Published on 23 May 2016
When it comes to your garage door, ensuring the safety of anyone that comes into contact with the door should be a priority. Garage doors are composed of various mechanisms and components that could pose a risk if handled or installed incorrectly, and this risk is only increased when it involves children.
It is essential that you ensure that any risks your garage door poses to children are reduced, so we’ve listed a few of the potential hazards and how to prevent these below.
Garage doors can weigh up to 180kg, so an uncontrolled falling garage door could seriously injure an adult or child, and could even prove fatal. A falling garage door can occur due to a range of reasons; broken or faulty springs, the pull cord being improperly disconnected, a damaged opening mechanism, or simple due to it being a poorly installed door.
Ensuring your garage door cannot fall uncontrolled is essential if you have children or adults passing underneath the door regularly, so putting a prevention device in place is useful. Controlled descent devices can be installed to automatically stop a door if it free falls, eliminating the risk of it falling on to someone. Likewise, automated doors can be installed with a sensor to immediately stop if they come into contact with an obstruction when closing – protecting anyone or anything that is in the path of the door as it shuts.
A problem that many parents find when it comes to their garage door is that children think it’s a ride! If your child attempts to ride the garage door, they could easily be trapped against the ceiling, or hurt by the hardware.
To prevent your child from being able to ride the door, you can install a soft touch reverse feature which ensures the door shuts if anything above a set weight is added, preventing your child from being able to climb onto the door as it closes. Likewise, you can ensure your garage door has section joint protection to remove any grooves that your child would be able to hold on to.
One of the most common garage door related injuries amongst both adults and children are trapped fingers. If your child enjoys spending time with you in the garage, it can be easy for a hand or fingers to get hurt in the mechanisms of the garage door if unsupervised.
Putting a protection system in place is a good way of preventing injuries – for example, covering moving rollers for your roller door, installing smaller holes in the tracks to reduce the chance of fingers being caught, and installing rubber around the edges to act as a barrier should your child’s hand ever be trapped.
A poor quality door may break easier, or be installed incorrectly which could lead to an accident. Investing a little more initially will guarantee that you have a better quality door that will withstand the outside elements, with the chance of any mechanisms and components suddenly failing significantly reduced.
We provide garage doors of only the highest quality here at Diamond Garage Doors, and that’s why we offer a 3 year guarantee on all fittings. Our professional engineers will also expertly fit your door to ensure it is safely installed in your garage, guaranteeing you receive the perfect door for your requirements.
For more information, feel free to contact the friendly team here at Diamond Garage Doors today and we’ll be happy to help you.
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