Leaving Your Garage Door Open at Night? Here’s Why You Need to Reconsider

Many US homeowners put safety and security near the top of their list of priorities when it comes to their home and family. We do various things to protect our home from threats, including installing a secure garage door. But then we get comfortable and complacent in our homes, which can lead to carelessness. That secure garage door isn’t going to make a difference if you leave it wide open, especially overnight.

It seems like common sense, but it can be all too easy to forget about your open garage door. If you’re in and out of it a lot during the evening, you might leave it open since you know you’ll be back out there in an hour. Then the night draws on and it slips your mind as you start to get tired and head to bed.

By leaving your garage door open for long periods of time, you’re putting both the contents of your garage and the security of your home and family at risk.

The contents of your garage

Burglars are known to “case joints” before they strike. A wide-open garage door, day or night, allows them to see everything you store in there. If they spot any valuables, such as your car or a range of power tools, they see that your home is a worthwhile target. Plus, they know that you’re prone to leaving the door open, setting it up as an easy target in their eyes.

The contents of your garage aren’t just at risk from human threats. Rodents and other pests could sneak into your open garage, especially when it’s left open overnight. Here, they could chew through electrical cables or valuable objects inside your garage. If you shut them in without realizing, they could also chew through your weather stripping in an attempt to escape.

Then there’s the weather itself. It might have been a nice day when you left your garage door open, but a sudden downpour of rain could cause water damage or even flooding inside your garage.

The security of your home

If there’s a door from your garage into your house, then your entire property is left at risk when you leave the garage door open. This provides an easy entry point to your home for burglars, allowing them to steal from your home and even put you and your family at risk. Even leaving the garage door open during the day can be a risk if there is a good enough hiding place inside your garage. Someone could stowaway in there and wait for you to go to sleep before making their move.

Security is important to everyone, and that’s why modern garage doors have such great security features. Help them do their jobs by locking up your garage door at night. A well-maintained garage door is a secure garage door, so get in touch with us if it’s time for a tune-up.