Are Garage Doors Easy To Break Into
There are a lot of factors to consider when it comes to the security of your garage. First, you want to ensure that you take all the necessary precautions to keep your belongings safe. One question that many people have is how easy it is to break into a garage. Generally, garage doors are not very easy to break into.
Use Your Garage Doors Manual Lock
Until you gain possession of your garage door remote once again, you can use your garage doors manual lock. This lock is on the outside of your garage door. Engage this manual lock by sliding it into place every time you leave your house. This tip only takes a few seconds to implement, and it can protect your home from intruders until you can once again use your automatic remote.
How Do You Open A Window Latch From The Outside
Some homeowners may also need to access their sliding garage windows from the outside before the door. If you find yourself in that situation, follow these steps to open the sliding glass panel from the outside:
Read Also: Garage Door Strut Home Depot
Contact Marvins Garage Doors If You Need Help Manually Opening Your Garage Door
Once you learn how to manually open and close your garage door, youre prepared for a wide range of situations ranging from a power outage to a lost remote. But operating your door yourself is only a temporary solution to fix the underlying issue affecting your garage door, you need professional service.
At Marvins Garage Doors, were committed to providing efficient work and expert service. Our team of highly qualified professionals is standing by to assist you in any garage door-related repairs you need we offer 24-hour emergency service, so were available to help at any hour of the day.
We service all models of residential and commercial garage doors, and we include opener, spring and panel repair. Family-owned and -operated, Marvins Garage Doors has been a trusted provider of garage door service in the northwestern North Carolina area since 1970, and weve worked hard to earn a reputation of excellence.
Contact Marvins Garage Doors to schedule your garage door repair today.
How To Manually Open And Close Your Garage Door

Home | Blog | How to Manually Open and Close Your Garage Door
One of modern lifes luxuries is a garage door that works on command. Thanks to the motorized garage door opener, your overhead door closes at the touch of a button. Some advanced openers like LiftMaster models with Wi-Fi connectivity through myQ can even close your door with an app on your phone.
When the door doesnt open or close on its own, you may be wondering what to do. In a power outage, you might ask, How do you open a garage door without power? If you have a broken overhead door, you could be questioning whether its safe to close it by hand. We have your answers right here.
You May Like: Pair Chamberlain Garage Door Opener
Find The Right Mechanism
Once you come inside, you should go closer to the garage door and find a mechanism that operates it. Usually, it is attached somewhere in the central part of the ceiling. Then, it stretches from the beginning of the garage door to the backside of the garage. Sometimes it hangs from the ceiling, and sometimes, if it is low, it is on the ceiling itself.
It looks like a long rail and has a chain or red rope hanging from a lever over your head. All you have to do is to pull that rope until the lever comes to the down position and enable usage of the manual mechanism.
Asap Garage Doors Seattle
Do you want to know more about how to open garage door manually from outside?
ASAP Garage Doors Seattle has got your back.
We are a team of garage door professionals that offer quality garage door repair in Seattle, along with other services on garage door installation in Seattle.
For how to open garage door manually from outside, simply contact ASAP Garage Doors Seattle for a guaranteed service.
Do not hesitate to reach out to us for any garage door problems.
Recommended Reading: 2 Bedroom House Plans Open Floor Plan With Garage
In Case Of An Emergency
Knowing how to manually open your garage door can be crucial during an emergency. Many natural disasters cause electrical surges and failures, including floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, wildfires and heavy snow and ice storms. In any of these events, an untimely power outage could deactivate your garage door and prevent you from accessing your vehicles.
If your house or property catches fire, your garage door might be the only safe exit. Other doors could be too damaged or too close to the flames. On the other hand, if the fire has affected your homes power, your garage door might not open. In immediate danger situations, knowing how to open and close your garage door manually is vital for you and your homes safety.
Knowing how to manually operate your garage door does more than help you avoid inconveniences it allows you to safely and quickly navigate emergencies and gives you peace of mind when you need it most.
Open Your Garage Door Manually From The Outside
- Almost all garage doors are built with emergency release mechanisms. To unlock your garage door from the outside, you need to look for a small lock. This is located at the center near the garage door. This mechanism should have a key that corresponds to the lock.
- Then, unlock the emergency release cord by turning the key and pulling out the lock tumbler. A cord is attached to the lock tumbler upon pulling the entire mechanism. Pull the cord, until your door turns into a manual mode.
