Five handy tips to keep your garage safe and secure
It’s where you park your car, store your tools and put other valuable equipment for safekeeping. Since it’s isolated from other parts of the house, your garage can be a vulnerable space, particularly when you use it as a main entrance and exit area.
Even when living in a generally safe neighbourhood, there’s always a risk of burglars taking advantage of a poorly protected garage to help themselves to some of your belongings.
We turned to Garaga, the garage-door experts, for their best advice on how to protect your garage.
Here are their five tips for garage safety.
1. Always keep your garage door closed and locked
Never leave your garage door open, even if there’s someone at home. Anyone passing by could be tempted to check out what might be worth stealing, particularly if you have any valuables stored there.
If your garage door is equipped with an electric door opener, it will impede access to your garage. If you don’t have one, a secure lock on the door is an absolute must!
In higher risk neighbourhoods and in cases where your garage adjoins your home, it is advisable for the door leading from the garage to the house to have a separate secure lock.
2. Never leave the garage door remote in plain view in your car
First, always keep your car doors locked, even when you are at home. Many burglaries begin with unlocked car doors and the theft of a garage door remote. Thieves can steal your remote and return the next day while you are at work, before you even realize that your device is missing.
Further, never leave your garage door remote in plain view in your car. Rather than clipping the remote to your sun visor, as many people do, keep it out of sight in the glove box or some other storage compartment in the car.
Garage door remotes are often stolen in shopping mall parking lots. Thieves scout for unlocked car doors, look for documents that reveal your identity and steal the remote. At that point, it’s easy enough for them to find out where you live and quickly commit burglary.
You can also use a mini-remote that you can carry on your keychain. It’s convenient and it eliminates the risk of having it stolen from your car.
3. Cover your garage door windows
If there are windows on your garage door, especially at eye level (third panel), put some drapes or reflective mirror paper to prevent anyone from seeing into your garage. You can also use plastic film that permits light to pass through, but prevents anyone from seeing inside.
4. Make sure there is good exterior lighting around your garage and home
A well-lit garage can deter thieves because they can easily be spotted, should they try to break-in.
Install lighting around all doors leading into the house. Exterior lighting such as recessed lights or wall lights not only enhance security, but add a touch of nocturnal beauty to your home.
If you’re concerned about energy consumption, you can install motion detecting floodlights. If they go on, you will know that there may be someone prowling around in the vicinity of your house and that will deter potential thieves.
5. Install a solid garage door and a good garage door opener
It’s all well and good to lock your garage door, but if the door itself is of poor quality, such as a wooden door made of a sheet of plywood, it’s easy to break it down with one swift kick.
Get a 1 ¾ inch door with a polyurethane foam injected core. This insulation sticks to the walls of the door, making it very strong. Some metal garage doors are made of thicker than average steel, which is useful if your garage is close to the road.
Be sure to get a good quality garage door opener. Those manufactured after 1993 are safer because they have built-in rolling code technology. Every time you use the opener, the code sent by the transmitter changes.
If you have a digital keypad in the garage door frame, never give your security code to anyone you don’t know—you’d basically be giving them the key to your home! If for some reason you must share the code with someone else, make sure you change it when you get home. Remember to tell your children to not give the code to their friends as well.
Starting in 2014, garage door openers became available containing technology that connects them to the wireless internet network (Wi-Fi). You can open and close your garage door using your smart phone, your tablet or your computer – from wherever in the world you happen to be!
