Garage Door Service Experts Discuss Safety Tips for Parents of Younger Children

The garage door is probably the largest moving piece of your home. Even though your child spends time with you inside or in the backyard, there are times when the youngster will be around when the door opens or closes. Our garage door service experts offer you some tips that help keep the kids safe.

• Talk about garage door safety. You would be surprised to learn how many parents do not tell their children to stand away from the door when it opens or closes. Show the child how the door operates and point out areas where touching may cause pinched fingers. 
• Repair broken down doors quickly. If your door works with coil springs, fix any broken pieces quickly; these doors are hefty without functioning springs and may cause severe injuries. Automatic doors with iffy openers can also create problems. As soon as you notice a hitch, call an expert to handle the repairs. 
• Lead by example. Show your child how to enter and exit the garage safely. We always recommend waiting until an automatic door has come to a complete stop. Then enter or exit. When your child sees you doing so, s/he is much more likely to comply. 
• Keep openers away from children. Because garage door openers are so easy to operate, children delight in making a door go up and down. We suggest putting the garage door openers out of reach of young children. Train older children how to use the opener and to follow your rules of garage access. 

Contact the Overhead Door Company of Lansing today for answers to additional questions about child safety procedures around garage doors or to schedule a repair appointment to fix broken parts.

Why Garage Doors Fall off Their Tracks

Is one side of your garage door out of horizontal alignment? If so, don't just shrug it off. One day you may find it lying flat on the garage floor or on top of your car. It's a serious situation, especially if your door is heavy. Even house inspectors are reluctant to get near them. The Internet is full of web pages about people whose garage doors fell and landed on top of their cars which were parked inside the garage.

The Internet is also full of advice such as clamping a door so that it's horizontally level and then adjusting the cables so that they have equal tension. Or if the door has partially popped out of its track, they'll tell you how to pop it back in again.

The problem with both of the above pieces of advice is that they fail to address the underlying cause of the problem. Without doing this, the problem will simply return and possibly hurt someone the next time around. Five of these underlying causes are explained below:

• A broken garage door spring. A door left with a single good spring means that only one side is being held. Opening or closing a door that is cocked like this can cause the door to drop out of its track. This can also happen when one spring is significantly weaker than another. 

• A damaged lift cable. Old lift cables can wear over time and start to break a few strands at a time. This causes the cable to stretch which then causes your door to become misaligned. This continues until the cable breaks while the door is moving. 

• A buckled door panel. This can happen when backing your car out of the garage without first opening the garage door. This is a common mistake made by countless tired or distracted people. The buckled panel warps the door so that it fails to properly move in the tracks. 

• A damaged or warped track. When one of the tracks is damaged or warped, the door hangs up on the side of the bad track. This cocks the door and may pop it off its track. 

• Bad rollers. Rollers can wear out, drop out of the track, or seize up. Worn out or missing rollers mean that the door isn't attached to the track at those points. A seized roller can cause the door to hang up. 

Remember that a horizontally misaligned door won't stay that way forever when the door is in use. It will fail in some way. Hopefully the door will simply get stuck rather than drop off on top of your car or worse. Don't wait for that day to come. Contact Overhead Door Co of Lansing to schedule your garage door maintenance and avoid an emergency situation!

How to Open Your Garage Door During a Power Outage

Power outages are a fact of life. A storm, a fallen tree branch on a power line, a heat wave, or a work crew doing maintenance are typical reasons for them. Knowing how to use your garage door without power will come in handy in the event of a power outage or when there is an electrical problem with the door.

Manually opening the door must be done from the inside, so you will have to enter your home through another door and proceed to the garage.

First Step
Locate the emergency release handle. Garage doors are required to have an emergency release handle, which mechanically disconnects the door from the motor. The handle is usually red and at the end of a cord that's tied to the release lever of the trolley.

Second Step
After locating the red emergency release handle, pull it down and toward the garage door motor.

Third Step 
The door is now disconnected from the motor and you are free to lift the garage door using the door handle near its bottom. After opening the door, make sure it will stay in place before letting go of the handle.