- Manually, lift up the door straight up and ensure that it stays open before you park your car in.
- When you are inside, close the door completely and lock it.
Recommended Reading: Garage Door Screens Roll Up
Your Garage Door Could Be Your Biggest Liability
Before we discuss how to break into a garage door, lets look at how your garage door could be one of your weakest links in your home security system.
First and foremost, garage doors can be easily kicked open because they are structurally weak.
Second, people often neglect securing the interior door of the garage thinking that taking care of the outer doors is enough to deter burglars.
Finally, getting into the garage gives everyone access to tools like drills, snow blowers, and air compressors, even criminals. So if youre on a trip and nobody is in your house, it may be just as rewarding for criminals to break into your garage if you havent installed additional protection to your doors. Burglars can even exploit the emergency release of your garage doors in a matter of seconds.
Garage Door Opener Emergency Releases
The emergency release for a garage door opener is similar to that of a car door or refrigerator. It consists of two parts: the electrical release cord and the wall-mounted latch mechanism. The latter should be self-explanatory its simply what triggers your garage door to open when you push the release.
The cord, however, is a bit more difficult to understand at first. It will be located inside of your garage or connected to the wall near the door opener button on an outdoor wall that leads into your garage.
Its usually red and yellow the colors of most electrical devices . This cord will be wrapped around a pulley above your garage door at the very top of your garage doors track.
Read Also:
You May Like: Sickies Garage Sioux Falls Sd
If You Want To Get Safety Maintenance Of Your Garage Door Contact Sti Garage Door
Maintenance and repair of garage doors is a complex process that requires the attention of experienced specialists. If youre having trouble with your doors, STI Garage Door is proud to provide its expertise in this matter.
Our company has many years of experience servicing garage doors of any complexity. Our staff has hundreds of specialists who will guarantee a quick and affordable solution to your problems.
Our line of services includes:
- Door installation
- Repair and maintenance of springs
- Insulation services
- High-tech openers installation
If youre still wondering, How do I open my garage door manually? contact us. All you need is to drop us a line, tell us about your issue with the garage door, and our specialists will come up with the best solution for it.
Know When To Seek Professional Help

After you manually open your garage door in a situation where youre short on time, its best to find the corresponding remote so that you dont have to rely on manual methods in the future. If you cant find the remote for your garage door, its best to call a professional technician. You may also need to call a technician if youre having trouble opening the garage door, as there may be issues with its springs.
Whatever the case may be, our team at Overhead Garage Door can help. Contact us today to set up an appointment with one of our qualified service technicians. Well help you get a replacement remote and inspect your garage door to ensure that theyre arent larger problems present. If we happen to find a mechanical or technical issue, well address it so that you can open and close your garage door confidently and use your garage as intended.
Read Also: Lift Master Garage Door Opener Program
Can You Use Gel Stain On Metal Garage Doors
When staining your metal garage door be sure to use a good quality brush. Always go the direction of the wood grain pattern on the door. Gel stains dry quickly so plan on doing this project in the cool part of the day or when the door is in the shade. Once the first coat is done let it dry for 24 to 48 hours.
How Do You Close A Garage Door That Wont Close
Its annoying when your garage door wont close, especially when youre in a hurry to leave for work or an appointment. The good news is, there are several things you can try to get your garage door working again.
Not up for the full read? Heres a video that will walk you through a simple technique to get your garage door closed:
Recommended Reading: Garage Door Wall Button Flashing
Manually Move The Garage Door And Return To Down Position
If the garage door opener is working, but you still cant open your garage door from the outside, there could be an issue with the sensors. These safety features are designed to prevent the garage door from closing if something is in the way.
To test this, disconnect the garage door opener by pulling on the red cord that hangs down from the opener. Now, try to open the door from the outside. If it opens, the sensors are likely the issue. Reconnect the garage door opener and adjust the sensors as needed.
You Can Check It Out To Open Broken Garage Door
Why Cant I Open My Garage Door Manually
There are a few reasons why you might not be able to open your garage door manually. One reason could be that the door is locked. If this is the case, youll need to use your garage door opener to unlock it.
Another reason your garage door might not open manually because the door spring has broken.
If youve tried both of these solutions and still cant open your garage door manually, there might be something wrong with the door itself. In this case, its best to call a professional for help.
