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Garage Door Dangers

Garage doors are big. No matter how small your garage may be it is most likely the biggest door in your entire home. Now for most this is great. A garage door is meant to be in many respects a wall that is light enough to move, but in every other respect works pretty much like a wall. However, there are times when a garage door might just not be great because of its size. During certain disasters garage doors can be downright dangerous. Things like tornadoes and hurricanes can quickly turn a perfectly well made garage door into something that total a car. While it isn’t the most common occurrence, because it needs some pretty horrific conditions, garage doors can do damage to property and people. Hurricanes and tornadoes have one main similarity and that is extremely high winds. Many garage doors are rated for and equipped for higher wind environments, but some lesser quality ones don’t have the same safety features and so are not good for regions where tornadoes and hurricanes are common. In this article we will look at what sort of dangers a garage door might pose, when and how to mitigate those dangers as best you can.

Obviously if you couldn’t tell from that last paragraph the “when’ of when are garage doors dangerous is a very slim portion of the time. It is when they are turned into projectiles or something of that sort by some sort of natural disaster, so in this case pretty much nothing is completely safe and most things are relatively dangerous to you when they are caught up in high winds. Because of the size of most garage doors with high winds they can quickly get a lot of force behind them and become incredibly dangerous. They can be thrown or impacted with a great deal of force and so are quite dangerous if they catch the wind correctly. Otherwise they’ll most likely just flit around on the ground a bit, still dangerous but nowhere near as dangerous as they would be if airborne. Garage doors aren’t something that typically needs to be or even should be feared, they’re simple inanimate objects that make our lives a bit easier by letting us store our cars in our house without too much hassle. However, at times they can be transformed into something dangerous and so this is when we need to be careful.

A rogue garage door with enough force behind it can do a lot of damage. If given the right circumstances it could put a person in the hospital or even total the car that is sitting in your garage. Of course the irony there isn’t unnoticed as ninety-nine percent of the time your garage door will be protecting your car while that slim portion of the time it very well may ruin it. Garage doors can be as dangerous as flying billboards, tree branches, and even livestock if they get thrown around by the weather hard enough.

There are however a few ways to minimize the danger of these sorts of things happening with your garage door. One way to do this is really simple and easy, just don’t live in the types of places where this type of thing happens. While it might not be possible for a lot of people because the regions where hurricanes and tornadoes happen somewhat frequently is pretty large and because you most likely aren’t going to change your whole life in some way just because of a small risk. If that were the case then you probably would have already moved in order to avoid hurricanes and tornadoes in the first place. If you don’t have that option then don’t worry too much, there are other things that you can do to minimize the likelihood of disaster striking.

Many garage doors, especially those for people in higher wind areas are rated for stronger winds. Winds nearing the 100mph mark to be more precise. While winds can go higher than that at that point your garage door really isn’t going to be the thing you are most worried about. Getting a hurricane or high wind rated garage door is a great idea if you live in a place where that sort of thing is common, or even if you’re just are worried about whether damaging your home then you should opt for one of these garage doors. Your local garage door professional can give you more specifics about their exact limitations and grades, but you will definitely be safer in the event of things like high wind. Another way to help you steer clear of a dangerous garage door situation is to get a bracing kit. Installing a bracing kit for your garage door when you are expecting a big storm is never a bad idea. You can typically buy bracing kits for your garage door online or you can have your local garage door professional install one for you and save you the hassle some people may have trouble with he installation. This also means that you won’t have to worry about which brands you should get or stay away from and so can save you some trouble that way as well.

Garage doors are not inherently dangerous, but in some situations they can be quite lethal. The best way to avoid this is to make sure that your garage door is as well equipped for these types of situations as it can be. Another way to avoid the danger that a garage door poses is to do something simple, stay out of your garage while there are huge storms with high winds or at least try to minimize your time there. This obviously doesn’t mean that every time that it rains you shouldn’t go to your car in the garage, but it does mean that if you are being told by the news or the local government to stay off the roads because of a tornado or hurricane than you should not go into your garage to wait it out.