-- Garage Security --

[Zeppe807]

So I would like to make my house/garage more secure.

*One thing that I would like is remote locking latches for my roll-up garage door. Does anyone know of any product like that?


Thanks,
Joe Zeppe

 

[tonydanzah]

im also interested in that

 

[Toolhorder]

I was thinking of welding a cage around my rollways like a soda machine when I'm not around and then concrete the cage into the ground or something like that.

 

[ItBurnsWhenIPee]

Get a bigass dog?

 

[tkiranch]

I just had an alarm installed on our house, I have an attached garage and put sensors on the garage doors, the door from the house to the garage, motion sensor, and it is monitored with the house. after the installer left, I put the garage door openers safety beam as a sensor, so that I have multiple motion sensors in the garage. Plus I have a big dog and have always been secured by smith and wesson.

 

[Cryptic1911]

So I would like to make my house/garage more secure.

*One thing that I would like is remote locking latches for my roll-up garage door. Does anyone know of any product like that?


Thanks,
Joe Zeppe

liftmaster has auto electric locks that come with the 3800 series.. probably cant be used with another brand though. try looking into those

 

[ovilla]

liftmaster has auto electric locks that come with the 3800 series.. probably cant be used with another brand though. try looking into those

+1 on getting an LM3800

 

[jmack]

Most home automation with security system relies on relays- I'm thinking wire a relay to a simple soleniod that is attached to the latch.

Would also suggest using contact sensors to monitor the position of the door. Hat way you could write s statement that checks to be sure the door is closed and then closes the latch (you could use another relay to close the door).

I have an ELK M1 Gold, so my thinking on the approach is based on that system, but the concepts are the same.

 

[russlaferrera]

IMO, It depend where you live. In a populated area the windows and man doors are the points of entry. Locking a roll up door will not stop anyone. Most shops/garages have tools. The burglar will use your tools to open the door.

Unfortunately the saying "Locks Keep honest people out" applies. The most we can do is deter the burglar. Light, motion sensors, dog, Bars on the windows or cameras.

 

[tonydanzah]

+1 on getting an LM3800

can you post pictures of yours?

 

[crewchief888]

get to know the neighbors and stay on good terms with them, mine watch my house when were not around.
between his 2 yapping keeshounds, his 90 lb sheperd and my 65 lb sheperd mix, nobody is foolish enough to even try to get to either garage,
my dog has chased several friends back into their trucks, and nearly bit the same UPS guy 2 days in a row

anytime i'm outside i have a 45 within reach, neighbors have no reservations about walking up to a strange car in the street armed.

 

[BioHazard]

I'm seriously thinking about an alarm that releases tear gas for the shop...

 

[Teken]

We have these in place to the entry of the building, as well as to the primary garage doors. I will be getting the cheaper version of this for my residential set up though . . .

 

[djjsr]

I'm seriously thinking about an alarm that releases tear gas for the shop...

Excellent idea. Seems like we have enough talent here to figure out how to do this. Any alarm experts?

If you just chase a thief away, he's only gonna hit somebody else. If he suffers enough, he may decide to change professions.

 

[jmack]

anytime i'm outside i have a 45 within reach, neighbors have no reservations about walking up to a strange car in the street armed.

Seriously, what is the need for that? Do you live in the middle of gang territory in LA or something?

 

[Charles (in GA)]

We have these in place to the entry of the building, as well as to the primary garage doors. I will be getting the cheaper version of this for my residential set up though . . .

I can see having those across the front of a business, but in a drive or in front of a garage door? kinda makes having the drive or door useless.

Charles

 

[Zick]

I can see having those across the front of a business, but in a drive or in front of a garage door? kinda makes having the drive or door useless.

Charles

I believe those are retractable, they drop down into the ground.

Check out this video, pretty cool.

 

[Teken]

I believe those are retractable, they drop down into the ground.

 

[bucs012]

I don't know about all this, but I do like the garage sign that reads

"Trespassers will be shot.....Survivors will be shot again!"

 

[BoostedOne]

I wouldnt put too much money into trying to secure a rollup door.
I have a shop in Orlando, with probably 50-60 grand worth of stuff inside.
It has two walk doors and two rollup doors. The walk doors have deadbolts, and the previous tennant welded L shaped brackets to the door frame and the door for a padlock. I put on those round locks, mainly because its easy.

My rollup doors have "kick latches", a cheesy slide that engages the track. Theres no chain pull to lift the door, you just lift it up when its unlocked. I thought about adding some security to it beyond what I already do, which is stick a phillips head screw driver in the hole of the kick latches.

