For many of us, our garage is the main entrance to our home. Ever since I was a child, the front door was rarely used by our family. The garage door was the most commonly used door in our home! Not only are our garages the main port by which we enter, it’s also a place where you store some of the most expensive pieces of equipment in our home. All of our REC equipment, lawn and power tools are often kept there. Not to mention any toys such as ATV’s if you have them! For this reason it is so important to make sure that your garage is safe and secure! Keep your belongings, your home, and your family safer when you have a garage secured against intruders!
CLOSE YOUR GARAGE DOOR
The most obvious way to secure your door is to shut it at night and when you leave the house. Of course this seems obvious and I’m sure that none of us would say that we ever leave the garage door open on purpose! But I’m also sure that more than a few of us can say that they’ve forgotten to a time or two. The moment when you pull into your driveway after being gone all day to find your door open is not a welcome one, but one that comes all too often for some of us. There are a few ways to help yourself remember to close your door, but perhaps one of the easiest is to install a garage door sensor on your door. This a two part sensor that will shine a red light if the door is open. Many people choose to leave this in a spot that you look at often throughout your day. Maybe in your bathroom, so that you’ll see it when you go to bed.
As far as leaving it open while you are gone from home, there is an app available to people who have newer Craftsman openers. This app called Mydoor can tell you whether or not the garage door is open or closed, and gives you the ability to open or close the door from wherever you are!
KEEP YOUR DOOR REMOTE OUT OF PLAIN SIGHT
A great way to keep your garage secure from intruders is to keep your opener out of plain sight. A relatively common way of breaking into your home, is to break into your car first. Intruders will sometimes break into your car and steal your registration (with your address on it) and your remote. So they have your address as well as what is basically a key to your home.
Have no worries though, if your remote is ever lost or stolen it is very easy to reprogram your garage door opener which will make it so that all remotes are unable to control the garage door opener. You an easily reprogram new ones or ones that you still have.
LOCK YOUR OPENER
If you are leaving home for a couple of days, you can use the lock function on your openers wall button to lock out all remotes! This makes sure that no one can use a remote to open your door from the outside until you come home and turn the lock function off.
Another way to physically lock your door is to use the slide lock that many newer doors are equipped with at installation. These slide locks have a metal bar that slides into the track for the door. Making it impossible to open the door with it engaged. Just make sure to unengage it before your use the opener again! I can’t tell you how many calls we’ve had from people who have broken their opener by forgetting to release the slide lock.
INSTALL CAMERAS
An area often overlooked for camera installation is the garage even though it’s stocked full of things that we would rather not have stolen. Installing cameras is a great way to monitor the safety of the most vulnerable part of your home.
MAKE SURE THE DOOR ITSELF IS STRONG
A well insulated door is a great defense against intruders because they are so much harder to ram with a car or cut into with a jigsaw. It is still a possibility that someone could break in this way, but it’s unlikely that the perpetrators would succeed before someone saw or heard them. This video is obviously an exaggeration, but it helps to show how an uninsulated door can crumble when damaged.
If your door has windows, make sure they are high enough that it would be difficult for an average sized person to see through if on foot. Better yet, make sure that the windows are opaque. There are many glass finishes available in opaque, for little or no extra cost above clear glass. If you already have garage door windows that are clear, you can cover the windows with a glass film to make it Harder to see into.
KEEP YOUR HOUSE DOOR LOCKED
If your garage door is attached to the house, It is a good idea to keep the door to the house locked. So that if someone does break in through the garage, they will have another barrier in getting into your home. Always keep the door locked at night, and when you leave the house.
Following these simple steps will enable you to keep your home safe and secure. Taking these simple steps will provide extra protection, keeping your mind at ease.