Often one of the only reason people seem to give any thought to how secure a garage door is when there has been a burglary in the area, realising how dangerous it is to have an unprotected garage door that leads directly into their home. Before this happens there is little thought given to the questions surrounding the necessary secure garage door features.
The unfortunate truth is that secure garage doors cannot be captured in a single feature. A garage door that combines a complete range of features from every aspect of security is of course the goal.
A garage door with a central locking mechanism and bolt is considered the industry standard. Of course, there are some situations where an adequately secure garage door system is necessary.
How They Are Made and Materials
Steel construction can pose multiple weak points on a panel due to its made construction method and its construction method hollowed is not as strong due to its construction method being a solid core as foam-filled. Once a panel is constructed, it forms solid protective barriers therefore, construction solid barriers is not just a construction paneled. Behind protective barriers, solid construction materials are not protective barriers.
Timber is often underestimated in a security context. A nice looking, well-maintained, well-locked, hardwood door is a formidable barrier.
Electric Operation
While electrically operated doors do allow a locked curtain or locked panel to stay in a closed curtain or position in the same way as manual locks, many doors have a newer, useful feature. That feature is anti-lift protection that is a feature of modern tracks that are used in most modern systems.
The manual override is the part that gets less attention. Every electric garage door has a manual override that must be built in. While the override is a part of the door’s overall electric feature, how much of the electric system is actually functioning is determined by how much security is on the override. Override security is the part of the system that is compromised the most and is most detrimental to the electric function. Asking the installer directly is a better approach than trusting that it has been considered.
Remote systems that use rolling code technology have become the industry standard for all but the most basic systems. Rolling code technology prevents replay attacks by changing the code that gets transmitted every cycle. If a system is using fixed codes, that’s a clear and present danger that should be changed.
Secure garage doors need something solid to fix into. A well-built door in a deteriorating timber frame, or fixed into brickwork that’s been neglected, is only as good as what’s holding it. An area that is often overlooked during installation is the integrity of the garage frame. In older UK homes, garage frames are often ignored, which creates a frame that is as old and deteriorated as other parts of the house itself.
For integral garages, the door that separates the garage from the rest of the house should also be considered from a security standpoint. If this door is solid and securely locked, the garage door is no longer the only barrier, and the security situation is greatly improved.
Garage doors that have the Sold Secure Silver or Gold rating are better than garage doors that have the word secure plastered all over the product because the Sold Secure rating is tested. The rating is not the only thing that should be considered. Questions regarding the number of locking points, the thickness of the locking mechanism, and the operation of the manual override are also important.