March 2, 2018

Make sure you teach your children how to safely use a garage door

Garage door safety for kids

Garage doors are increasingly becoming our primary entry point to our homes, even for our children. Absolutely the last thing any of us wants to happen to them is to be hit and seriously injured by a garage door.

That is why you need to take time to read this advice closely and show your children how to use the garage door safely at all times.

Show them how the whole system works

By nature, children are extremely curious.  They want to touch everything, experiment, and see how things work. Even the mechanisms to protect them, such as the automatic reversal systems, may fascinate an inquisitive young mind to the point they try something dangerous.

Take time to explain to them that a garage door is extremely heavy, anywhere from 125 to 400 lb. (60 to 180 kilos). The system of springs acts to make the work of opening and closing much easier, which is why the opener seems to work easily. Then continue with the items below.

Something for you to keep in mind: your garage door should always be properly balanced. In this state, when opened manually, it should weigh between 8 and 10 lb. (3.5 and 4.5 kilos).

Point out the most dangerous parts

  • The spring system

    The two most common types are torsion (coiled springs) located over the head of the door, and extension, placed above the horizontal tracks. Neither of these systems should ever be touched. Advise children that if they see a spring broken into two pieces, they should tell you about it immediately.

  • Lifting cables

    These are located on each side of the door. The cables are attached to the bottom of the door and wind up on drums installed on a steel tube. They are under extreme tension and should never be considered like guitar strings that can be played with. Again, these are other components that should never be touched.

  • The photo‑eye reversal system

    These are the two small units installed on the vertical tracks on each side of the door, about 4 to 6 inches from the floor.  Alone, they are not dangerous, but they play a major role in safety. They must be in perfect alignment to function correctly, thus you should avoid knocking them or doing anything that moves them out of alignment. If they are not working properly, the force of the lowering door could hit something or someone.

A garage door is not a toy

  • While the door is moving

    Explain to youngsters that they should remain a safe distance from the door and wait for it to be completely open or closed before entering or leaving the garage.

  • The remote controls and control panel

    Never ask your children to operate the garage door with either the remote or the exterior keypad. The keypad should always be placed at least 5 feet (1.5 m) above the floor and both controls should be out of the reach of small children.

  • Never climb on the door

    Double garage doors come with reinforcement struts on the interior side of the door. Unfortunately, their placement looks somewhat like a ladder, but under no circumstances should they be used to climb on the door, even more so when the door is opening…

  • Never put little hands or fingers in section joints

    If your garage door doesn’t have an electric opener, you should instruct your children to never close the door by slipping their fingers between the sections of the door. Ensure you have lift handles on the exterior as well as the interior of the door.

  • Ask your older kids to be on the watch

    They should always keep an eye on their little brothers or sisters when they are using the garage door, only letting them pass once the door is completely open. NEVER allow racing to leave the garage by using the open and close buttons on the control panel. If your auto-reversal systems are malfunctioning, a little one could trip while running and be crushed by the door.

Keep the access code to your house secret

This might not seem obvious at first, but if your children use the exterior keypad, ask them not to reveal this code to their friends, and hide the code with their hand when pushing the buttons to open the door. As we said before, that natural curiosity of children could extend to a friend trying to access your garage in your absence and then one thing could lead to another…

And if your garage door deserves a tune‑up or even to be changed…

Then contact us at 607-687-5126. We can send you a quotation for a service call by email or even happily visit you at home to correct any problems you may be having with your garage door.

If you decide to change your garage door and you’d like to get an idea of what it could look like, use our Design Centre or have a look at our image gallery.

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