falls somewhere in the region of £90 to £180 plus VAT, with a planned annual service on a single shutter often in the £120 to £250 range depending on size, access and whether it is manual or electric. Spring and motor work costs considerably more. Parts availability matters too, so mention the make and approximate age when you ring round.