How to Childproof Your Garage

Once your child starts crawling and then walking, their surroundings are like an adventure park waiting to be explored. Parents and grandparents know to childproof their homes to keep children away from sharp objects, chemicals, and other dangers. But, often, the garage is forgotten about. Sure, you don’t spend much time in there, but there are lots of things in the garage that could pose a threat to your curious child.

Here are some quick tips for childproofing your garage and garage door.

Keep the photo eyes clear

All modern garage doors now come with safety features like auto-reverse. This feature depends on two sensors at either side of the garage door, close to the ground. If something is stopping these sensors from “seeing” each other (like a small child in the path of the door), then the garage door won’t close and may reverse its direction. Keep these sensors clean and clear of debris so they can properly communicate with each other.

Keep remotes and keypads out of reach

If the remote to your automatic garage door opener gets into the hands of a child, they could easily get themselves hurt. Make sure the controls to your garage door opener, whichever form they’re in, are out of reach or locked away if necessary.

Keep tools out of reach

Most people store their tools and other sharp, heavy objects in the garage. Find a place to store these that’s well out of reach or secured with either child locks or actual locks. And make sure you always tidy them away after you’ve used them. Don’t leave them lying around for little hands to get hold of. The same goes for storing chemicals and gasoline.

Keep vehicles locked

If you store a car or other vehicle in your garage, make sure you always lock it before leaving the garage. If a child can get inside the car, they might be able to release the handbrake and roll the vehicle. A small incident like this probably won’t injure the child, but it could damage your car and garage door.

Regular garage door tune-ups

Your garage door can be extremely dangerous, especially if it’s not maintained properly. Broken garage door springs can fly off and seriously injure someone, or a damaged door can suddenly drop. Make sure you arrange regular maintenance and tune-ups for your garage door and call a garage door repair technician if you notice any problems with it.

If you need a garage door tune-up or a new garage door with modern safety features, then contact Carolina Garage Door. We operate around Winston Salem, Greensboro, Kernersville, and High Point, NC.