Garage Security- 8 Tips on how you can increase your security.

Garage security is a major concern for every homeowner, especially if your garage is attached to your home. To the average person it just looks like any other room of the house, but to a professional thief it may look like an easy target.

Garage security is a major concern for every homeowner, especially if your garage is attached to your home.

To the average person it just looks like any other room of the house, but to a professional thief it may look like an easy target.

Keep in mind that your garage door is the largest access point in the entire home.

Here are some of the many things you can do to increase the safety and security of your garage door.

• Keep the door in plain sight. Try to prevent overgrowth of plants or piles of “stuff” from blocking the view of the door from the front sidewalk or road. Thieves love to be hidden while they work and if your neighbours or people walking by can easily see them, they just may decide to go elsewhere.
• Install motion activated lights in front of the garage door. No thief will want to stand around trying to break in if he is in the spotlight. Plus, at night it will seem more inviting, and make parking much easier too.
• If you are thinking of installing a new garage door with windows, make sure to get the optional “obscured glass” this will let light into the garage, but it will make it impossible for thieves to see what is inside.
• If you want to keep your existing door but have plain glass, go to your local hardware store and get some tinted paint. It comes in handy aerosol spray cans. Ask for help if necessary. You can also find 3M™ Impact Protection Attachment Systems, which can increase your security.
• If you have an old wooden door that is sagging you may want to replace it with a newer metal door. The gaps in the bottom corners that old wood doors often have make it easy for a thief to put a pry bar under the door and either force it open or break it.
• If your house has a central alarm, make sure you have a sensor on the garage door so that if a thief does manage to break in, both you and the police will know about it. If you have seen the “6 second break in” videos on the internet and are worried your garage is at risk, consider having perimeter weather seal installed. Not only will this make it much more difficult to break in. but it will also help prevent cold winter air from coming into your garage!
• If you are still concerned about the “6 second break in” DO NOT use the zap strap fix. It will prevent the emergency release from working which is a safety hazard, and on some models it may actually damage the trolley or inner slide. Instead why not have us come by for a custom made solution that will %100 stop the “6 second break in” from working without disabling the safety of the emergency release device.

Implementing all these steps may not turn your house into a fortress, but it should be enough to make any thief move on to an easier target.

Paul Janzen, Garage Door Technician