Don’t Miss: My Garage Door Won’t Close
How To Open Garage Door From Outside
When the situation arises and you do not have any access to the garage as you are outside or at home, then you learn how to open garage door manually from outside.
It is recommended that you have a key for an emergency release that should be installed on the door.
Once it has been installed, simply follow these steps:
First, find the emergency key release that is located outside of the garage door and put the key into the lock.
The next step is to move the key and then pull out the lock tumbler.
Once that has been removed, a cord can be noticed on the tumbler hole.
Pull this cord for the motor to be disabled.
Next, lift the door fully up.
It must not fall back down for your safety.
Lastly, connect the emergency key release as well as the motor.
Finally, put the tumbler of the lock back to the hole then lock it once more using its key.
Why Might You Need To Close Your Garage Door Manually
Sometimes, your garage door may not open or close when you hit the button on your garage door opener. Rather than being a cause for alarm, this is actually a common occurrence that can have a few different explanations.
The first thing youll want to check is the batteries in your garage door opener remote. If theyre dead, the opener wont be able to send a signal to the garage door motor to open or close the door. Simply replacing the batteries should fix the issue.
If the batteries in your remote arent the problem, then its likely that something is interfering with the signal between the remote and the garage door opener motor. This interference could be caused by anything from a power outage to something as simple as a stack of boxes in front of the motor unit.
In some cases, its possible that the tracks that your garage door runs on are bent or otherwise obstructed. This can cause your door to get stuck or fall off track entirely. Inspecting and/or repairing your tracks should be done by a professional to avoid further damage to your garage door system.
Finally, its possible that theres an issue with the springs that help counterbalance your garage doors weight. If one of these springs breaks, it can cause serious damage to both your door and your opener system.
Again, springs are under high tension and can be dangerous to work with so if you suspect an issue with your springs, be sure to call a professional for assistance.
Read Also: Single Story Garage With Living Quarters
How Long Does A Garage Spring Last
How long do garage springs last, typically? The average garage door spring, if correctly installed, should last about 10,000 cycles of opening and closing. If you only go in and out of your garage once a day, that means you should expect a broken garage door spring around 14 years after the spring is first installed.
Opening A Garage Door From The Inside:

- Step 1: Look for the emergency release cord on the motor. This is usually a red rope that is hanging from the garage door trolley.
- Step 2: Disconnect the door from the opener.
- Step 3: If you are successful in Step 2, you can now freely move the garage door. Carefully lift the door straight up. Make sure that the garage door is lifted up and very still.
- Step 4: Connect the opener and the trolley. You should be able to hear a click if you do this step correctly. This means that you can electronically open and close our garage door once more.
Also Check: Garage With Lift For Rent
Safety Tips For Opening Garage Doors Without Power
So, we told you how to open a garage when the power is out, but this process requires some caution. It would seem what could be dangerous in manually opening a garage door. However, even in this process, there are small security tips that will help you not get hurt or break the garage door.
- Tip #1. Disable the automatic opening mechanism. Disconnect the lift in advance so that when you reconnect again, you do not have problems due to a sudden voltage surge.
- Tip #2. Do not press the emergency release button when the door is open. This action can cause the entire door to collapse with a crash. We recommend that you wait until the power is turned on again.
- Tip #3. Keep an eye on an open door without electricity. Despite the door being open, a small draft may be enough for it to close itself. This is highly traumatic, so we advise you not to delay closing the door and look after both the door and the relatives who may be near it.
- Tip #4. Monitor the status of the door. If, after attaching the door and connecting the electricity, you notice that the doors movement has ceased to be smooth , you should call an expert.
Opening A Garage Door With No Electricity
Sometimes the power to your home could be out, and that causes the garage door to get stuck. Other times it could be a blown fuse that has shut power off to the garage door. Regardless of the reason, you can still Operate The Garage Door Manually. However, to operate the garage door on your own, it is important to take the required safety precautions.
90% of homeowners should be able to lift and lower their garage doors manually. However, if the door is deemed to be too heavy, then you will want an extra pair of hands to help raise it. Plus, youll want to always wear gloves and ensure that the electricity is turned off before even touching the garage door.
Once you have everything needed, you will want to follow the steps weve outlined in the next section. The steps should also work if the garage door cable is broken.
Read Also: How To Build Shelving In Garage