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Garage-door security

492 views 8 replies 5 participants last post by  BigEd 
#1 ·
A subject that I often discuss with customers is how to secure their garages, usually attached garages. Most residential break-ins are through a door, very often a back door or garage side door. Those we usually treat like any other door, with a typical alarm contact. Some people don’t want us to mess with their roll-up garage doors, worrying that they’ll forget about the alarm being in a countdown state once they open the door to drive in. This is what I generally suggest for those folks.

First, if you have windows in the roll-up door as many do (usually one row right at eye level or so) put curtains or something in them. That alone is a great help since the scumbags don’t get the visual confirmation ahead of time that there’s something in there that they want to steal. They can assume that there probably is, but it’s better to not inform them that there definitely is.

Secondly, I point out to them that in addition to pulling the door up, the garage door opener also serves to hold it down, which is a good thing. But if they have the windows in the door as mentioned above, get rid of the (usually bright red) hanging emergency-release cord on the door-opener’s trolley. When the door is open (which is when homeowners most often see it), it’s hanging innocently in the middle of the room above the car. But when the door is closed, it’s right at the door, easy to reach and right at eye level. So if the door has even those small windows there, just breaking that one piece of glass lets the scumbag pull the rope and instantly the door can be opened. Once in, they simply pull the garage door back down, and the odds of the small broken window being noticed by anyone driving by are pretty low. The downside to removing the cord is the added inconvenience if you need to get the car out during a power outage and your opener doesn’t work, but imo that is more than outweighed by the reduced risk of having the cord so conveniently available to scumbags.

Lastly, if they don’t have a motorized opener I suggest they simply use some kind of physical blocking on the door track. This can be something as simple as a small bolt or even a carabiner through one of the holes in the track. I have one roll-up door that doesn’t have an opener on it since it’s just a storage room and not an actual garage space and only has a 7’ high opening. Personally I use a pair of wide-jaw vise grips to achieve the same track-blocking function. They’re very quick & easy to put on & off, they don't require a hole in any particular location, and they also have the side benefit of holding the door all the way open & out of the way. And nobody is getting the door open without creating a lot of work, noise and obvious destruction in the process.
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#3 ·
Good deal. No idea where I originally came across the vise-grip idea, but every time I mention it to people they act like they'd never heard of it before.

Something I failed to mention above - if you're going to be out of town for a few days, simply unplug your garage door opener when you leave. That prevents anyone using a remote or frequency sweeper on your door (not real common, but not unknown either, even in our rural area) and physically holds the door shut at the same time. You can just use the 'lock' button (sometimes called a vacation button) on your door opener's wall-mounted control to deactivate it; but I like physically powering it down; just a symptom of my personal distrust, probably.

Lastly, keep in mind that your garage door opener is effectively a key to your house; or at the very least a key to your garage. If you leave your car unlocked when it's in the driveway or in a store parking lot, you're making a mistake to begin with; but if you leave it unlocked with the garage remote on your visor as most people do, it's functionally the same as leaving your house keys hanging there on your visor.
 
#5 ·
Very interesting post, when my wife and I travel for matches during the summer I generally give my daughter the garage door opener so she can check the house on a regular basis. Something that I had not thought of.
 
#7 · (Edited)
I reinforced the door's strike plate and hung a solid core door with a deadbolt after several attempts by burglars to enter my garage. Get it here- emergency locksmith e11 more advice and suggestions on how to protect not only your garage but your whole house.
I suppose the burglars weren't the most proficient if they couldn't open the garage door. The most skilled burglars can break into a garage door in a matter of seconds.
 
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