How safe is your garage door?

It may not be obvious, but your garage door could be a hazard you don't maintain it well. Avoid injuries and unwanted expenses with these safety tips.

• Take a good look at your garage door once a month. Pay special attention to the springs, rollers, pulleys and cables. Do they show signs of wear and tear? If so, get a professional to replace or fix them. Do not, under any circumstances, do it yourself.

• Check the weather-stripping along the sides of your doors regularly. If the stripping is jamming against the sides, get it replaced.

• Read the manual to learn how to use the garage door’s emergency release control.

• Don’t let kids play with the garage door remote and make sure it’s never within their reach.

• Inform your children about the dangers of poking fingers between door sections.

• Put your door to the test: each month, place an object such as a box in the door’s closing path. If the door doesn’t roll back upon contact, call a trained professional to get the mechanisms fixed.

• Never leave your door partially open. Doing so could cause the door to unexpectedly slide down when re-activated, not to mention leaving it open to potential intruders.

• Make professional garage-door maintenance a yearly thing. Many people do this during the spring or the fall.

One of the most common causes of injury from garage door systems is a falling door. This is often caused by an improperly adjusted door or attempts to do-it-yourself without the proper know-how or tools.

The story goes that “garage” doors have been in use for over 2,000 years when chariots were kept in gatehouses during Roman times. Choice was limited because back then, they didn’t have catalogues showing them the range of garage doors they could purchase. The first catalogue to do so was published just over 100 years ago with the original version of the garage door being called a “float over door.”