Inspecting real estate in Nashville, TN ~ Garage door safety...
Garage doors are the largest moving object in your home. Child and pet safety are major areas of concern when purchasing or having your new home inspected. Municipalities and insurance companies now require photo eyes to be installed on all mechanically operated garage doors. As a general rule, these are to be placed between 4-6" above the garage floor.
Every now and then, the placement of these safety items is overlooked during the new construction process. While these are supposed to be checked by local building officials prior to a house being issued a CO (Certificate of Occupancy), these often get overlooked during the final inspection. Thankfully, the home inspection process catches these items to ensure as safe dwelling for you and your family.
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Michael, that is so important. I do not have automatic garage doors, we have one very small "garage", I don't know if any car has ever been in there, more like a cow in the past or perhaps a tractor. Full of "stuff", and it has an old door, which... came tumbling down on hubby last winter. Almost killed him!
Mike,
Now you have me thinking. I'm going to have to check mine.
Rich
Hi Mike..Very important safety for Children and Pets, saved my Dog a few times.
Great close up Photo
Michael...
Thanks for this great safety tip! Garage door openers can be dangerous if they are not properly installed.
Micahel there are a lot of things that be installed wrong with garage doors:)
Good catch. I'm not sure where the foreman was on this job, but he needs a better punch list.
Michael, That's not something I even thought of....I'm glad you wrote this post, it will bring awareness to homeowners and those inspectors who might not be doing such a complete inspection.
Hi Michael, I have heard horror stories about garage door opener safety features that have malfunctioned, or were not in place. Good reminder to everyone!
Debi
Michael, I also learned when selling my own house that there is an automatic reverse that is supposed to take place when an object or child straddling the light beam is struck by the door, and it has to be adjusted to reverse direction before inflicting damages or injury.
My own house failed this test and it was added to the repair list. My "handyman" made the adjustment and still it failed. I contacted the manufacturer and their instruction was to test and retest several times since the feature fails since it is seldom used. Each repeated test and use caused it to improve and soon it stopped and reversed on contact. Very important since a child sitting on a tricycle might not trip the light beam.
The point, and my advise to home owners with small children or pets, would be to test this feature often and make necessary adjustments when needed.
I think this is very important to have. Also, if you have springs, check to see that you have a cable line installed to prevent a "fly away spring" if and when the spring breaks.