Security Considerations When Choosing a New Garage Door

When choosing a new garage door for their home, most people focus on color and style. They are primarily interested in how good each door looks and how well it will complement the exterior of their property. These are important points to consider of course but of equal importance is security. Your new garage door should be capable of deterring potential intruders and thieves from attempting to gain entry to your property through your garage: it should be strong enough to keep your family and your possessions safe. If you are not sure what features to look for when evaluating how secure a new garage door is likely to be, read through our handy guide and make notes as you go.

Security Tips from Our Expert Garage Door Installers

Our installation team has installed a huge variety of doors in many different types of properties across Denver and the adjacent suburbs, and what follows are their top tips for selecting a secure door for your residential or commercial garage.

• Choose a Strong, Durable Material – Modern garage doors are made from many different materials, including vinyl, steel, aluminum, fiberglass and composites. In our experience, the strongest doors are those that are made from steel, solid wood or quality composite materials. While a determined intruder could break through a vinyl or aluminum door with an axe or similar weapon, they would find it virtually impossible to do the same if faced with a heavy-duty steel, solid timber or strong composite door. Solid wood is undoubtedly the most secure option but it does need regular maintenance to keep it looking good and is the heaviest type of material too. For these reasons, many home and business owners opt for multi-layered steel or well-made composite doors if security is a major concern.
• Only Have Windows at the Top of the Door – The most secure option, as far as our garage door installers are concerned, is a door with no windows at all. However, if you need natural light in your garage, we recommend choosing a door with windows as close to the top as possible. This will ensure they are not easily accessible to thieves and that passers-by cannot see what is in your garage by looking through the windows. Other precautions you can take when choosing a door with windows is to ensure that the windows are too small for someone to climb through if they are broken and to cover them with heavily tinted film on the inside to prevent people from seeing through them.
• Install a Door with Multiple Locking Bolts – The weak point of up-and-over garage doors, from a security perspective, is the fact the spring-loaded bolts for the handles can be forced open very easily by thieves. It is for this reason that all good-quality modern garage doors are fitted with multiple bolt systems. Unless your property has other security features that will prevent thieves from even reaching your garage door, we strongly recommend buying a door with multiple bolts.
• Only Use the Latest Remotes for Automatic Garage Doors – Whenever we are asked to perform an automatic garage door installation in Denver or the surrounding area, we always make sure our customers choose a door with a second-generation remote transmitter. The first remotes that came with automatic garage doors can easily be hacked into by thieves but the latest models use a rolling security code, which makes it harder for thieves to capture and use the right code to open your door. If you have a door with an older remote, please feel free to call and ask about upgrading it.
• Choose a Door with an Alarm or Fit One Separately – Alarms can be fitted to the control panel of automatic garage doors and some models come with these as standard. If you want to make sure the contents of your garage are safe, these are a great idea. In the event that excessive force is applied to your door, the alarm will sound, alerting you to the presence of intruders. A strong garage door that is fitted with a working alarm will act as a very effective deterrent to thieves, who will almost certainly move on to look for an easier target.
• Good-Quality Insulation – Insulation is not going to stop anybody from breaking into your garage, no matter how good it is, but what it will do is keep your possessions safe in adverse weather conditions. When the temperature drops below freezing outside, a well-insulated garage door will help to ensure that whatever you store in your garage is safe and secure. As a leading garage door installation company in the area, we can help you to choose a door with excellent insulation that will perform well in all weathers.
• Consider a Custom Garage Door – If you want to make sure that your new door fits as snugly as possible, leaving no space for potential intruders to insert a tool and attempt to force it open, a custom door could be your best choice. We supply high-quality custom doors across the city and surrounding area, all of which are expertly fitted by our experienced garage door installers.

If you need any more advice on what type of door to buy, call the best garage door installation company in the state: we will be delighted to help you choose a door that is perfect for your needs.