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Your garage door is the largest entry door to your home and for many families today it is the primary entrance. Did you know that your garage door weighs several hundred pounds and has many moving parts? The U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission reports that each year since 1990 an average of 20,000 people visit the emergency room each year for garage door related injuries. Understanding garage safety can help protect you and your family. Below you will find a list of safety rules you can discuss with your family and even post in your garage to help everyone remember.Keep your garage space neat and organized. A neat and organized garage can prevent tripping or falling. The concrete garage floor can be very painful and damaging in a fall.

Clearly mark all poisons and flammables and place out of a child’s reach. Children can be very curious, make sure that all paints, pesticides, oils, gas, etc., are clearly marked and in a place where they cannot be reached by a child or spilled by accident.Make sure tools and ladders are properly stowed.

A ladder should never be left in an upright position. Fold the ladder and hang or place along the side wall of your garage so that it won’t fall on anyone, children will not be enticed to climb on it, and it will not cause someone to fall. Also, make sure all sharp and pointed objects are carefully secured out of reach.

A garage door is not a toy. While many children find it fun to run beneath the door while in motion, this is very unsafe and children can easily become trapped under the door. Let your family know that they must keep a clear distance from the garage door while it is in motion.

Check your garage door for the safety “electric eyes” or sensors. If your garage door is older, or if it has not been properly maintained or installed, you may not have functional safety sensors on your garage door. These are located near the bottom, left and right sides, of the garage door and should be approximately 4-6 inches from the garage floor.

The safety sensors should be properly connected and aligned.

Call H&O Garage Door Services for garage door maintenance, tune-ups, and spring replacement. Garage Doors that are not properly maintained can be not only a nuisance but also a safety hazard. The torsion springs (located at the top center of the garage door) are under extreme pressure and can cause severe injury if they should snap. A broken spring can also cause the sudden fall of a garage door.If your garage door spring breaks call a trained H&O Garage Door Services for spring replacement.

Keep garage door opener remotes and transmitters out of children’s reach. Make sure that no one is near, or touching, the garage door while it is in motion and never put your door down when not in site without additional safety features or precautions. Aside from the size and weight of the garage door crushing a person, there are also many hinges and folds in a garage door, of which hands and fingers are often the subject of injuries.