The Concerned Homeowner's Guide to Garage Door Security
Whether you’re leaving for a 20-minute trip to the grocery store, a full day of work, or a two-week long vacation, securing your garage door is a crucial part of protecting your home against unwanted visitors. In addition to storing cars and other equipment, the garage is one of the main entries into your home.
A home break-in occurs about every 13 seconds, and 9 percent of burglars enter homes through the garage door.
In this post, we will walk you through a list of practices to amp up your garage door security and help keep your home and family safe. Our set of practices is the standard for minimizing the number of home break-ins through the garage.
1: Always remember to shut your door
First let’s state the obvious: always close your garage door when you’re leaving your home and don’t share your garage door code with people you don’t trust.
The few minutes it takes to double check that your door is closed before leaving your house or going to bed for the night could save you a costly break-in down the road.
If your garage is connected to your house, it is just as important to lock the door leading from your garage to the inside of your house. Just like front and back doors, this door should be treated like a door leading outside and should be locked before leaving. Closing and locking all entry doors is the first step to secure your household.
2: Install a security system for your garage door
Most burglars will avoid homes that have security systems — whether that means actually installing a security system or simply sticking a sign in your yard that says you have one. Alarm systems can catch unwanted visitors in the act. Camera systems allow you to monitor the area around your garage. Motion-sensitive lights can also deter unwanted visitors, who typically prefer to lurk in the dark.
Garage Door Minder is a monitoring system that will let you know if your garage door is open from inside your home.
3: Install a backup lock on your garage door
For even more peace of mind, we recommend installing a lock on your garage door. In addition to your regular locking mechanism, a slide bolt lock adds another layer of security and is easily installed with a drill and screwdriver. You can order one here for roll-up garage doors, or here for one-piece doors. Just remember not to open your garage door while the lock is engaged.
4: Keep your opener remote on you
Many people keep their garage door opener remote in their car. Though convenient, this can give burglars easy access into your garage if they get into your car. Switching to a keychain remote ensures that your remote is wherever you and your keys are, and won’t fall into the wrong hands.
5: Secure the emergency door release
Though this system is helpful when your garage door opener isn’t functioning correctly, it can also be helpful for people trying to break into your garage. It can take as little as six seconds for burglars to open a garage door from the outside using something as common as a clothes hanger. Luckily, it takes an equally short amount of time to secure your door release with a few zip ties so that it can’t be triggered from the outside.
A more heavy-duty solution is this piece of hardware by Garage Shield, which can be quickly installed by hand to prevent access to your door release from the outside.
Keep your family and belongings safe by following these five practices. These are especially important this summer to keep your home secure if you're going out of town for family vacation.
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