Securing Your Garage Door

The garage door is usually one of the weakest entry points in a home. The panels can be pushed in, the windows can be broken and even the emergency release manipulated from the outside, allowing intruders to get into the garage and potentially the rest of your home. It's essential that you secure your garage door. One quick task, plus two choices when you get new doors, can make a world of difference.

Tie Up the Emergency Release

On existing doors, you can often get past the weather stripping using a coat hanger or long wire slipped through the space between the top of the door and the wall. This allows someone to potentially hook the emergency or manual lever inside and open the door. KEYE-TV in the U.S. showed how this could be done in only a few seconds. The solution they showed was to place a plastic tie around the trigger mechanism so that it couldn't be pulled down by one of those wires, but you could break or cut the tie if you needed to use the emergency release. Practice a few times to ensure you use a tie that you can pull open quickly if you need to.

Use Impact-Resistant Glass in Any Windows

If you're replacing your garage door or are in a position to replace any glass in the door, use impact-resistant glass for any windows. This glass contains a membrane that needs a special cutter—one that intruders typically don't carry. But even if the one at your home does, it will take them longer to get through. Windows in garage doors are usually small enough that no one will physically get through the windows, but by breaking one, the intruder could get to the emergency release if you haven't tied it up. If you're worried about how using this glass will affect you (with visions of needing to break open a window for ventilation for whatever reason dancing through your head), keep a pair of those special cutters inside the garage.

Install Steel Sectional Doors

When replacing your doors, look at getting one that is a sectional door made from steel. Wood doors can be easy to bust through or push open, so using steel stops anyone from breaking through. Using a sectional door with several rollers also makes it harder for the intruder to shove the door out of alignment to create an opening. Think of a steel sectional garage door as a series of smaller doors that make life a lot harder for anyone trying to get in by force.

Whether you're replacing the door or just making modifications, you can secure it so that your home is safer. Manufacturers like B&D offer sectional doors in several styles and can help you choose one that has the features you want and need.

Check out sectional doors, such as B&D sectional doors, to get a better idea of what you may be looking for.