It is estimated that there are, on average 30,000 incidents of injuries caused by garage doors. Many homeowners use their garage doors multiple times each day without any incident. However, since these are the largest machines in anyone’s home it pays to play it safe. In this article we’ll outline some of the most effective garage door safety tips to keep yourself and the family safe.

Never Walk Under a Moving Garage Door

Ducking under and running under a moving garage door is tempting fate at best. When the garage door is moving, regardless of how fast you might think you are, the chances of getting hit by it are high. If you want to run into fetch something real quick stop the door and then go in.

Ducking under a garage door is a terrible habit, and you shouldn’t be doing it ever. Not to mention that your kids should never attempt it either. It only takes one mistake to cause a tragedy. You can slip on a puddle of oil, or your shoe may, until causing you to fail and get it. It is one of the most important garage door safety tips because we’ve seen many injuries caused by being hit by a garage door.

Observe the Garage Door When it is Moving

Whether the garage door is closing or opening, you will want to keep an eye on it until the motion is complete. Doing this offers a number of benefits. The first being that you can stop kids and pets from running in its direction unnoticed. The other being that you can ensure that the garage closed or opened properly or it didn’t get stuck halfway because there was something in its way.

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Check the Reversing Mechanism

You should do a monthly visual inspection of the garage door, which includes testing the reversing mechanism. Most modern garage doors have various safety features that will stop the door if there is an obstruction.  The way to test if this is working is to use a paper towel roll. Because the paper towel roll is soft it can’t hold up the door, but it still allows you to see if the sensors can detect its presence.

Install Garage Door Safety Sensors

Out of all the garage door safety tips, this requires that you hire a professional to do the installation. The safety sensors for the garage door opener will automatically stop the garage door if it senses something in the way. A laser eye sensor on either side of the garage door will allow the door to stop if something breaks the line of sight of the laser.

Installing this type of sensor is important, especially if you have kids that play ball and chase after it into the garage while it might be opening or closing. However, many modern garage doors come with these sensors preinstalled so check the user manual before installing the sensors.

Conclusion

Hopefully, our garage door safety tips will help keep you and your family safe. That said, it is always important to ensure that you don’t practice dangerous stuff with your garage door in the presence of kids for their own safety.

You can contact our garage door repair service to find out more about improving safety for your family.