In this valley the garage is where the mountain bikes, the raft, the side-by-side and the good tools live, which makes it the part of the house worth protecting first. Here is what we look at, in order, and what we can install in a single visit. The estimate is free.
Tell us what the door is doing. The estimate is free and you can say no.
Garages are seldom forced. More often a door is opened the easy way: a release that can be reached, a keypad code that hasn't changed since the house was built, a remote sitting in a car at a trailhead lot, or a side door with a knob lock that was never upgraded. Most of these take no force at all.
Each of those has a fix, some of them free habits and some of them hardware. Both are below.
Long driveways and lots without close neighbors, common from the Redlands out toward Whitewater, make these fixes matter more. Nobody is watching a garage at the end of a long drive.
Every opener has a red cord that disconnects the door so it can be moved by hand in an outage. It's a safety feature and it stays. On some doors, though, it can be reached from outside.
A release shield covers the trolley so the cord works normally from inside and can't be reached from outside. It's a small part and a short install, and it's the first thing we suggest for most garages.
Several shield styles exist for different trolleys, and the right one comes off the truck once the technician has seen yours.
Free habits come first; after them, the hardware we can install.
Openers made since the late nineties change their signal with every use. Older fixed-code openers send the same signal every time, and it can be copied. If the opener predates rolling code, replacing it is the most useful single step on this list.
Many brands also let a single lost remote be dropped from memory, but after a move a full clear is the safer reset, and that's how we do it.
The technician can tell which kind you have from the motor housing on any visit, and explain what a replacement involves. The estimate is free.
Shops and outbuildings deserve the same look. The opener on a detached shop is often the oldest one on the property, and the shop often holds the most valuable things.
The routine before a long weekend: opener in lock mode, track bolt set, remotes out of the vehicles, the house door deadbolted, alerts on, and someone nearby who knows you're gone.
Summer, when households head for rivers, trails and the high country, is a good time to run through this list.
Home again, pull the bolt before touching the remote; otherwise the opener fights the locked door.
Shields for the release cord, track locks, a solid, deadbolted house door, windowless top sections, app-connected openers or add-on modules, and a modern rolling-code opener where an old fixed-code unit still runs. Most of it is a single visit.
For shops and outbuildings, the same list applies door by door, and a separate code for each keypad keeps access separate for each building.
Every item here can ride along with a repair, so a spring or opener call is a good moment to add a shield or a track lock.
Break-in techniques aren't something this site covers; the fixes above are what's useful to know.
If you'd like your own garage checked against this list, the technician can walk through it with you on any visit.
"If it's closed, it's locked." Not while the cord is reachable, a remote waits in a parked car and the house door stays unlocked.
"Wi-Fi openers are a risk." With a strong account password, a current model is safer: you know the moment the door opens.
"The side door doesn't matter." It's often the easiest way in, and the one nobody thinks to upgrade.
No. The shield stops hands reaching in from outside; the cord inside the garage still hangs free and releases the door exactly as before.
Keep it if it uses rolling code; if it's fixed-code, a replacement is the better security choice. The technician checks on the visit, and replacements are rolling-code, usually with Wi-Fi as well.
Most sectional doors accept one. It fits in the track, the opener is adjusted to respect it, and it's ideal for long trips and gear-filled garages.
From outside it passes for frosted glass while still letting daylight in; a solid replacement section, matched to the door, is the other route.
Yes, across Mesa County. You'll hear the recommendation and the reasoning, you can decline, and any shop or side door can go on the same estimate.
Most days; these are quick jobs, and a break-in on your road moves them forward.
North Avenue to Palisade, one call puts you on the route with a two-hour arrival range, and the technician calls when leaving the previous stop.
Free estimate. Throughout Mesa County, including Redlands, Orchard Mesa, North Avenue, Fruita, Clifton, Palisade, Loma, Whitewater, Mack.
Tell us what you're worried about and you'll get an arrival range. The visit and the estimate are free anywhere in Mesa County, and shop and outbuilding doors can be looked at on the same visit.
Want to talk instead? Call (970) 238-2833.
Opener age, plus any shop or side doors. The estimate is on the house.