Can ‘fishing’ get around your Antioch garage door security?

Is your Antioch garage secure? This is an especially crucial question if your garage is attached to your house. If someone were to break into your garage, would they have easy access to your house? Would you and your loved ones be at risk?

You push the button on the garage door opener remote to lower the garage door. Presumably, someone would have to have access to your garage door opener remote to get in, assuming the side door is securely locked. But you may not have barred them from entry into your Antioch garage to the degree you’ve assumed.

Some of the nefarious individuals who would consider breaking into your garage and/or home are rather clever. They may know of a trick – a trick called ‘fishing.’ 

The Way Fishing Works to Break into Your Antioch Garage

‘Fishing’ is a method someone breaking into a garage can use to open a ‘secure’ garage door. It’s actually fairly simple:

• They push back the top of the top panel of the garage door.
• They reach inside with a coat hanger or a stiff wire to snag the disconnect cable.
• They give the disconnect cable a yank.
• They lift the door.

It’s so easy that it may seem that there is a critical flaw in your garage door security. But you are not entirely at their mercy. If you anticipate the possibility that some unsavory character(s) would try to ‘Fish’ their way into your garage, you can eliminate the threat.

‘Fishing’ is no match for a properly adjusted garage door. If the garage door is adjusted so that the ‘stop’ point is tight to the floor a body builder won’t be able to push the top panel back to get the coat hanger inside and hook the disconnect.

Securing your home and garage door is a valuable idea in the best of times. The way things are these days, you may want to take additional steps to secure your Antioch garage door and home.

Be a ghoulish Picasso with your Fox Lake garage door as your canvas

In the past, you may have created a spooky Halloween scene in your Fox Lake garage. You covered the walls with black plastic and decorated with scary creatures. In the middle of the garage, you had a decorated table with a tub of candy for trick or treaters. But, with COVID-19, you may not feel inclined to open the garage to all those little ghouls. 

This doesn’t mean you have to skip Halloween Trick-or-Treating altogether. You simply need to modify your approach – apply your creativity a little differently. Even if you never created a haunted hovel in the garage before, you may want to give it a whirl this year, just for fun.

Keeping the garage door closed means witches and goblins can’t come in. But you can still provide a scary scene outside. Maybe you’ll have a bowl of candy on a table outside the garage for trick or treaters to take from on the honor system.

Think of your garage door as a eerie canvas where you can express the frightening specters of your creative juices. Along with blow-up dragons and witches on the front lawn, you can make your garage door the envy of the neighborhood this Halloween. Just to get those creative juices flowing, here are some ideas to consider:

• Project Halloween images onto your garage door
• Strategically place a light so it shines through a sheet dancing in the breeze to create petrifying shadows on the door
• Put a black sheet on the door and decorate it with spooky cutouts and pictures
• Fill a glove, put it in a shirt, stick it under the garage door 
• Make a flattened witch with the back of a broom sticking out of the garage door as though they crashed
• Put spooky figures in the windows alongside the garage door with light shining up on them, or from behind, so that they create a haunting image
• Put spider webs in the corners and tombstones of a graveyard in front of the garage door
• Make it appear that blood is dripping from between the panels of the door as though the garage is filled to the brim with blood
• Decorate as though the door is a large face with scary eyes and sharp teeth
• Hang bats from the eves

Of course, you may want to open the garage door and build a haunted scene inside. Whatever you decide, have a wonderful and spooky Fox Lake Halloween.

Currently, Trick or Treating is scheduled for 3 to 6 p.m. Saturday. However, you should check with the city for any changes in hours or special instructions related to the pandemic.

Make sure garage door seals and keep leaves outdoors

 This time of year, they invade your home. You find them everywhere: on the kitchen floor, on your rugs and carpet; upstairs and in the basement. LEAVES!!! How are they so successfully invasive? The answer is so simple. They hitchhike on your shoes. That means that they start outdoors. But the gateway where they have the most success is in your garage.

You pull the car into the garage and leaves come with you on your tires. Or the wind blows them in while the door is open. However, they get there, you step out of the car and they stick to your shoes. Then they let go when you’re inside the house. In fact, once they’re in the garage, you could run out to the garage to grab some dog food or something. When you go back into the house, you’ve got leaves tagging along.

It’s a nuisance in the house cleaning up all those leaves. That’s particularly the case after people have stepped on the leaves and ground them into the carpet or hardwood floor. 

