Keeping Your Garage Secure During the Holidays

Are you heading out of town for the holidays? This time of year is a popular one for thieves because they know that homes are often left empty while occupants are busy at various holiday functions or making their way out of town.

The garage may be your weakest home security link, so make sure your garage and home remain burglar free this season.

7 Tips For Making Your Garage More Secure Over the Holidays

Here are 7 tips to prevent your home and garage from getting burgled.

1. Perform routine garage door maintenance. If your automatic door is working properly, it’s much more difficult to access without the remote access entry. We recommend performing DIY maintenance – cleaning the garage door tracks, lubricating moving parts, and keeping the area around the garage door free of debris – at least twice a year. Using high-quality seals and weather stripping will also help to prevent access.
2. Keep your garage door closed. A closed garage door is your first line of defense against garage and/or home theft. An open garage door is an all to commons sight in most neighborhoods. Certainly never leave your garage door open for long periods of time, especially when you’re away from the home. When you leave for work each morning – or head out of town – make sure the garage door closes all the way before making your way into the street. This gives you a chance to go back and shut it again if the automatic safety features cause it to go back up as the result of an errant rake, toy or pile of leaves in the way.
3. Utilize the lock function. Did you know your automatic door has a lock function? Many homeowners forget this important second-line of defense. Test it routinely to make sure it works. If you have an older door, or the lock function on your garage doesn’t work, you can padlock the throw latch or install C-clamps on each side of the door track, making it significantly more difficult to open the door from the outside.
4. Don’t leave the remote in the car. It makes sense to leave your remote in the car, doesn’t it? You’ll never forget it and be locked out when you come home. The problem is that if a thief is able to get into your car and take the remote, he has full access to your home. If you have a more modern car, utilize the car’s automatic garage door programming system, making the remote a non-issue. Otherwise, bring your opener with you and make it a habit of clipping it to your key ring so you’ll never forget it. Better yet, buy a keychain remote fob and ditch the visor-clip version altogether.
5. Upgrade your garage entry door. How burglar proof is the entry door from your garage to your home? Even thieves that make their way into the garage will think twice if your home has a solid-core wood or reinforced steel door with an anti-kick device on it. Always lock and deadbolt the door when no one is home.
6. Install a peephole. If you don’t already have one, consider installing a wide-angle peephole in the door that leads from your home to the garage. That way, if you hear a suspicious noise in the garage, you can look through it – rather than open the door – to see what’s going on. This is also a good idea if you have younger children or teens who are on their own after school and before you get home from work.
7. Frost or cover your garage windows. Leaving your garage windows exposed gives burglars a first-row seat view of the garage’s contents. If you have lots of expensive tools and/or toys, your clear window view serves as an invitation. We recommend frosting garage windows or installing blinds or window treatments that remain closed unless you are in the garage.

Feel like your garage could use some security upgrades? Give us a call here at R&S and we’ll be happy to help you out.