After talking to some of my neighbors who have been through previous crime there, come to the realization its not even worth it. Thats because if someone is going to break into your shop with a roll up door, what they did in this area anyhow is skip the walk doors and windows, and they just took a sawzall and ran it right up the middle of the door. Roll up doors are so thin that a sawzall with a good blade can split it in under a minute and it wont set off an alarm unless you have a motion detector. So unless you are going to install steel plate behind the door, theres nothing you can do thats going stop someone that has 2 minutes to spend getting in....

 

[crewchief888]

Seriously, what is the need for that? Do you live in the middle of gang territory in LA or something?

nope, we live on a semi dead end. my street dumps into a parking lot, after that business is closed theres no traffic.
a strange car sitting in front of my house in the middle of the night throws up a red flag. cops are slow to respond, by the time they get there the problem has been resolved.
neighbors have had problems with drug dealers/thugs looking for members of the their family at all hours of the night, and a garage 2 houses down was torched 2 years ago. every neighborhood has it's "thugs bad boys and bullies, ( at least they think they are )
when they find out that they are being watched, they head someplace else where nobody pays any attention, or is too afraid of a confrontation
dont kid yourself, there's more gang activity around than we'd like to believe.

 

[porschedude996TT]

My Liftmaster 3800 has a deadbolt that throws automatically after the door is down and then throws open before the door goes up. Works well!

 

[nolatoolguy]

LOL, i sure aint the person to ask

but i will say the best security alarm is over 100 horses some cows an also alot of dogs, and between them all they do a good job of waking us up if something goes wrong

but the best is the gun racks an shotguns

 

[OccupantRJ]

On the sawzall front, a technique to stop this is to take length of steel pipe, insert a smaller carbide or hardened steel rod that fits loosely inside, and cap the ends by welding. This device can be installed where a saw might likely be used, and when the saw cuts through the outer pipe, the inner rod just spins, making it very difficult for the saw to get a cut going. Even if the pipe is cut all around, the system stays in place as long as the ends of the pipe are retained. An old friend who had tried cutting out of prison many years ago with a smuggled blade told me how this method had dashed his attempt at escape.

RJ

 

[PCO6]

My Liftmaster 3800 has a deadbolt that throws automatically after the door is down and then throws open before the door goes up. Works well!

I agree ... and I ALWAYS listen for it!

 

[Brad Beam]

Giant Schnauzer+(AR15 X H&K USP .45 ACP)=Secure

 

[crewchief888]

Giant Schnauzer+(AR15 X H&K USP .45 ACP)=Secure

like the sign i used to have on my garage door when i lived in fl
never mind the dog
beware the owner

 

[Andy Griffith]

get to know the neighbors and stay on good terms with them, mine watch my house when were not around.

I have a pretty good alarm system on my house and shop but I've come realize that good relations with trusted neighbors is the best deterrent one can have.

As far as doors go, I believe a better approach is to have contact switches on all doors and windows that set off the very loud exterior and interior sirens and external strobe lights. You can have it monitored if you want but the practical advantage to monitoring is debatable in my opinion. Better to drive them out of the shop with the mind numbing blast of the siren and the unwanted attention that it brings. Once they get in your shop, the tools give them access to everything you have in the house, the outbuildings, everything.

 

[ovilla]

My garage door installer said that a real common way for thieves to break into residential garages is by simply inserting a bent coat hanger (with a "U" at the end of it) up through the top of the outside of the door (between the door and the rubber molding). He said that it just takes a few seconds to reach the emergency pull down handle on most standard openers and then the door can be manually pushed up. He said that it's best to never even install those emergency pull down ropes and to just use a long handle with a nail at the end of it, for when you do need to open the door from the inside. He also sold me my Liftmaster 3800 and said to not use the pull down rope either as it could be accessed by going in through the side of the garage door.

 

[BioHazard]

like the sign i used to have on my garage door when i lived in fl
never mind the dog
beware the owner

I have one of those on the door to my barn. Right next to it hangs my wind chimes made out of propane tanks swiss-cheesed with .44 holes.

 

[Vinko]

On the sawzall front, a technique to stop this is to take length of steel pipe, insert a smaller carbide or hardened steel rod that fits loosely inside, and cap the ends by welding. This device can be installed where a saw might likely be used, and when the saw cuts through the outer pipe, the inner rod just spins, making it very difficult for the saw to get a cut going. Even if the pipe is cut all around, the system stays in place as long as the ends of the pipe are retained. An old friend who had tried cutting out of prison many years ago with a smuggled blade told me how this method had dashed his attempt at escape.

RJ

I like this idea. Would also make it less likely to be able to cut a man sized opening in the door. More awkward for a thief to get in and out, provided he can't open another door once he gets in. Makes it harder to get stolen stuff outside the shop. Not impossible, but a slow down at least.

 

[tonydanzah]

That might stop a sawsall, but would it stop a cordless angle grinder?

