beautify your old garage door

When you think about how your garage is the least secure space on your entire property, does it bother you? Are you the least bit concerned that bold-as-brass thieves might sneak up onto your property and break into your garage and take things? Has it already happened to you? These are all things you need to seriously consider when it comes to your garage doors and personal security. Your garage door is not enough to secure everything inside either, and here is why.

There Are No Locking Mechanisms on Garage Door Openers or Garage Doors

As a general rule, garage doors and openers do not come with locks. People falsely assume that without a remote you cannot get into the garage. You can still manually lift a garage door, even with a functioning opener attached. They are designed for manual manipulation in the event that the opener fails, so they do not lock and do not provide security in any sense of the word. Even if you install a locking handle on the front of your garage door, these locks are easily picked if a skilled thief really wants to get into your garage.

Garage Door Openers Operate on Similar and Limited Frequencies

An almost unknown fact about garage door openers is that they operate on limited frequencies. This means that only certain radio frequencies are granted to garage door manufacturers, and many of them fall within the same bandwidth of each other. Sometimes you can even open your neighbor's garage door with your TV remote! Additionally, you can buy spare garage door remotes at any home goods store or online-only store, which easily gives anyone access to your garage at any time if he/she has the correct remote with the correct frequency.

The Opener's Infrared Beam Can Be Tricked

If you have ever opened your garage door and then tried to step through and under it while it is moving, the infrared beam close to the floor is tripped. When the beam is tripped, it sends a signal to the opener to stop moving and reverse motion to prevent injury and damage. Thieves can actually use this feature to their advantage to trick the garage door into opening. It only takes a thin strip of reflective metal and a bit of patience to slide the metal under the garage door, pivot it into position, and trip the infrared beam, which then assumes that something is blocking the door and is trapped and begins to move the door.