How to Beef Up Your Garage Door Security

Even if you have a home security system that monitors your garage, thieves and crooks, intent on gaining access to your garage and what lies inside it, will find ingenious ways to surpass it when your guard may be down. However, there are a few simple ways to help beef up your garage door security and keep undesirables away:

It’s a classic no-brainer – keep it shut!
Even if your back will only be turned for a few minutes, or you’ve just popped inside the house to get something, you never know who might be watching and waiting to get in there and make off with something valuable. Close your garage door when you’re not in it, at all times.

Take care of your garage door opener
Keep your opener inside your home, or attach it to a keychain and hook it onto your purse to prevent you from leaving it inside the car or anywhere else where criminals can easily get to it.

Reinforce your side doors
While you may want to review the safety features of your garage door, the side doors are often just as (if not more) vulnerable, and it might be worth having a locksmith or security specialist advise you about how best to reinforce them. Aside from having these doors reinforced, make sure they’re fitted with deadbolts and kept locked properly, too.

Install a monitoring system
With the ability to alert you should someone gain, or be trying to gain access to your garage, smart garage door openers also enable you to open and close your garage remotely from your phone, and some allow you to add motion sensors to really improve security.

Block out the windows
Frosting your windows or blacking them out helps any criminals loitering outside from being able to see in and take stock of what you’ve got in your garage. While the most determined of thieves might see this as a challenge, most will see it as a deterrent.

Make thieves think someone is home
The majority of criminals don’t want anyone to be at home when they rob it, or at the very least, want to have a clear way of getting in and out undisturbed; garages make the perfect getaway routes. Little tricks such as leaving a radio on in the house or garage, or having a couple of lights on timers could be all it takes to make a burglar pass your property, and try elsewhere.

You may not know it, but an emergency security feature of some garage doors has become vulnerable to thieves, who use a coat hanger or other tool to disengage the doors emergency lever and allow it to be opened. If you’re concerned that your garage door may be vulnerable to thieves, consult with a garage door specialist or locksmith (oftentimes, they’re one and the same), and have them conduct a thorough security assessment before determining whether you need to beef up your garage door security.