Garage Door Safety: Essential Tips to Protect Your Home and Family

Your garage door is usually the largest moving object in your home. You use it every day as an entrance and rely on it as a security barrier, so it's easy to forget how heavy and powerful it is. Here's why garage door safety matters and what you can do about it.

Why Garage Door Safety Matters

A typical double garage door weighs 150 to 350 pounds, and solid wood doors can weigh more. A door that falls, closes on someone or traps a child can cause injuries from pinched fingers to broken bones. An unsafe or broken door also makes your home easier to break into.

Common Hazards

Pinching and crushing

The gaps between sections, the tracks and the springs can trap fingers and hands, and children are most at risk. Never touch a moving door, and teach children to keep their hands away from it.

A falling door

If a spring or cable breaks or the opener fails, a door can drop suddenly. Regular maintenance is the best prevention.

Carbon monoxide

Running a car or gas-powered tool in a closed garage can build up carbon monoxide (CO) quickly, and it can seep into the house. CO has no smell. Install a CO alarm, never leave an engine running in a closed garage, and open the door fully if you must run one.

Security

An open door, an old opener without rolling-code remotes, or a remote left in a parked car can all let intruders in.

10 Garage Door Safety Tips

1. Keep controls away from children: mount the wall button at least 1.5 metres (5 feet) off the floor, keep remotes out of reach and teach children the door isn't a toy.
2. Never go under a moving door: wait until it has stopped completely, and check that nobody, including pets, is underneath.
3. Keep hands clear: don't put fingers between sections, don't touch springs or cables, and don't try to steady a moving door by hand.
4. Test auto-reverse every month: place a piece of wood or a roll of paper towels where the door closes. It should stop and reverse when it touches. Then wave an object through the sensor beam while the door is closing; it should reverse. If it doesn't, stop using the opener and have it repaired.
5. Use modern safety features: openers made before 1993, when photo-eye sensors became standard, should be replaced. Look for rolling-code remotes and pinch-resistant sections.
6. Look and listen every month or two: check the springs, cables, rollers, pulleys and tracks for wear, and act on new noises or jerky movement. Lubricate the hinges, rollers and springs with a garage door lubricant (spray only; never adjust springs).
7. Book a yearly professional inspection: a technician checks balance, spring tension, opener force settings and safety systems and replaces worn parts.
8. Leave high-tension repairs to professionals: springs and cables store enough energy to cause serious injury.
9. Secure the door: keep it closed, don't leave the remote in your car, and use the opener's vacation lock or a slide bolt when you're away.
10. Prevent CO build-up: don't warm up the car in the garage, even with the door partly open. Back it out first. The BC Building Code requires carbon monoxide alarms in new homes with an attached garage, and every home with one should have a CO alarm near the bedrooms.

Not sure your door is safe? Our 26-point safety inspection checks every part. Call 604.398.4009.

Conclusion

A safe garage door takes a little attention: monthly checks, a yearly tune-up and professional help for springs and cables. If anything about your door worries you, call GVA Garage Doors at 604.398.4009.