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Archive for September, 2011

With the holiday season in full swing, you may be thinking about keeping your home safe while you’re away for the evening, overnight or longer. Your garage door can be a potential weak spot in your home that could provide an easy access point for intruders. Not to scare anyone, but it’s always better to be safe than sorry! To help you keep your family and home safe this holiday season, I’ve put together some useful tips that could help you prevent a break-in.

- If you have a garage door opener remote – do not leave it in the car. A common tactic among thieves is to find a certain car that has a door opener remote in it and get the owner’s address from their insurance or registration paperwork. If your remote is in the car, this makes it very easy for them to gain access to your home via the garage.

- If your door comes with a built-in lock, make sure it is locked before you leave. Alternately, if you have a sectional door on tracks, a simple but effective tactic is to place a C-clamp on both tracks above the door to prevent it from being moved.

- If the garage or the door itself has any windows, make sure they are covered up or obscured to prevent anyone from seeing if your car is in the garage or not, or if your garage contains any other valuable items this will help to conceal them.

- If your garage door has an emergency release handle, which is common amongst most new doors, it is possible in some instances to trigger this from outside the door with only a coat hanger. Zip-tying the handle in place will prevent this but will not prevent you from using the handle normally.

- If you have an older door opener, you may want to consider replacing it with a more modern opener that includes additional security features like “rolling codes”, which prevent your garage door opener from being exploited by clever thieves who can tap into the signal emitted by your door opener. It is paramount to keep your garage door safe and secure because, as I stated before, I it one of the weakest points of your home. If your garage door exhibits any of the above behaviors, it is indeed the right time to repair your garage door.

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A garage door will break down for quite a few reasons, but one of the repeat offenders that I see most often is the garage door springs. The springs operate as a balance that makes even a 300-400 pound door easy to move, but unfortunately the weight of a garage door does take a toll on the springs over time and causes them to break. It is imperative that you get your springs replaced as soon as they break down because it will cause a whole headache of issues that you don’t want to deal with.

Spring Cycles

Springs for garages use are typically rated in “cycles” – which means how many times the spring will be usable before it breaks. The best quality springs – such as many contractors use while doing a spring replacement – are rated for 30,000 cycles or more. Assuming that you have a properly operating garage door that is opened and closed about 6 times a day, you can expect to get about 11 years of use before the spring breaks.

Spring Types

There are two common types of springs used on residential garages: torsion and extension springs. A door that uses torsion springs typically has one torsion spring mounted above the door with a spindle running through it. When the door opens or closes, the torsion spring clamps down on the spindle or uncoils – releasing tension or generating tension to help move the door. Garage doors with extension springs typically have a spring mounted on either side of the door that stretch out and bounce back as the door moves – much like a Slinky.

Spring Repairs

You may be asking yourself – how do I know if my springs are broken and what do I do about it?

Some potential telltales of a broken spring include: The opener strains to lift the door; you heard a loud snap or similar noise while the door was operating previously; the door is hanging at an angle, etc.

If you have a broken spring, I strongly suggest that you contact a licensed, experienced contractor for assistance. In particular, the torsion-type door springs are under high tension that needs to be released properly to avoid turning the spring into a potentially lethal projectile if it breaks loose. Additionally, the door needs to be balanced properly on the springs to avoid causing additional wear on the springs or the garage door opener.

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