How vulnerable are garage workshops due to the ability of an intruder to get through the garage door? I hear stories of garage doors spontaneously opening, due to other garage doors using the same codes or some stray electromagnetic interference. My own door will occasionally lower to about a foot off the ground and then reverse itself (only in wet weather). If I don't stay to watch it, I might leave home with the door fully open.
I certainly wouldn't trust my tools to the vagaries of an automatic garage door. I disabled the automatic door opener the minute I started using the stand alone building as a shop and installed an alarm system.
Bought the parts from a local security store, ran the wiring for the two 'zones' (garage door and walk-in door), and installed the detectors, siren, keypad and control box myself in less than a day, including a dedicated circuit off my sub-panel, all for about $200.
This was a few years back, so it is probably cheaper by now.
FWIW, a C-Clamp, clamped to the roller track, and positioned just above one of the rollers when the door is closed, is a pretty effective way to keep a garage door from being opened from the outside, alarm system or no.
You can unplug the door opener. I know someone who attached a wooden stick to the plug to make this convenient. Also, most garage doors have a lock on them. Think about being a burglar and how you would break in to your own garage, then fix these items.
If you're not going to park in the garage/shop, disable the remote function and install a key switch... they're cheap and easy to wire... you can also program most openers that use a remote keypad to NOT respond to wireless openers..
IMO, the best protection is neighbors that keep an eye out for each other and a lot of light... I prefer the type of security light that is on "low" setting until motion is sensed, then kicks in "high" for as long as you've got it set for.. nobody who's intentions are bad wants to trigger a light..
mac
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Get a new Opener with rolling codes. Videotape or take pictures of all your tools. Catalog it. Check your insurance policy and insure properly. Don't worry.
You can make an easy "door open" light for the house by plugging a "wall wart" into a lamp adapter in the opener light and running low voltage wire to the house. I havew one in my bedroom so I won't go to sleep with the garage door open. If someone opens it at night the light will come on. I don't really worry aboout thieves as much as a critter setting up housekeeping in the garage at night but I am out in the stix
Mon, Jan 9, 2006, 6:23am (EST-1) snipped-for-privacy@nospam.com (Swingman) doth sayeth: FWIW, a C-Clamp, clamped to the roller track, and positioned just above one of the rollers when the door is closed, is a pretty effective way to keep a garage door from being opened from the outside, alarm system or no.
That'll work, but I prefer drilling a hold thru, and using a padlock - then in case they get inside, they still can't open the door
- at least without bolt cutters, or some effort.
JOAT You'll never get anywhere if you believe what you "hear". What do you "know"?
- Granny Weatherwax
Our local tea-leaves are pretty unsophisticated. They won't try to spoof the radio on an automatic door, they'll just kick a hole in it. Domestic-grade automatic doors are pretty lightweight construction, usually fibreglass panels a foot or two high.
Given the choice I'd go for an inherently stronger door (i.e. steel, which I can weld an internal grid into) even if this meant losing the auto-opener. After all, if it's a workshop and not for parking, I don't really need an opener.
Maybe. But that might put you into the same "boat" as the apocryphal type who built a cabin cruiser hull in his basement and then had to tear down a wall to get it outside. Something over 50 years ago, I knew a guy who did something similar, but he PLANNED to tear the wall out. No other place to build the boat, so...at that time, I was too young and stupid to consider just what his wife must have thought about the whole enterprise.
Yabbut, once they're in a shop they generally have all the tools they need to break into/out of Ft Knox.
I position a C-clamp slightly above a roller so that the door can actually be opened if they get past the lock ... opened just far enough to set off the alarm, which is train whistle loud.
If they're going to steal my tools, I'd like to at least f*ck with the bastards a little.
Sorry to say that I actually did that once.
Not a boat, but a birdcage. In Jr. HS metal shop. Stupid damn shop teacher.
I can still have an opening door - but a heavy one-piece door with internal reinforcement that I have to lift myself, not on a motor.
My Dad's shed (commercial truck-size) has a big steel roller door, with electric lift. These are great fun - a few hundred bucks for a new motor every time it dies (regularly) and a minor parking accident can bend the lower strips which needs the whole thing lifting down to repair it.
Yeah.. it would be nice to have them discover that the shop kitty was a lion..
*g* How about a power door closeing/locking device that goes off with the alarm, like some jewelry stores have? lock the bad guyz in until the neighbors get there with their torches and pitchforks..I think the bottom line is that locks only keep honest people and beginners out... if they know what's in the garage and want to get in, they will..
I'm lucky to live in a pretty crime free neighborhood with good neighbor support, but if they want to get in, they'll find a way... (and my homeowner's policy needs to have an updated list of tools.. good reminder!)
mac
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Tue, Jan 10, 2006, 7:37am (EST-1) snipped-for-privacy@nospam.com (Swingman) doth sayeth: Yabbut, once they're in a shop they generally have all the tools they need to break into/out of Ft Knox. train whistle loud.
Oh yeah, I know they could get thru the padlock, but I'd make them work a bit.
Mention of your alarm, reminds me of another little trick. Rig up some aircraft landing lights inside, so they light up, along with the alarm. Heh heh. It's not lethal, but the littls POSs won't be able to see for awhile. Hehehehe
It was a sad day when politicians stopped people from using set-guns against criminals.
JOAT You'll never get anywhere if you believe what you "hear". What do you "know"?
- Granny Weatherwax
Many years ago ferro-cement boats were pretty popular for home-builders. The thing with them was that the hull had to cure for a year before being moved. A guy of my acquaintance built one in his backyard, planning to bring it out via the vacant lot next to his house. You guessed it - during the ensuing year someone bought that lot and built a house on it, leaving him with the only option being to remove part of his garage to get it by.
-- "We need to make a sacrifice to the gods, find me a young virgin... oh, and bring something to kill"
Tim Douglass
I started to say/type the same thing, but chickened out at the final mouse click ... thanks! ;)
Tue, Jan 10, 2006, 12:43pm (EST-3) snipped-for-privacy@bendcable.com (Tim=A0Douglass) doth state: Many years ago ferro-cement boats were pretty popular for home-builders. The thing with them was that the hull had to cure for a year before being moved.
Nothing I've ever read on the subject ever stated anything like that. What's your reference?
JOAT You'll never get anywhere if you believe what you "hear". What do you "know"?
- Granny Weatherwax
Halon in combination with automatically closing windows and doors could achieve the desired effect too. Can you get halon any more?
no, and i've heard there are big fines if an existing halon system gets set off.
Just what some of the Puget Sound area amateur boat builders told me back in the 70s. I've never tried to build one so never researched it. Concrete has a pretty dramatic curing curve for several months after it is "hard", but I don't know really how long it should be. But every one of the guys I knew who built or had a friend who built a ferro-cement boat aged the hull a year before moving.
Whether it is necessary or not, by friend thought it was and ended up "remodeling" in order to remove his boat from the back lot.
-- "We need to make a sacrifice to the gods, find me a young virgin... oh, and bring something to kill"
Tim Douglass
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