Many people don’t give enough attention to garage door safety, but 20,000 to 30,000 injuries take place each year because of them. That should highlight the need for some awareness around safety. The garage door ranks as one of the most dangerous parts of the home. Some of the most common injuries include fingers or body parts getting caught under the door, the door getting lowered onto someone and injuries to those who repair the door. Let’s have a look at some garage door safety tips that can save you from an injury.
Tip #1: Never Let Kids Hang onto the Garage Door
In particular, many of the injuries occur with children, and you should never let a child hang onto the garage door because of how this can hurt them or damage the door. You can bet that they will feel tempted to do this. In fact, don’t let a child play around an operating garage door whatsoever, and don’t let them play with the controls either. The consequences aren’t worth it.
Tip #2: Conduct a Monthly Inspection
For a lot of people, they may not even think of this with their garage door, but one of the best ways to improve garage door safety comes from inspecting the door once a month. Look for signs of wear and tear. In this way, you can fix the problem before it has the opportunity to fully materialize into an injury. Look at the pulleys, the springs, the cables and the rollers to ensure everything remains in working condition and won’t malfunction.
Any damage to the cables, springs, rollers or pulleys shouldn’t be repaired via the do-it-yourself method because of how this requires the careful attention of a specialist to prevent injuries. These parts have been wound tightly, and they have a lot of tension behind them. Should one of the components break, it could cause serious injury to anyone in the vicinity. You must have an expert because they know how to do this safely.
Tip #3: Take the Garage Door Opener with You
One of the most common ways that criminals have broken into homes comes from them stealing the garage door opener. Once they have the opener, they don’t have to come in through the front door because they can use the garage door opener to enter through the garage. Because of its size, you can store this in a backpack, a purse or a pocket and lower the chances that it will get stolen.
Tip #4: Educate Your Family
Especially small children need an education not to play around a garage door in operation. Remind your children not to keep their hands or fingers near a garage door that is closing. In addition, they shouldn’t have loose clothing near it because this can have equally devastating consequences. You want your children to understand how the garage door is not a toy, and they shouldn’t run, play near or stand close to a garage door that is moving. A little awareness around this issue can go a long way to protecting your family.
Tip #5: Beware of the Garage Door’s Age
Garage doors over the age of 25 years old can start to endanger those who use it because of how the wear and tear can cause them to malfunction. If you have a garage door over 25 years old, you may want to contact Pros Garage Door in Cinnaminson, New Jersey. They can inspect the components and bring your garage door up to date.
Tip #6: Never Depend on the Sensors
Even if your garage door has sensors on it that prevent it from closing if someone is underneath it, you should never rely on this. Technology can malfunction. Most modern garage doors will have a black box located closer to the bottom of the garage door. When the sensors don’t align properly, the garage door won’t operate.
Still, cases have happened where the sensors malfunctioned and the door closed on someone who thought they were safe. Every month or so, you may even want to inspect the sensors. You might clean the lenses with a soft cloth because dirt and spiderwebs can build up on them. This keeps the eyes from malfunctioning. If you believe that the sensors aren’t working, call a professional get the sensors because to work.
Tip #7: Prepare for Emergencies
Let’s say something happens and someone gets caught under the garage. How do you respond to this situation? You should learn the emergency release feature of your garage. It will usually be found in the owner’s manual of your product. People should always know this because of how you never know if someone would get injured by the door. The faster you can respond, the better their chances of survival and non-permanent injury. Understanding where the emergency release is at will keep you and your family safe.
Garage Door Safety
One of the greatest safety measures that you can take for a garage door is to make sure that you have photo-eye sensors, and check periodically to make sure that they work. Many times, the injuries that come from garage door can be serious because people get crushed by them. Never let a child play games during an operating garage door, and don’t let them dash underneath an operating garage door. This poses a great danger to your child.