Five Garage Door Safety Tips to Remember
The garage is one of the most versatile, most important parts of the house. It provides a haven for your car, storage space, workspace, and even workout space. It also enables you to enter and exit the house in safety and comfort. That's the good news. The bad news is that the garage is also a potentially dangerous place, especially for kids, mostly because of the garage door. In this post, the garage door installation experts at C & M are going to examine the issue of garage door safety and provide five tips that should help prevent accidents.
Take These Garage Door Safety Tips to Heart
The #1 danger in any garage is the garage door. That’s because the typical garage door weighs hundreds of pounds. If anything should go wrong, or if someone should be in the wrong place at the wrong time, those hundreds of pounds of door could cause serious injury or worse.
With that in mind let’s go over some basic garage door safety tips.
Tip #1: Stay Away From a Moving Door
This is akin to saying don’t park on the railroad tracks. You’d think everyone in Loveland would be aware of the danger and act accordingly but that’s not the case. If it was, there wouldn’t be thousands of garage door-related accidents every year worldwide.
Once the garage is in motion no one should approach it or try to sneak under it. Remember, kids learn from watching adults. So if kids see adults slipping in and out of the garage while the door is moving they’re likely to do the same thing when the adults aren’t around. And that could potentially lead to disaster.
Tip #2: Always Wait Until the Door Is Fully Open To Enter or Exit
Most people think the garage door opener opens and closes the garage door. But that’s not so. The job of the opener is to get things moving and then regulate that movement to make sure it’s nice and even. The springs are what do the heavy lifting and older springs have a nasty habit of snapping during the lifting or lowering process.
If you have an older garage door it may only have a single torsion spring. If that breaks while the door is in motion the door could come crashing down onto anyone or anything that’s in the way. And since the door weighs several hundred pounds the damage to life and property could be very serious.
If your door has two springs and one breaks during operation the door may still jerk downward several inches or more, which could be enough to smack someone on the head or cause serious damage to the roof of your car.
Tip #3: Keep the Controller Away From Children
You wouldn't give your kids the keys to your car, and for good reason. Likewise, kids should never have access to the garage door remote, nor should they be able to reach the control panel inside the garage (if you have one). It's just common sense.
Young children have no way to assess the relative dangers posed by the garage door. And because they’re curious types, if presented with a garage door remote or access to the control panel there’s a good chance they’re going to start hitting buttons. And then you’ve got a problem.
If you’re lucky you may only need to call for repairs when they’re done playing. If you’re not lucky they may sustain serious injury.
Tip #4: Don’t Store Things Near the Door
Many of us at C & M Garage Doors are homeowners ourselves. We understand that things often get dumped into the garage in a hurry, so there isn’t always time to select the perfect place to put them. But letting objects collect around the garage door is asking for trouble.
Often when we’re called for garage door repair we’ll find a stuck garage door is the result of stuff near the door that’s preventing it from closing properly, obstructing the electric eye for the auto-reverse mechanism, or leaning into and restricting the movement of the garage door cables.
All of these and other potential safety hazards can be avoided by simply keeping the area around the garage door clear and clean.
Tip #5: Engage in Regular Garage Door Maintenance
The best way to ensure your garage door is always running smoothly and safely is to schedule regular maintenance checks. A maintenance check can identify small problems or potential problems before they wind up growing into big problems that threaten life and property.
A garage door is a complex mechanism and every part of it must work correctly if you are to avoid potential hazards. Our basic maintenance check includes inspecting the springs, cables, rollers, tracks, motor, and the auto-reverse mechanism as well as checking the panels to see if any are cracked or loose. It’s a fast, affordable way to ensure your door is always in optimal condition.
For Garage Door Repair in Loveland, Contact C & M
The garage door is one of those things that make modern life a little safer and more comfortable. But the nature of the door means it is also a potential hazard. Take the above tips to heart and you will greatly reduce the chances of a catastrophic accident occurring. And for expert garage door installation, maintenance and repair services call C & M at (970) 663-7335.