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Garage Door Security12th December 2012
Certain groups of people particularly welcome the darker winter evenings; the criminal fraternity can work with much greater peace of mind, the stress of fretting whether they can be seen or not when they are pursuing illegal activities greatly reduced. Just how many people are actually offering open house to any would be intruder sharp enough to flick the catches on garage doors to open and close them within seconds and then cloak themselves with privacy whilst they help themselves to an array of your valuable possession stored in the garage. Worse still, when the garage is integral and has a pedestrian door accessing straight into the house. The closed garage is the ideal place to for your burglar to deposit their pickings from your home into your garage ready for a sharp exit when they have completed their haul.
Take a look at just how easy it is to break in to some garages...
Older type canopy garage doors are an absolute doddle to release the catches on. Simply ease out the inch x inch timber filler (if one is actually fitted to the headframe), slide a screwdriver into the gap and - 15 seconds later the garage door opens. All this is done very easily and quietly!!
Older retractable type doors may take a few seconds more but are particularly easy if the garage door is fitted onto an old timber sub frame.
Don't be fooled into believing that an electric operator will safeguard you either . Again older retractable doors are vulnerable, especially if fitted without some kind of stop bead at the frame head. Most garage doors we see when surveyig for replacements have no stop bead and this means you have quite a large gap over the top of your door panel giving easy access to the remote control operator unit and the manual release mechanism.
Newer garage doors with descent steel sub frames have a steel plate on the head and the door panel closes up to this and seals access to the inside.
This unpleasant distressing scenario can be avoided. The garage doors that are particularly vulnerable to break-ins are normally the older type without multiple locking points. Old Henderson, Cardale and Westland doors are some of the easiest in the main. Many older and now obsolete makes also had very loose gearing and locking only using cables and very basic catches, all too easy to break and bend.
New garage doors are not susceptible to easily forced entry - certainly you would not be able to flip catches, insert screwdrivers or coat hangers to break in. Even when customers have locked themselves out of their garage our most experienced engineers face major problems when attempting to gain entry. Coupled with multiple locking points todays garage doors are more secure than ever before.
We have considered the new type steel up and over doors for their increased security (In our installers opinion the up and over doors that offer the most protection are the Hormann or Garador Canopy and Retractable doors fitted on a steel sub frame, especially with the four point locking option fitted) Garador have recently introduced one of the first 'secured by design' manual steel up and over door ranges in the UK. The Guradian door range realy will offer you superb security for any single width garage door opening - Take a look at this range >
Now let us look at other secure garage door options.
Undoubtebly the most secure type of electric garage doors are either double skinned sectional doors with electric operators (fitted in a certain way) or insulated aluminium roller doors (of a certain specification).
The security benefits include:
| 1 | A sectional door, ordered to be installed with an electric operator is fitted without catches and any external handles therefore eliminating vulnerability to forced entry. Fitted behind the garage opening all the vulnerable parts are completely inaccessible. |
| 2 | The roler and sectional door sits behind it's own steel/aluminium frame without any outswing therefore it is not possible to lever the door panels outwards |
| 3 | An electric operator keeps the door pressurised downwards and forwards again eliminating opportunity to force an entry around the perimeter. The Hormann Promatic and Supramatic operators also have patented steel latches built into the towing arm mechanism. |
In short the electrically operated sectional garage door is virtually impossible to penetrate under normal circumstances. As long as the door panels are double skinned and the door is fitted behind the structural opening then the security will be superb, as well as the weather protection and insulation.
A Seceuroglide Excel roller door offer you 'secured by design' level 1 security and is one of only a few garage doors that can offer this certification.
The Garador Guardian up and over manual garage doors offer excellent security and are also 'secured by design' approved.
The Carteck Insulated hinged doors and the Wessex 'premier' range of GRP hinged doors both offer superb levels of security and convenience too.