Fourth Step 
When you're ready, manually close the door. If your door doesn't have an interior slide lock, you can re-engage the trolley attachment, which will lock the door. This is done by pulling the emergency release handle down and toward the garage opening. You may have to move the door a bit to get the tow bar arm properly positioned with the trolley for it to re-engage.

When The Power Returns 
If the tow bar arm isn't already re-engaged, then with the door in the closed position, push the close button and the trolley will move toward the tow bar arm and re-engage. A Word Of Caution During a power outage, the emergency release handle should only be used when the door is fully closed. Using the emergency release handle when the door is open may cause the door to fall to the floor if your springs are weak or not balanced.

Overhead Door Co. of Lansing is always available to assist you in the event of an emergency. Contact us today!

The Importance of Garage Door Safety

Garage doors can be extremely dangerous, especially if you have children. Your garage is a huge access point into your home and is used every day. Whether it’s for storage, a playroom for the kids or a workshop, it’s important to make sure that you and your family is aware of certain safety measures you should take if you have a garage.

Organization/Storage Safety: Most of the time, garages are used for storage; whether it be a car, tools or just holiday decorations. It’s a great place for storage because it’s out of the way and isn’t a main entertainment area of a home. However, the placement of certain items can cause huge dangers to your home. Any flammable items should be placed out of reach from children and inside a locked cabinet or box. Any tools like hammers or power tools should also be placed higher up and in a locked area. Not only can children find their way to these items, but items that are not secured can fall from a cabinet. Installing cabinets on the sides of your garage is a very popular way to store items and helps with the safety of the garage and keeps everything out of the way.

Garage Door Safety: The biggest cause of accidents in garages is the door not working properly. Whether it won’t open, or closes when it shouldn’t, a lot of accidents can happen if your garage door is not maintained properly. One way to make sure that your garage door will not close when it’s not supposed to is to place something underneath the door to make sure it reverses when it senses the object. If your garage door isn’t functioning the way it should, give us a call - we can inspect the garage door and figure out what repairs need to be made to get it back in working order!

Child Safety: The first step to making sure that your garage is a safe place for your children to play or be around is to lock it from your home. Make sure that the door to your garage has a lock that only you are able to unlock. This will keep them from going into the garage unsupervised. Next is to make sure that they are not able to reach the button or remote that can open or close the garage door. This will also ensure that they won’t be able to use the garage without adult supervision.

Garages are great additions to our homes, but it’s important to make sure they are also safe additions. Give us a call if you have any other questions about your garage and garage door - we’d be happy to help!

Garage Door Safety Tips

You may have bought and installed a garage door recently and thought, 'That's one thing I can cross off my list for 10 years.' In some ways you're right, but garage doors are used every day and there are plenty of ways to make sure they’re in safe and working order. Check out our tips for ensuring your garage door is in top shape!

1. Complete a Visual Inspection: One of the easiest and most effective ways of catching some obvious issues with your garage door is by inspecting the door itself once per month. Look at the springs, door itself, cables and pulleys! If anything looks out of order, make sure to call a garage door professional in to take a second look.
2. Test the Reversing Mechanism on Your Garage Door: Place a board in the door's path and close the garage door. If your door doesn't reverse after contacting the object, make sure to call an expert to inspect the door.
3. Never Leave Your Garage Door Partially Open: This may seem like a no-brainer, but don't leave your garage door partially open. In addition to being a security risk, when re-activating that door, it could come in contact with any objects underneath or in its path!
4. Look at the Manual: When most people purchase a garage door, they overlook the manual! However, you can learn lots of ways to maintain your garage door's safety and security through the manual. Additionally, you can learn how to use the emergency release mechanism. If your power is out and you need to leave your home, your doors can be changed to automatic with the emergency release. The manual can be extremely useful in a lot of situations.
5. Keep Your Remote Up and Away From Children: Remember to keep the controller away from small children and explain that these controls are not toys!
6. Stay Away from Broken Springs: These springs are under high tension and require special tools to replace!

Our seasoned garage door professionals here at Overhead Door Co. of Lansing can make sure that your garage door remains efficient and safe! Contact us today for service!