Garage Door Safety

Missoula Montana, Garage Doors

Photo credit- http://www.howtobuildahouseblog.com

(Bob Ruby Home Inspection Solutions Missoula MT. 406-646-6182 )

The garage door is the largest moving object in a house.  Its parts are under high tension.  All repairs and adjustments should be performed by a trained garage door systems technician.  To find a technician, visit the International Door Association website.  If the garage door appears inoperable or out of plumb, do not attempt to operate the garage door opener.  If the door appears plumb, you can perform some basic testing to ensure that your garage door is operating as it should.

Garage doors are large, spring-supported doors. Garage door openers control the opening and closing of garage doors, either through a wall-mounted switch or a radio transmitter. Due to the strain that garage door components and openers regularly endure, they may become defective over time and need to be fixed or replaced. Defective components may create safety hazards as well as functional deficiencies to the garage door assembly. The following facts demonstrate the dangers posed by garage doors:

• Garage doors are typically among the heaviest moving objects in the home and are held under high tension.

• Injuries caused by garage doors account for approximately 20,000 emergency room visits annually, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
  
  
• The majority of the injuries caused by garage doors are the result of pinched fingers, although severe injuries and deaths due to entrapment occur as well. Sixty children have been killed since 1982 as a result of garage doors that did not automatically reverse upon contact.

• Manual (emergency) release handle.  All garage doors should be equipped with this device, which will detach the door from the door opener when activated. It is vital during emergency situations, such as when a person becomes trapped beneath the door or when a power outage cuts electricity to the door opener. Inspectors should activate the handle to make sure that it works, although they will have to reset the handle if it does not reset automatically. In order for the handle to be accessible and obvious, it must be…

1. colored red;
2. easily distinguishable from rest of the garage opener system; and
3. no more than 6 feet above the standing surface.

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Photo-Electric Eyes
Federal law states that residential garage door openers manufactured after 1992 must be equipped with photo-electric eyes or some other safety-reverse feature.  If the garage door has an opener, check to see if photo-electric eyes are installed.  They should be near the floor, mounted to the left and right sides of the bottom door panel.  The beam of the photo-electric eyes should not be higher than 6 inches above the floor.  

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 Non-Contact Reversal Test 
This check applies to door systems that are equipped with photo-electric eyes.  Standing inside the garage and safely away from the path of the door, use the remote control or wall button to close the door.  As the door is closing, wave an object in the path of the photo-electric eye beam. The door should immediately reverse and return to the fully-open position.

Contact Reversal Test 
This check applies to doors with openers when the opener’s force setting has been properly set, and when the opener reinforcement bracket is securely and appropriately attached to the door’s top section.  If you’re concerned that a contact reversal test may cause damage to the garage door or its components, don’t do it. 
 
Otherwise, begin this test with the door fully open.  Under the center of the door, place a 2x4 piece of wood flat on the floor in the path of the door.  Standing inside the garage but safely away from the path of the door, use the wall push button to close the door.  When the door contacts the wood, the door should automatically reverse direction and return to the fully-open position.
 
If your garage door fails or is slow to respond to any of these tests, contact a qualified technician who can check for any necessary repairs or upgrades.

Safety Advice for Clients:

• Homeowners should not attempt to adjust or repair springs themselves. The springs are held under extremely high tension and can snap suddenly and forcefully, causing serious or fatal injury.

• No one should stand or walk beneath a garage door while it is in motion. Adults should set an example for children and teach them about garage door safety. Children should not be permitted to operate the garage door opener push button and should be warned against touching any of the door’s moving parts.

• Fingers and hands should be kept away from pulleys, hinges, springs, and the intersection points between door panels. Closing doors can very easily crush body parts that get between them.

• The automatic reversal system may need to be adjusted for cold temperatures, since the flexibility of the springs are affected by temperature. This adjustment can be made from a dial on the garage door opener, which should only be changed only by a trained garage door technician.