June is Garage Door Safety Month
As the largest opening into your home, the garage door plays a key role in our daily lives. Security and safety are paramount. Every year thousands of homeowners who probably didn’t give safety a second thought become injured in their garage or by their garage door. You and your family have a better chance of avoiding injury when you know the most common injuries and how to avoid them. Annual garage door maintenance by a trained technician is the best way to make sure there are no sudden breakdowns.
4 Common Garage Door Injuries
- Fingers caught and crushed between door sections. Stay clear of the moving panels.
- Doors falling down. Never run under a moving door.
- DIYers injured while doing repairs or cleaning. Hire a qualified expert and stay out of harm’s way.
- Springs break, causing bodily injury. Hire a qualified expert and stay out of harm’s way.
5 Garage Door Safety Tips
- Visual Inspection of springs, cables, rollers, and pulleys can catch trouble before a failure occurs.
- Test Reverse Action with a 2×4 board laid flat under the door. If the door does not reverse on its own at contact with the board, call us right away for a safety tune-up.
- Test Force Setting by standing outside the path of the door. Try to stop the door as it lowers. If it does not easily reverse, call us for a safety tune-up.
- It’s Not a Toy Do not let children play with transmitters. Push-button wall controls should be mounted beyond reach of little hands.
- Stay Away from a moving door to avoid fingers being caught and crushed between the door sections.
Properly Ventilate Your Garage
Proper ventilation in your garage can be a matter of life and death. Do not seal off your garage as you would the living areas of your home. Building codes require ventilation in the garage to allow for venting of poisonous gases and chemicals. Combustible material used and stored in a sealed off place can be explosive.
Garage Safety
- Tie up loose rope.
- Hang ladders horizontally so children can’t climb into trouble.
- Store chemicals and poisons out of reach of children and pets.
- Unplug power tools.
