How To Secure Your Garage Door With A Zip Tie

Garage door zip tie manual release latch.

How to secure your garage door with a zip tie.

It s inexpensive and easy to install but it increases your garage door security while still keeping the release cord accessible in case of emergencies. Cinch the zip tie up. In doing so they re targeting your emergency pull cord and with a slight tug release the cord allowing your door to be easily rolled up by hand. Criminal pushes in the top panel of the garage door and slides a coat hanger through the opening.

3 lock garage door vertical track if the garage door vertical track is locked the door cannot be opened. Place a thinner nylon zip tie through the hole at the end of the release lever and through a hole in the body of the traveler upper green arrow technically a screw drive shuttle assembly. One of the available videos shows an easy solution to this security problem. There will be holes in the vertical track that can be used with a simple padlock.

Use a key padlock on the vertical track to prevent the door from being opened manually. The most common type of entry into the garage is the 6 second break in method. Their functions vary from basic security of a place to cosmetic concealment. Why a zip tie is not enough to secure your garage door.

Securing garage door with zip tie as a door expert witness i am called upon many times a year to evaluate garage door injuries. We become concerned when we watched the videos for the garage door break in and how they told everyone how to fix this using a zip tie to secure their garage door opener knowing that they were. Zip tie your emergency release shut simply running a zip tie through the holes in your emergency release switch will make it almost impossible for a thief to use the jimmy method. Some homeowners are using zip ties to prevent the door from being disengage while leaving the red cord attached to the opener carrier.

Fortunately there s a better solution. According to the federal code and ul 325 adding a zip tie to your garage door operator is a violation and so is removing the emergency release. Keep in mind that the zip tie should only be used when you are going on vacation. To prevent break ins through your garage door there are a couple of things you can do.

First of all let s be clear. All that criminals have to do is push in the top panel of the garage and use something like a coat hanger to activate the emergency release mechanism. Done deal they re in. A garage shield covers your garage door s emergency release cord making it impossible for a thief to use it to break in.

This method can be effective but will require the homeowner to pull really hard on the red cord or cut the zip tie to disengage the door in an emergency. Notice the two green arrows. Garage doors come in several shapes and sizes.