Wet leaves pose a safety hazard

Leaves are also a safety hazard on hardened floors, such as the hardwood mentioned above, or the concrete in the garage. The leaves are frequently wet. You can easily slip on them and fall. In either case, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Prevention means cleaning the leaves in your garage before they have a chance to hitch a ride into your house. It’s also important to clean the leaves from in front of the doors – the front door, the patio door and the garage door.

Of course, this time of year, no sooner do you clean the leaves up than Mother Nature puts more leaves down where you cleaned up the other leaves. You have to stay after the leaves. Keep a broom near the front door and the patio door. A leaf blower ready to go by the garage door will help.

You may also want to avoid leaving the garage door open for extended periods. The longer it is open, the more chance that leaves will blow in from outside.

It’s also important to make sure that your garage door closes completely. This means that you want to check the weather strip at the bottom of the garage door. Then you want to make sure the door is adjusted so it closes completely. It should come down far enough that the rubber weather strip seals against the floor.

Are bugs bugging you in your garage?

Some of them see you coming into the garage and quickly hide. Others don’t care. They boldly run across the floor in plain sight. They may hover around you or fly in to bite. The denizens of your garage are a nuisance. They can even prove costly.

‘They’ are rodents and insects that think you built your garage as a home especially for them. They’ll take ownership – move in, settle in, and infest your property. They might even consider the garage the first step to moving into your home.

What can you do about them? Fortunately, you’re not defenseless against that horde of nature’s vermin. Your job is to take the battle to the pests. Remove them. Drive them out of your garage. And here is how the weapons and strategy you need to take the war to the bugs and rodents in your garage:

Protect your boundaries: Ask yourself how they’re getting in. Some simply fly, run or crawl in anytime the side door or garage door is open. Others find holes or cracks where they can enter even if the garage doors are closed. Seal those babies up. If you find a crack, fill a crack. You may have to use wood or siding. You may want to use an expanding-foam filler in a spray can. They make versions of this that the little invaders don’t like to chew through.

Set up some ambushes: There are traps made for use against different types of enemy troops. You have ant traps, fly traps, mouse traps, etc. Some of these are available in no-kill models for those who prefer to take prisoners. You may need to spray outside the perimeter of the garage, and even across the floor under the garage door, with a safe chemical that will turn the invaders away.

Take out their infiltrators: Once inside, ants, spiders, mice, moles and other pests like to setup house. Next thing you know, they’re having ‘little ones.’ Clear ‘em out. Knock ‘em out. Kick ‘em out. It’s your garage. Be the boss and lay down the law. Look in nooks and crannies, behind shelves, anywhere they can hide. Then, ‘convince’ them it’s time to leave.

Clean the battlefield: The smallest debris may look like nothing much to you. But to bugs and vermin, those scraps may contain a three-course meal. Look for things the invaders may feed on. These are the resources they seek and will attract them to your garage. Clean out signs that they’ve started building homes – webs and nests. Tear ‘em down. Sweep ‘em out.

Check the garage door for gaps: If you’re garage door is older, the tight-fitting panels may not fit as tightly anymore. The door may require an adjustment so it comes all the way down. You may need to call in an expert to help bolster this defensive mechanism.

The point is that you don’t have to surrender to the invaders. When bugs come crawling, buzzing, running or flying, you can turn them away. 

Is your garage door remote up to date?

There was a time when you opened the garage door by getting out of the car, walking over to the garage door, turning the handle and lifting. You may even have had a teenager you could tell to get out of the car and open the door for you. But those days are long gone. Almost everyone has a remote-control garage door opener today.

Even with garage door openers, the technology has advanced significantly. Instead of a clumsy box with push buttons that clipped to the visor of your car, you may have a small modern remote. You may even use an app on your cell phone to control your garage door opener. 

Newer garage door opener remotes may simply have one button to tell the opener when to raise or lower the garage door. Or, you may have a 3-Button garage door opener remote that controls lights, gates and the dishwasher in the kitchen. Okay. It probably doesn’t control the dishwasher but that would be cool if it did, wouldn’t it?

If you use an app to control your garage door opener, you can even open or close your garage door from across town or while on vacation in Fort Myers. This way you can confuse the neighbors who know that you’re out of town. On the other hand, if you leave home and suddenly remember that you forgot to close the garage door, you can do so from miles and miles away. Or you can just check.

