No matter where you live, garage doors play a vital role in providing security to your house and enhancing its curb appeal. This is why when these doors malfunction, it causes various issues for the owners. One of the biggest issues garage doors have is they can be a safety threat if people don’t know how to handle them.
There are a few garage door safety tips that can keep you, your family members, your pets, and your property safe. You must always keep the garage door opener remote inaccessible to children. You should also check the safety features of the garage door regularly.
You also must always keep your garage door regularly maintained.
Let’s take a detailed look at various safety tips for garage doors, and how following these can keep you safe.
Tips that ensure garage door safety
In the USA, thousands of people get injured every year due to accidents related to garage doors. This directly goes against what garage doors are mainly installed for, which is the safety and security of a home.
A lot of these accidents are caused due to people’s negligence about what to do and what not to do with their garage doors.
We have compiled a list of garage door safety tips that will help you avoid being a part of the statistics of people getting injured by their garage doors.
1. Keeping the remote out of children’s reach
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If you have children in your home, you will know they love to not listen to what their parents say. They also tend to think that everything around them is a toy, including the garage door opener remote.
But if there is one thing in the world that a garage door remote is not, is a toy for children. This is why you must ensure your garage door opener remote is in such a place that your children can’t reach it.
But you can’t rest on your laurels by just keeping the remote in an inaccessible place for children. Some children will go to great lengths to defy their parents’ orders and will do everything in their power to get their hands on the remote.
If possible, keep anything they can use to get the remote, such as chairs, ladders, etc out of the way.
2. Checking up on the garage door safety features
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Garage door manufacturers are not done with your garage doors just by manufacturing them. They also install various safety features which make sure you or your family members will not get hurt by the door. To make sure these features work properly, you need to check them regularly.
If they are left unchecked and end up malfunctioning, you might get seriously hurt.
3. Performing regular maintenance on the doors
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One of the top garage door safety requirements is to perform maintenance on the garage door on a regular basis. A garage door has four main components: the cable, springs, pulley, and rollers. All of these components have to work in sync and seamlessly for your garage door to perform at its peak.
If you don’t maintain your garage door regularly, and one of these components gets damaged due to old age or any other reasons, the door will stop working.
Depending on which component is damaged, it can even come down on any human or your properties including your car and cause serious damage.
4. Refraining from running under the garage door and hanging from it
Garage doors, irrespective of what they are made of, can be extremely heavy, especially for children or people of smaller stature. So, if children play under the garage door, and the door unfortunately malfunctions, it can come straight down on them. And when that happens, they can’t escape unscathed. So, running under a garage door, especially when it is closing is a big no-no.
Also, as much as children like to think so, garage doors are not something to play with. So you should forbid them from hanging from the garage door when it is opening. Sometimes the garage door and its parts can’t take the extra weight and comes crashing down. This is one of the biggest causes of accidents related to garage doors.
5. Checking whether the auto-reverse works
As we have said before, garage doors have a lot of safety features, one of them is the auto-reverse function. When the garage door sensors pick something to be under the garage door, it stops the door from closing and the door starts to go back up.
So, even if your children, pets, or yourself in your car are under the garage door when it is closing, the door should go right back up. But this will only happen if the auto-reverse or the sensors are working properly.
Otherwise, you might face some serious consequences. Always check the auto-reverse function and the sensors regularly to ensure your safety.
6. Not keeping your fingers between sections
The next in our list of garage door tips is minding your fingers. One of the most common reasons people get injured when opening their garage doors is when they place their fingers between the sections of the door.
This is a very dangerous move, and more often than not, causes you to get hurt. Avoid getting hurt by keeping your fingers away from garage door sections.
7. Keeping the garage door locked
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Since you installed your garage door to keep your house as well as its inhabitants safe, you should not take any chances with it. No matter where you are if you are not using the garage, keep the door locked.
Not only will this prevent unwanted visitors from entering as well as your children from using the door as a toy and hurting themselves.
8. Keeping the house door locked
Garage doors are not always burglar-proof. Yes, some garage doors are extremely sturdy and strong, but thieves, burglars, and robbers always find a way to enter your home. So, you have to make sure that even if your garage door is compromised, your house doesn’t get invaded by them.
Always keep the door leading to the garage from your house locked so that nobody unwanted can enter your home that way.
9. Changing the codes of your garage door keypad
Another good way to keep both your house and your properties safe is to change your garage door keypad codes regularly. This way not only burglars will not be able to open your garage door with ease, but your children also not be able to do so and wreak havoc inside the garage.
10. Keeping your garage door unplugged when away
When you are out of your home for some days, make sure you unplug your garage door from the opener. This will make the door almost impossible to open by either burglars or children, due to its sheer weight.
Final Words
Making sure your garage door isn’t the cause of injuries and safety risks is paramount for obvious reasons. If you follow the aforementioned garage door safety tips, you can ensure your garage door will provide the safety and security you had installed it for in the first place.
We, at Precise Garage Doors, provide top-notch garage door installation and repair service, so if you see any damages to your garage door, contact us now to book our services.
FAQ\’s
1. What is the most common problem with garage doors?
Homeowners face a lot of problems with their garage doors. Among all of these, the most common problem with garage doors is when the door gets stuck halfway when opening or closing. This can happen due to faulty sensors and rollers.
2. Why you shouldn\’t leave your garage door open?
There are plenty of reasons why you must not keep your garage door open. The biggest of these reasons is doing so will result in your home being invaded by burglars and robbers.
3. How to make garage doors safer?
There are a lot of ways to make your garage door safer. There is the option of installing keypads as well as home security services. You can also install motion detectors.
