The International Door Association has deemed June National Garage Door Safety Month. Your garage door is the largest heaviest moving object in your home. Over 77% of garage door related injuries occur at a person's own property.  Keep your family, pets and automobiles safe all year round by following these simple tips.

Every month inspect your garage door and the surrounding mechanics.  Look over your cables, springs, rollers and tracks.  Look for any objects, such as leaves or other debris, that may be in the way of these areas that would cause a problem.  If you hear a lot of grinding or scraping apply a spray lubricant to keep the tracks running smoothly.  The average life span of most springs and cables is approximately 10,000 cycles or roughly 6 to 10 years.  Please consider calling a professional to replace these items, as they are tension mounted and may cause injury to the do-it yourselfer.  Do not operate the door if you feel there is an area that needs repair.

Since 1993 overhead garage doors are required to have auto reverse sensors to indicate if an object is in the way of the door as it closes.  Check these sensors monthly by placing a soft object, such as a roll of paper towels, in front of the sensor.  If the door does not automatically move back up, check the wires to make sure they have not been chewed on or disconnected in any way.  Over time the sensor itself may become dirty, wiping each lens with a soft cloth ensures the beam does not get interrupted.  If the beam seems broken it could indicate the brackets have become misaligned. Tightening the brackets may solve the problem, if not, you may have to replace them.   If your garage door does not have sensors it may be time to upgrade to a door that does to avoid an injury.  

Talk to your children about garage door safety.   Encourage them not to play with the opener or the remote.  Make sure your opener is placed at a height that small children cannot access.  Instruct your kids not to leave bikes or toys in front of the garage or inside where they could get run over.  Never open or close the door when kids or pets are close by.   If you have older children, teach them how to use the emergency release pull.... make sure you know how to use this as well!

Staying safe extends to when you go on vacation as well.   Inform a trusted neighbor of the days you will be gone and have them notify you if they see any odd activity near your garage door.  Take remote controls out of your car and keep them in the house until you return.  Some newer garage door models have a vacation mode feature that can be activated so your remotes are disabled.  Upon your return, simply deactivate this setting from the wall control in the garage and you are back in business.  

 A little prevention and knowing what to look for can save you and your family from a garage door related injury.  A.B.E Doors and Windows cares about you and your home, if you feel your garage door could use a little love please contact us at 610. 398. 2430.