Garage Door Safety Month
Almost everyone has fallen victim to the trap of thinking they’re a handyman (or woman). You believe something is just a quick fix and you either a) end up breaking said item b) hurting yourself or c) all of the above. At the Overhead Door Company of Omaha, we’re all too aware that this happens with garage doors way more than it should. So for Garage Door Safety Month, we’ve listed a few points that will make you reconsider the next time you’re thinking of going all Home Improvement on your garage door.
Number Don’t Lie
According to NEISS (National Electronic Injury Surveillance System) – a database maintained by the Consumer Product Safety Commission on all consumer product-related injuries – approximately 10,000 Americans are injured per year in garage door-related accidents. Almost three-quarters of those accidents are due to people putting their limbs in the wrong places at the worst times: fingers between panels, next to the springs, or underneath the rollers. Ouch! On top of that, a large chunk of these come during unsupervised repair attempts.
Don’t Be A Stuntman
In addition to the reckless DIYers mentioned above, there are people who attempt to get creative in the ways they mess with their garage doors. They hang on them like they would playground equipment and try slide underneath them in order to act out some sort of Indiana Jones-style fantasy. Unsurprisingly, this does not end well. An additional 800 injuries occur due to stunts. Just a gentle reminder: YOUR GARAGE DOOR IS NOT A TOY!
Safety Extends To You And Your Home
Garage Door Safety Month is about more than preventing you and your family from doing questionable stunts, it’s also about keeping you up to date on the latest and greatest technology to keep your home safe. With OHD Anywhere® app, it’s now easier than ever to control your garage door. Once the OHD Anywhere® sensor is attached to your garage, you can check to see if it is open or closed. Additionally, the OHD Anywhere® app gives you a full history of when it was opened and with which opener – useful information to know if you found your garage door open at times when it should not be.
Leave It To The Pros
It doesn’t take a trained eye to see if something is off with your garage door, but it takes a trained pair of hands to fix it. Whether it’s a hitch, a kink, or a hiccup in how it’s running, simply using the eye test and taking a few notes is all you should do before you call a professional.
In fact, the only test we recommend you run is the 2×4 test. Designed to test the reversing mechanism, it’s as easy as placing a board in your garage door’s path and hitting the opener. If your door does not reverse before reaching the board, then it’s once again time to call the professionals at the Overhead Door Company.
For all the do’s and don’ts regarding garage door safety, or to set up an inspection of your own, call the experts at the Overhead Door Company of Omaha today.
