What to teach kids about garage door door safety

Your garage door is an easy entry point to your home, especially for the kids. It’s often easier to share a code for the garage door opener rather than extra keys that can be lost. But as one of the largest moving parts of your home, the garage door can also be dangerous. The last thing that anyone wants is for a child to be injured by a heavy garage door. These tips can help you teach your kids how to use the garage door safely and correctly every time, to prevent the chance that anything dangerous would ever happen.

Let them see the entire system at work

Most kids are curious about how things work, and always want to experiment, observe, and ask questions. By letting them see the entire garage door system at work, especially the mechanisms designed to protect them, such as the automatic reversal systems, you’ll give your children the chance to ask questions and learn why it’s so important to be careful with the garage door.

Be sure that they understand that a garage door is extremely heavy, weighing anywhere from 125 to 400 lb. (60 to 180 kilos). The springs system is what makes the door easy to open and close, which is why the opener seems to work easily.

To make your garage door safe, always keep this in mind: your garage door should always be properly balanced. That means that when opened manually, it should only weigh between 8 and 10 lb. (3.5 and 4.5 kilos).

Be sure they know the dangerous parts

• The spring system

  The spring system is the most critical for garage door safety. The two most common types of spring systems 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. If kids ever see any of the springs broken, they should tell you right away.

• Lifting cables.

  The lifting cables are on each side of the door, attached near the bottom. They wind up on drums installed on a steel tube. They are under extreme tension and should never be played with. For the most safety, these should never be touched by anyone who isn’t a garage door professional.

• The photo‑eye reversal system

  There are two small units installed on the vertical tracks on each side of the door, about 4 to 6 inches from the floor. They emit a beam of infrared light between the two units. They are what stops the garage door from descending when something moves in front of the beam of light. Alone, they are not dangerous, but they play a major role in safety. They must be in perfect alignment to function correctly. If they are out of alignment, you lose an important safety feature. If they are not working properly, the force of the lowering door could hit one of your children.

Be sure they know not to play with the garage door

• While the door is moving

  Explain to kids that they need to wait till the garage door is completely lifted before they walk under it, and that they should never try to walk under it while it is descending.

• The remote controls and control panel

  It is best that very young children do not operate a garage door, either with a 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

  On double garage doors, there are reinforcement struts that do look a bit like a ladder on the inside of the garage door. These should never be used to climb up the door, under any circumstances.

• Keep hands and fingers free of the section joints

  If your garage door can be opened manually, be sure that your kids know not to put their fingers between the sections as they lift or lower the door. Be sure that there are lift handles installed on both sides of the door to prevent this.

• Ask your older kids to be on the watch

  Never allow kids to race as they leave the garage. The worst case scenario is that a child could trip and be crushed by a garage door if your photo reversal system isn’t working. Older kids should always keep an eye on little ones, and should be responsible for only letting them pass once the door is completely open.

Keep the access code secret

If your kids use an exterior keypad to access the garage door opener, be sure that they know not to share the code with friends. Teach them how to shield their hands when they type in the code, so that no one who is with them or nearby can see the code.

Need a safety tune‑up or even a new door?

Then contact us at 724-834-8450. We can email a quotation for a service call, or even happily visit you at home to correct any problems you may be having with your garage door.

If you’re ready for a new 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.