 

[BoostedOne]

That might stop a sawsall, but would it stop a cordless angle grinder?

Haha.. Not much of anything will stop an angle grinder with a cut-off wheel. When the guy was tellin me about how they used a sawzall, I was thinkin of how I woulda used a cut off wheel. A 5" cutoff wheel will cut through the door as fast as you can move it. In many situations you wouldnt even need a cordless, if you can get your vehicle close to the door they make power inverters large enough to run an angle grinder for not much money.

I honestly can't picture how the pipe concept would really work. The pipe cant be connected to the door material, because if it was it wouldn't roll up. You can attach it to the frame, but it doesnt protect the door at all. If I was ripping through the door with a sazall, if I hit a pipe even if it wasn't reinforced I would jut angle the blade until I got the cut skip the pipe. Once the cut is large enough pull away the skin(the door) and you are in and can lift the pipe out of the way and open the door.

I can think of several ways to combat the problem, but they would signicantly reduce the functionality of the door in the first place, or take a significant amount of time to set up each time for an occurance that probably would never happen.

In the end, I found it much easier to just move away from the problem. Heading out of town, there are many many high value targets that a theif would be more likely to hit, and if you were eager enough to travel to my place, its one of those places I wouldnt bother with. I cant remember how he said it, but on one of Foxworthy's routine he was talking about theives and different looking houses. He said something about the one with the nice clean lawn and decorations would get broken into, not the one with old cars out front, tall grass, etc because that house just says "A gun lives here", LOL...

 

[Todd.Brock]

AS defined by our friend Google.
"Pain Generators: An interior device such as an airhorn, the purpose of which is to be so loud as to cause pain to the perpetrator. "

Stew on that for a little while, You will have a train coming through your garage in no time flat!!

 

[BoostedOne]

Heh, thats an idea... I just pictured the train horn setup off my truck connected to the air compressor system. If you got an alarm use the external siren output to trigger the solenoid valve.

By the time they got up off the floor and got the **** out of their pants you could be there to greet them with the 9mm, 40, or 45 of your choice...

 

[crewchief888]

I have a pretty good alarm system on my house and shop but I've come realize that good relations with trusted neighbors is the best deterrent one can have.

As far as doors go, I believe a better approach is to have contact switches on all doors and windows that set off the very loud exterior and interior sirens and external strobe lights.

I have one of those on the door to my barn. Right next to it hangs my wind chimes made out of propane tanks swiss-cheesed with .44 holes.

my neighbors keep such a good eye on things, before we bought the house, we were here to take a closer look around, while waiting on the real estate agent, i walked around in back of the garage, when i came around the corner, here was my neighbor wanting to know what the hell i was doing snooping around. we talked for a few minutes, and when he walked away i saw the **** of his SW printed against his tshirt. i cant fault him, i woulda done the same thing.

 

[BioHazard]

AS defined by our friend Google.
"Pain Generators: An interior device such as an airhorn, the purpose of which is to be so loud as to cause pain to the perpetrator. "

This is what I've been thinking about. Since my shop is not at my house I wouldn't even hear an alarm. I want some kind of automatic police responsce...but I'm not paying for a monitored alarm system.

On the other hand, if I make so much noise as to bother everyone in the area, I'm sure the cops will be quick to follow.

 

[crewchief888]

This is what I've been thinking about. Since my shop is not at my house I wouldn't even hear an alarm. I want some kind of automatic police responsce...but I'm not paying for a monitored alarm system.

On the other hand, if I make so much noise as to bother everyone in the area, I'm sure the cops will be quick to follow.

i had the same situation at my rented shop, got to know the neighbors on both sides, gave them a run down of who was 'spose to be there, and a couple of business cards with home, work, personal cell, & work cell numbers.
told em to call 911 1st, and me 2nd 24/7. i'd rather get a call at 2 am, and it be a false alarm, then to find my tools missing.

 

[gearbuilder]

It’s better if no one knows what is in your garage. Install high quality man doors that open out, they are harder to kick in. Dead bolts because regular knobs open so easily with channel locks. Dogs. Vigilant alert neighbors. Alarms as long as you never have any false alarms. The neighbors lose interest after a few false alarms.

Jamie

 

[wfopete]

I perfer to catch the punks. So my sensors are connected to an three cameras inside and two outside that record when activated. I also like to set them up to be ID'd through various "hot spots" in the building before three alarms go off. Chemicals are employed to help ID the bad guys and if I am home at the time of the B&E and everything works right I will have time to disable thier vehicle (if used) and set up a interesting ambush which invovles deadly force if escalated.

The best part is that since I live in the boonies of Arkansas and own a backhoe, in about 1/2 hour I can have the whole messy issue buried 15 ft below the ground.

I mean hey, if you are going to go to all this trouble, you might as well make it fun for yourself!