Easy Garage Door Repairs and Upgrades for Enhanced Security
Most homeowners worry a lot about keeping their doors and windows locked and often overlook the importance of securing their garage door. If you keep anything of value in your garage or if your garage is attached to your house, your home is at high risk of being broken into.
The good news is, as burglars become more sophisticated, so does home and garage door security systems. However, you will be surprised how often homeowners don’t consider garage doors when doing home security system upgrade or installations. In this article, we want to share a few simple ways you can use improve the security of your garage door, without breaking your bank.
Garage Door Safety Options:
Garage Door Opener Apps
There is an app for pretty much anything, including the garage door. There have been some impressive technological advancements in garage door security in recent years. It’s now easier to manage your garage door via a mobile app on your smartphone. All you need is a smart garage door opener installation and you can operate your garage door from anywhere in the world.
One of the most popular garage door apps is known as myQ, developed by LiftMaster. The app works with the company’s smart openers and other accessories to allow you to operate and monitor your garage from your smartphone. This helps you control access to your garage door and get alerts when you forget to lock your garage door or when someone accesses it while you’re away.
Additionally, you can preset times for closing and opening your garage door, or turning lights on and off using the scheduling option. Other cool stuff the myQ app can do include closing and opening gates, adjusting temperatures in your house and viewing live video feed. This is a handy app if want to enhance the security of your home or business.
Automatic Garage Door Deadbolts
Most garage doors are vulnerable to being broken into courtesy of the emergency release cord that is meant to allow you access to your garage in emergency situations. Burglars exploit this feature by triggering the emergency release system using a coat hanger method. To prevent this from happening, install an auto deadbolt on your garage door. The deadbolt protects your garage from external attacks, so the burglar cannot access it even if they manage to pull the emergency release cord.
Rolling Code Technology
Older garage door models come with keypads and access remotes whose codes must be changed manually. This increases the chances of burglars getting their hands on your codes. To avoid this, you need to install a smart garage door opener that supports rolling code technology. These have remotes that generate a new access code every time you use access to your garage. This way, burglars won’t access you active code using smart gadgets.
External Security Keypad
External security keypads allow you to close and open your garage door without the need to insert any keys. Assorted keys and remotes carry a risk of having you locked in your garage in case they get misplaced. A keypad can be installed on the outside of the garage door and used to access the garage door by people with the access codes. Most modern doors come with keypads already pre-installed as one of the options to operate your door, but older models can still be fitted with this technology.
Garage Door Repair Options
A Garage door tune-up
Sometimes all you need is a little tune-up to your garage door to cover up any security flaws and make it hard for unauthorized outsiders to access it. If your garage door doesn’t close completely, for instance, you can hire a garage door repair expert to make sure that the door closes tightly and doesn’t allow the coat hanger break-in method. As earlier mentioned, this is one of the most common entry methods that burglars use to access garage doors.
Replace Door Seals
Another most popular break-in link that burglars exploit is worn out garage door seals. This can also be used to trigger the emergency release system by pulling the emergency release code using some improvised wires. Have a garage door repair expert replace your existing worn out door seals with new ones –this not only improves security but also saves on your heating costs in winter.
Conclusion
Your home’s security system is as strong as its weakest access points, and many times, the weakest link is the garage door. Taking some time to implement the above security measures and more can go a long way in enhancing your overall home security.