Securing a garage door: nine things that work

The front door gets the deadbolt; the garage gets forgotten, and the garage leads into the kitchen through a door nobody locks. Add an opener that takes orders, a release that can be reached, a keypad code the last owner set, windows in older panels and a flimsy side door, and you have the way in that gets used most around Atlanta.

Nothing below is complicated. Four are habits, five are hardware, and the hardware is a single visit.

The first four are free habits; the rest are hardware we install.

1. Use the opener's lock mode when you're awayChamberlain and LiftMaster wall controls have a lock (vacation) setting that makes the opener ignore every remote until you release it. Use it overnight and every time you leave for more than a day. We show you where it is on any visit.
2. Change the keypad code after a moveThe week you move in, and again any time a contractor or a tenant has had it. Four digits that aren't the house number, the year, or 1234. We reset it on the visit and clear the old remotes at the same time.
3. Don't leave the remote in the carA remote clipped to the visor in a car parked on the street is a key to your house. Take it in, or have the car's built-in buttons paired instead, which can't be lifted out.
4. Lock the door into the houseTreat the garage-to-house door as an outside door, because it is one. Solid, deadbolted, and locked at night. In most houses it's none of those.
5. A release shieldSee above. We install it; it blocks the emergency release from outside without affecting it from inside.
6. Windows covered or replacedPanel windows show whether the car is home and whether the garage is worth the trouble. Frosted film is the quick answer; a new top section without glass is the permanent one, and we supply both.
7. A smart opener or a smart moduleSmart openers and add-on modules send an alert on every open and close and give you a close button on your phone. The alert does the real work; an open-all-night door is usually discovered by that message, not by luck. We install and set it up.
8. The side door brought up to standardThe side door into the garage usually has a knob lock and a hollow core. A deadbolt, a solid door and a reinforced strike bring it up to the front door's standard, and it's part of the same visit.
9. A slide lock on the trackA slide bolt on the inside of the track means the door physically cannot roll up, whatever the opener is told. We add one where the door lacks it, and set the opener so it cannot fight a locked door.

Lock mode on. Slide bolt across. Remotes out of the street-parked car. Inside door locked. App alert on if you have one. A neighbor who'll glance at it. Five minutes, and the garage stops being the easy way in.

Coming home: slide bolt first, remote second, or the opener strains against the lock and ends up needing us.

Release shields, slide locks, deadbolts for the inside and side doors, glass-free top sections, smart modules or Wi-Fi openers, and rolling-code replacements for old fixed-code units: all of it is routine across the Atlanta metro. Ask on any visit and the technician will go through the list against your door. Free estimate.

We won't describe the ways a garage door gets defeated, here or anywhere else. Knowing the protections is enough, and the rest isn't ours to publish.

Closed means safe. A closed door with an exposed release, a remote on a visor and an unlocked inside door is not secured, just closed. The difference is the whole point of this page.

Smart openers invite trouble. A current model behind a strong password tells you the moment the door moves and lets you shut it from your phone. The danger isn't the opener; it's a reused password.

The side door is an afterthought. For the homeowner, yes. For anyone looking for a way in, it's the first thing they try.

Say where you are in Atlanta, get a two-hour slot, and the technician phones on the way. Same routine in Sandy Springs, Marietta and Grayson.

Free estimate. Throughout the Atlanta metro, including Sandy Springs, Marietta, Roswell, Dunwoody, Sandy Springs, Marietta, Kennesaw, Johns Creek, Douglasville.