Some garage door openers have Wi-Fi capability. Some of these have built in technology to prevent ‘forced openings.’ You can even turn the lights on and off with these kinds of remotes.

When you have your garage door opener installed, you’ll receive the remote that comes with it. In some cases, however, you can upgrade to a better garage door opener remote, as long as the garage door opener in the ceiling of the garage can work with the technologies of the new remote.

On the other hand, if the garage door opener, or the garage door itself, are getting old and worn, you may want to upgrade while replacing the opener or door. Then again, maybe your garage door opener or remote merely need some adjustments. Bringing in a qualified garage door technician will help you determine if it’s time to upgrade your remote, or replace the ones you have.

Is your Antioch garage door opener past its prime?

You don’t think about it much but, when you do, you can’t help but appreciate your Antioch garage door opener. Garage door openers are so customary today that virtually everyone has them operating their garage doors. But that wasn’t always the case. There was a time when garage door openers were almost unheard of.

You love your garage door opener because it is such an incredible convenience. As you’re driving up to the garage, or preparing to leave, you simply push a button and the garage door rises of lowers in accordance with your wishes. In the winter, or during heavy rainstorms, you can get in and out of your car without exposing yourself to those harsh elements so familiar to folks in Antioch. But there comes a time when garage door openers require replacement.

When do you need to replace your garage door opener?

One sign that your garage door opener needs repair or replacement is that, when you push the button to operate the garage door opener, nothing happens. That’s a pretty obvious clue that something is wrong. It may require some minor service but it requires something. 

Short of total failure, there are other signs that your Antioch garage door may have run its course. For instance:

Boy, that’s loud! If your garage door is increasingly loud when you operate the garage door opener, you have an issue. The garage door may need some lubrication and adjustment (hopefully). But it’s also a possible sign that the garage door opener isn’t what it used to be.

W-w-w-w-w-h-h-h-a-a-a-a-t-t-t-t is making the garage door vibrate like that? Excessive vibration when your garage door opener is in operation is another sign of a problem. Garage doors should not vibrate much when the door is going up or down. Once again, this can indicate the need for maintenance, lubrication and adjustment but can also indicate the garage door opener is past its prime.

I said, “UP!” If you push the button to open the garage door, it starts to go up but then, inexplicably, changes course, something is wrong. It’s recommended that you should have your garage door and garage door opener checked.

What’s with this button?! You keep pushing the button to activate the garage door opener, but nothing happens. After several tries, the garage door finally responds. This isn’t how a garage door opener is designed to operate. You may have a problem with the garage door opener control. But you can also have a problem with the garage door opener. In either case, and to find out which is the case, you should have the garage door opener, and the control, checked out.

The garage door opener on your Antioch garage should last quite a few years. But there will come a time when it has opened or closed the garage door for the last time. Remember that timely maintenance can help extend the life of your garage door and your garage door opener.

You can still have that Libertyville garage sale during the pandemic

Libertyville is a great city for a garage sale. People in town just love a relaxing Saturday afternoon when they can cruise through the neighborhood looking for garage sales. But, with the coronavirus, is it safe to have a garage sale?

The answer is yes, if you take precautions. You can have a garage sale, and it’s a great way to clear out some of those unwanted and no-longer used items that are taking up space in your Libertyville home, garage and yard. Safely having a garage sale in the age of COVID requires that you take some steps to ensure the safety of you, your family and prospective buyers who check out your garage sale.

Here are some suggestions to consider before you have a garage sale at your Libertyville home:

Put up signs by your house and garage that are clearly visible indicating the desire that people wear masks and observe social distancing while shopping at your garage sale. You may want to add language to that effect on signage that you put around the neighborhood pointing people to your garage sale.

Have some extra facemasks available. You can even charge a dollar for a facemask if someone needs one.

Have hand sanitizer handy. It will comfort the nervous when they see they can use your sanitizer to clean their hands. And it’s a good thing for you and your family to use since you don’t really know who has come to your garage sale and touched the items you’re selling, as well as the cash and change you exchange.

Be prepared to wipe things down. Have sanitary wipes handy so you can wipe down items potential buyers have touched. You might even impress customers when they see you wiping their purchase down after the sale. It says you care.

Maintain your Libertyville garage door and garage door opener

When the garage sales over, or maybe before, you may want to have your garage door and garage door opener maintained. As long as you’re putting the garage to work for you, return the favor and give a little TLC to the garage door and garage door opener. You’re Libertyville garage door and garage door opener will thank you.