Garages are hugely useful for the modern family. Whether you have a brand-new garage door or an older model, our five tips for garage door safety will help to reduce the hazards such doors can pose for you and your family.
1. Hide the control
It’s important to keep the garage door remote control away from the reach of children. Ideally, you should install a small key safe box on the wall and leave it in there.
2. Don’t let children play with the garage door
If you do need to leave the remote control within reach, avoid letting the children have a go, even under your supervision. Overusing the remote controls by continually pressing the buttons to go up and down will eventually damage the garage door mechanism. Don’t allow children to play around a moving door, such as playing “beat the door”.
3. Emergency release awareness
Make sure you are fully acquainted with the owners’ manual. There, you should find the instructions for the emergency release of the garage, which you may need if the remote control goes missing or you simply need to open the door in an emergency. Make a copy of this page from the manual and attach it onto the inside of the garage door.
4. Carry out monthly inspections
Set a reminder to do it at the same time on the same day. When you do a check, look at the springs, rollers, pulleys and cables, looking for signs of wear. If you see anything amiss, don’t try to fix yourself. Instead, appoint the services of a professional. Garage owners located in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire or Cambridgeshire should contact the established Biggleswade garage door repairs team at http://garagedoorsrus.co.uk/garage-door-repairs-biggleswade/.
5. Test the reverse mechanism
You can test the reverse mechanism quite easily. Simply place a small wooden board or a roll of kitchen paper towels in the path of the door. If the door doesn’t automatically reverse upon contact with the object, call a professional. Any doors that are older than 1993 should ideally be replaced with a new one that has auto-reverse as standard.
Hopefully following these five useful tips will help you make your garage doors a lot safer for you and for your family. Always use common sense, and don’t take any chances!