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 Allegheny County.

Nothing below is complicated. It's an afternoon's work and most of it is free.

The first four are free and take minutes; the rest are hardware.

1. Use the opener's lock modeChamberlain and LiftMaster wall controls have a lock (vacation) button. Hold it two seconds and every remote is ignored until you release it. Use it overnight and every time you leave for more than a day.
2. Change the keypad codeDo it the 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.
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 use the car's built-in HomeLink buttons, which can't be lifted out.
4. Lock the door into the houseThe door from the garage into the kitchen or hallway should be an exterior-grade door with a deadbolt, and the deadbolt should be used. Most aren't.
5. Add a release shieldSee above. Blocks the emergency release from outside without affecting it from inside.
6. Cover or replace the windowsPanel 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.
7. Add a smart opener or a smart moduleA Wi-Fi opener or a retrofit module sends a phone alert whenever the door opens or closes, and lets you close it from anywhere. The alert is the part that matters; most people find out the door was open all night from the notification.
8. Secure the side doorThe side door into the garage usually has a knob lock and a hollow core. A deadbolt, a solid door and a strike plate with long screws bring it up to the standard of the front door.
9. Use the manual slide lock when awayMost doors have a slide bolt on the inside of the track, or can have one added. Engaged, the door physically cannot roll up, regardless of the opener. Use it for trips. Unlock it before running the opener again, or the opener strains against it and burns out.

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.

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 Allegheny County. Ask on any visit and the technician will go through the list against your door.

What we don't do is describe on this site how a garage door is defeated. The protections above are enough to know; the methods aren't something we publish.

A closed garage door is a secured garage door. Not if the release is reachable, the remote is in the car and the inside door is unlocked. Closed and secured are different states.

Smart openers make it less secure. A current one with a strong account password is the opposite: you find out the moment the door opens, and you can shut it from a phone. The risk is a weak password reused from somewhere else.

The side door doesn't matter. It's the door most often used, because it's the one nobody hardened.

Say where you are in Pittsburgh, get a two-hour slot, and the technician phones on the way. Same routine in Squirrel Hill, Shadyside and Robinson.

Free estimate. Throughout Allegheny County, including Squirrel Hill, Shadyside, Brookline, Mount Lebanon, Bethel Park, Monroeville, Robinson.