The garage is a common location for expensive machinery and vehicles, making it a popular place for theft. People are using their garages as home offices and gyms more frequently than ever, making the items within even more valuable.
The security of your garage should be equally as critical as that of your front door if it connects to your home. Here are some proactive measures and helpful suggestions you may use to make your garage door more secure.
Think like a burglar
The first of our security advice for garages can seem strange, but give it a shot. Ask yourself, “How might a burglar get into my house?” while you take a few minutes to stroll around the exterior of your garage and other parts of your house.
What regions appear to be most vulnerable? Your garage security level? Consider your home from the viewpoint of a burglar; it might be instructive and useful. Perform this exercise at night so you can assess how well your home’s exterior lighting works.
Secure the garage doors
It goes without saying that you should always keep your garage doors locked if you have to manually open and close them. The majority of homes today have automated garage door openers, which make it harder for thieves to get through garage doors (though not impossible).
Use a padlock placed on one of the doors tracks if you’re going on vacation to make sure the doors stay closed. Another solution is to unplug the automatic opener when you’re gone for a while if your door opener is a little older and doesn’t have clever technology that can detect when your garage doors are open or closed. Additionally, it’s a good idea to constantly lock the interior garage access door and the external garage service door.
Don’t leave your doors open unnecessarily
How often, while spending a few hours in your yard, have you seen a neighbour’s garage doors wide open and their absence for extended periods? Unnecessarily leaving your garage doors open gives anyone a free pass to access your house. At the absolute least, you’re making it simple for everyone driving by to see what’s in your garage.
It is simple to keep the garage doors closed even when you are working in your yard. Take nothing for granted, even if you live in a safe neighbourhood. Some more recent garage door opener models are equipped with smart technology that enables you to use a smartphone app to verify whether your doors are open or closed. To keep a tight eye on your doors, you might also get a separate garage door monitor.
Upgrade your outdated garage door opener
Your garage is more susceptible to a break-in if you have an old garage door opener than it would be if you had a more recent automatic door opener model. You’ve surely heard tales of robbers breaking into garages using scanners that might quickly figure out the entry code for an older opener.
Even a neighbour who shared your access code could unintentionally open your garage doors by pressing the button on their opener remote. The “rolling code” system used by more recent garage door openers is significantly safer and creates a fresh code each time the remote button is touched. Additionally, compared to older models, modern garage door openers are much quieter and more energy efficient.
Improve the lighting outside
An unattractive target for burglars is a home with low external lighting. Making sure that all of your home’s entrances are well-lit will help to keep it much safer. Nowadays, homeowners frequently choose motion-activated outside lights. Although the neighbour’s cat may occasionally stray by and turn on the lights, this method of protecting your property is practical, economical, and energy efficient.
To prevent a burglar from turning off the lighting around your garage and house, make sure it is set strategically. Include a checkup on your outdoor lights as part of your annual home maintenance routine. Maintain your shrubs and hedges as well as the exterior of your property while you’re paying extra attention to it. Thick, overgrown vegetation surrounding the outside of your property only helps burglars.
Ensure your garage doors are in good condition
In addition to affecting your home’s energy efficiency, old garage doors that are warped, have faded paint, and don’t create a tight door seal also reduce your home’s curb appeal. They compromise home security as well. A broken garage door could leave gaps or spaces that make it simpler for a thief to enter your garage.
Replace your old garage doors with any of the many contemporary designs offered to modernise the exterior of your house and make your garage more secure. Due to their durability and the wide range of bespoke design possibilities available to homeowners, steel garage doors, in particular, are a preferred option. Your home is safer if your garage doors are in good condition.
Never store valuables in your car or garage
One of the most obvious pieces of security advice for garages is to just not leave valuables inside your cars or in the garage.
If you can’t find storage space for certain objects elsewhere in your home, the garage may end up serving as a catch-all area. Just be careful not to keep valuable stuff in your parked cars or among those items. Why take a chance even if you’re careful and keep all of your garage doors locked?
Install a security system in the garage
According to studies, residences with security systems that are easy to see are much less likely to be targeted by criminals. It makes as much sense to have an alarm system that monitors the rest of your home as it does to have one for your garage.
Another good way to keep criminals away from your garage’s entrance points is to install security cameras there. Monitoring suspicious behaviour around your home’s exterior is now simpler than ever thanks to inexpensive, high-quality motion-activated video cameras with feeds that can be viewed on your smartphone.
See the 5 Tips on Burglarproofing Your Yard.
