You may not think of an automatic overhead garage door as something that could be hazardous, but anything mechanical has the potential to be dangerous under the right circumstances. You should be especially careful of any mechanical elements in your home — especially those that are on the exterior of your house and have the potential to affect more than just your family.
Garage door safety is incredibly important, which is why we here are Custom Overhead Doors work diligently to bring you safe and reliable garage doors that are also visually appealing. Once your custom garage doors are installed, it’s always best to perform a garage door safety test to make sure everything is running smoothly and working exactly as it should. Make sure that, if you have young children in your home, you conduct these safety tests on a regular basis to decrease the chances of any accidental injuries being caused by your automatic garage door.
In addition to regular garage door safety tests, it’s important to make sure everyone in your family understands the dangers that come along with owning an automatic garage door. This will minimize the risk of injuries within your household. Remember that your garage door is not a toy — it’s a heavily mechanized convenience option that should be treated with care and respect.
With that in mind, here are the top four tips to teach your family about garage safety.
Don’t Race the Door
It may seem like common sense, but you should never push the button to close your garage door and then proceed to try and run underneath it before the door has a chance to close. This is extremely dangerous and could result in serious physical harm or even death. While most sober adults would never admit to attempting to race the garage door, many have actually tried this. Unfortunately, it’s much more common for children to try to beat the door, and they often do it as part of a game.
Garage door safety sensors have significantly reduced the number of injuries sustained due to people pushing the button on the garage door opener and then attempting to run under it before it has a chance to close. The safety sensors should not be relied on except in emergency situations, so it’s important to have a discussion with your children and anyone else in or around your home that may try to race the door about how unsafe and dangerous it is.
Hire a Professional for Repairs
No matter how much of a handyman or handywoman you think you are, there are some things in life that you should always hire a professional to repair. Your overhead garage door is one of these things. Although it may seem like your custom overhead door is a simple setup consisting of a door on a rail with a few electronics thrown in, it’s actually far more complicated than that. There are quite a few heavy, moving parts and electrical components involved in your garage door, which is why you should hire a professional for even the most seemingly minor repairs.
Fixing your own garage door when it’s out-of-order is a safety hazard, as the heavy door could fall onto you, or the electrical system could shock you. An amateur fix is likely to be a fairly unreliable fix, as the chances of you fixing your own broken door without proper training is slim to none. Not to mention the fact that you will have a harder time finding the proper materials to use in the repair than a professional would. Using the wrong materials could lead to permanent damage that even the most qualified professional may not be able to fix.
Keep Your Hands Away From Joints and Tracks
There are many moving parts that make up your overhead garage door, and your hands should be nowhere near them if you want to keep all of your fingers and avoid any other types of injuries. Every year, over 7,000 causes of people pinching or crushing their hands and fingers in the joints and tracks of their overhead garage doors are reported. It’s one of the most common injuries associated with automatic garage doors. Yet, the avoidance of this injury is beyond simple. All you have to do is keep your hands away from the joints and tracks.
If you think that something is wrong with the joints or tracks of your garage door, it’s always better to call in a professional for their opinion or repair help. As noted above, if you try to repair your garage door yourself, you could end up with more damage than just a pinched or crushed finger or two. Your best bet with automatic garage doors is to only touch them when they’re closed, and only then to clean them. Otherwise, there really is no other legitimate reason for putting yourself in harm’s way.
Fix Any Broken Glass Around Windows on the Garage Door
You wouldn’t let a broken window in your home go without fixing it, so why let your garage windows sit broken any longer than absolutely necessary? Not only is this unsightly, but it’s also hazardous to anyone who walks near your garage door. Even if the glass is only cracked and not broken on the ground, it may still prove to be a safety hazard. Once a window is cracked, it’s more likely to break through and leave trails of glass all over your driveway and/or the interior of your garage. This possibility increases each and every time you open and close your garage door with broken glass.
Broken glass is dangerous to you and your family, since it introduces a risk of cutting your feet if you happen to step on it. It’s also hazardous to your automobiles, and can become lodged in a car tire, causing a slow leak that may leave you stranded somewhere, a huge blowout that could cause a dangerous accident or even just a flat tire that derails your plans for the day and costs you additional money for new tires, along with a new garage door window.
We hope you’ve learned something from this brief tutorial on basic garage door safety. As you can see, it takes just a few small changes to safeguard yourself and the people you love.