No matter what you do or don’t store in your garage, preventing burglars from being able to access it is essential, especially if there are interior doors leading to the rest of your home. While one of the simplest ways to prevent burglars is to never leave the garage door open or unlocked, there are a couple of other steps you can take to ensure that your garage door is secure enough to keep unwanted intruders and thieves at bay:
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Talk to Your Garage Door Specialist About Securing the Emergency Door Release:
There is an emergency release found on the interior of most garage doors, which while it can be useful in a real emergency, also gives burglars the opportunity to break in by activating the release with a wire from outside. Ensure that you talk to a garage door specialist before attempting to secure the emergency release yourself.
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Check for Gaps Under Your Garage Door:
If your garage door is old and become slightly warped or gone off track, or if the foundation has settled and doesn’t line up snugly with the bottom of the door, there may be gaps that could allow a burglar to gain entry.
One way of checking is to see if you can fit one or more of your fingers between the bottom of the door and the ground, and if you can, then it’s feasible that a burglar could get enough leverage to push the door up and squeeze themselves in through the gap. This is a frightening though, particularly as the process may well be silent, giving you no warning that an intruder is in your garage if you’re inside your home. If this is the case, then you should arrange to get the problem fixed as soon as possible, either by replacing your garage door or having it repaired.
It might be tempting to cut corners when it comes to upgrading your garage door due to the impact of the global pandemic, but while times may currently be tough for homeowners, they are perhaps even tougher for the criminal fraternity, and many burglars and thieves will be desperately on the look-out for vulnerabilities in homes, even when the occupants may be inside. If your garage door opener employs a fixed code, then it’s time that you think about upgrading to one that utilises a rolling code, making it far more difficult for hackers to copy the code and gain unlawful entry to your garage and home. If your garage door was fitted more than 20 years ago, then the chances are that it will be much more vulnerable to criminals than newer models, and you should talk to your local garage door specialist about arranging a security, and overall condition assessment.
