Summer Safety Inspection for Your Garage Door

Summer is an active time for many people in Virginia. Besides trips to sporting events, amusement parks, campgrounds, swimming pools, beaches, and concerts, many Richmond and Chesterfield area families are also busy working on home repairs, property renovations, and garden clean-up projects.

Summer is also a time of inspiration and good weather for enjoying arts and crafts projects at home, for finding time to tinker with the car or motorcycle, and for enjoying backyard barbecues with family and friends.

All of these fun, summertime activities are likely to take you into the garage for beach gear, bikes, barbecues, and tool boxes, and that is a good reason for making sure your garage door is in safe, working order.

Garage Door Safety and Your Summer Fun

If you are like many people, your garage is full of stuff you need and want when you go out on summer trips and adventures. Items like folding chairs and tables, shade canopies, coolers, water jugs, as well as recreational equipment like skateboards, swim gear, baseball mitts and bats, and bikes are lodged willy-nilly inside the garage.

Organizing this gear inside the garage is one step toward making summer more fun. Getting to your summer gear inside the garage is made convenient and safe by a garage door which opens and closes as it should and which has all safety features operational. You can check on these safety features yourself by taking the following steps.

If the door has not been used in a while, start by making sure the opener motor is plugged into a live outlet and the power switch is turned on. Also, remove all items next to, outside of, and above the door which could interfere with it opening and closing completely.

Make sure there are good batteries in the remote opener, and then press the button inside the garage and check that it also opens and closes the door. Watch the door closely as it moves and notice if it is squealing, wobbling, or failing to open or close completely.

If it opens and closes without problems, next inspect the photo-eye safety feature by closing the door and then waving a broom or other long object in front of the photo sensor as the door is closing. If the door does not quickly retract and reopen, this important safety feature needs repair or adjustment before it is safe for summer use.

Next, place a sturdy object like a large block of wood or a plastic crate under the door and let the door close onto the object. The garage door should reopen when it touches the object, or the stall sensor is in need of adjustment.

You can also test the balance adjustment of the door by turning off the opener main power switch, activating the manual release mechanism, and opening the door halfway, lifting it by hand. The door should remain in this half-open position without moving up or down. If not, an adjustment is needed.

Having a properly maintained and operating garage door is an important household safety concern, especially if there are children, elderly people, or pets in the home. Even with all of the safety features required on garage doors nowadays, there are over 2,200 accidents each year from falling garage doors and many thousands more involving lesser injuries.

The heavy weight of a typical garage door, combined with the frequency it is used in the average home, makes garage door safety something to be concerned about, especially in summer when this opening is often used more frequently than in other seasons.

Regular Garage Door Service for Safety

Testing a garage door for safe operation is important, and you can do some of these tests and adjustments yourself as described above and by thoroughly reading and following the instructions in the owner’s manuals for your garage door and opener. Some adjustments, such as the spring tension, should only be made by a trained garage door repair person.

Garage door safety is also made easy by signing up for regular servicing by the professional experts at Commonwealth Garage Door in Chester, VA. We service, install, and repair garage doors of all makes and models from Colonial Heights to Prince George to all parts of Dinwiddie County. Contact us today, and we can help make sure your garage door is safe and ready for summer fun!