May Is Garage Door Safety Month

Each year, the International Door Association (IDA) recognises Garage Door Safety Month.

Garage doors are one of the largest moving objects in your house so it is important to bring awareness to the potential dangers garage doors and automatic opener systems can cause if they’re not kept in proper working condition.
While the importance of garage door safety is something the team at Doors Direct recognise all year round, we wanted to take this opportunity to share the tips below to educate and help you become familiar with the potential safety risks and how to avoid them.

1. Look and do a regular visual checkup. As you would do a periodic checkup with your car, the same goes for your garage.Each month, perform a visual inspection and look for signs of wear and tear on brackets, cables, rollers, pulleys and the door itself.

Manually open your door and lift it at mid-point. Is the left side in perfect balance with the right side? Or are they angled in some way? When you lift your garage door and stop halfway through, does it continue to go up or down? When you lift your garage door, does it feel heavy or difficult to lift? These are signs that your springs need to be either tightened or loosened more.

Additionally, look (don’t touch) at your tension springs and cables for any signs of inconsistent shapes, stress or rust. Inspect the weather seals to see if they are intact, cracked or split.

See if your brackets, track supports and fasteners are all in place and secured tightly. You can tighten any loose bolts, however be careful not to over tighten them.

2. Listen and be alert for any loud, grinding, or scratching noises when you operate your garage door. Notice if your mechanized parts have a much louder noise or weird vibrations as these usually indicate an issue.

Ensure your rollers are moving freely along the tracks without rubbing or scraping.

3. Learn and Educate your children. Most automatic garage doors come with reverse mechanisms. But they don’t work 100% of the time with small bodies like that of your kids. Set aside time to talk to your children about how they should not run underneath a closing garage door, be near the door when it is going up or down, and that they should not touch or play with any garage door parts as it is not a toy.

In the video below, Ryan will give us a demonstration of how to check the reverse mechanism.

Without a properly installed safety reversal system, persons (particularly small children) could be seriously injured or killed by a closing garage door.

4. Remember, Let professionals do the repairs. Do not try to disassemble and replace parts or tighten springs by yourself. These should only be done by a specialist which we are so contact us today on 3161 5963 or info@doorsdirect.com.au for more advice on Garage Door Safety or to book in a service or repair.