Residential Automatic Gate Safety

The biggest concern of most homeowners today is the safety and security of their family. This is a selling point for most subdivisions to help keep families safe and by adding an automatic gate at the entrance of a subdivision adds to that safety. While some subdivisions feature manual residential gates, studies show that 90% of these gates often remain open for convenience. This poses dire risks to the property and its inhabitants.

For this reason, installing an automatic gate comes out as the ideal choice to achieve a maximum level of security and comfort. Nevertheless, automatic gates are classified as machines and extreme care ought to be taken to make sure they have proper safety features and are regularly maintained. Today, we will go over some basic safety and maintenance tips for your automatic gate.

Servicing and Maintenance of Your Automatic Gate

While automatic gates provide security and convenience to homeowners living in a subdivision, most people are oblivious to the fact they are installing a machine. If not properly installed the system risks the potential of inflicting serious harm.  

Just like any machinery, maintenance and servicing of your automatic gate ensures its long life and safe operation. It is recommended that a service check be performed twice a year for normal subdivision residential gates. This, however, may vary depending on the frequency of use.

Ask your automated gate installation expert about a service contract to ensure your gate system runs safely and smoothly.  

Understand How to Operate Your Gate Automation System

Your Gate Installation professional should demonstrate to you the safety systems related to your Gate Drive Mechanism.

• Learn how to operate safely the automatic gate

• Learn how to keep the gate open for prolonged periods

• Learn how to operate manually the gate opener should there be system failure or power outage

• Know how to restore the gate drive system after a manual operation

Safety Precautions When Handling Automated Gates

Children should not play near and around an automatic gate. Keep the opening devices such as the remote control device away from their reach. It is imperative that you teach the children about the importance of safety in the proximity of an automated gate.

Additional Gate Safety Procedures

The location of opening systems like Intercom Gate Station and Keypads should be installed at least three meters away from the gate. This is so to ensure that the person operating the gate doesn’t reach the opening device.

 Trying to reach through a gate to operate a gate opener device is extremely risky, once activated and the gate staring to move can be at risk to get trapped and cause serious harm.

The use of Safety Photocells can enhance the safety of your gate system. These photocells can be fixed across the gateway on the posts or photocell supports, either at the end of the opened gates or in front of the gates. This improves safety both behind and in front of the gates.

Protecting people in your community matters and this is why it’s important to have automatic residential gates. Settling on what type of automatic gate to install can be a big decision as there are various styles and materials to choose from. 

Painting Your Metal Garage Door

Metal garage doors are a part of many different structures in today’s modern day society from residential houses to commercial buildings. Metal garage doors are susceptible to rust and the natural elements, and the garage door should be protected. Painting will increase the life of your metal garage door for many years. Today, we will go over DIY steps to paint your metal garage door. Let’s get started!

Five Steps for a Long Lasting Paint Job

Be sure to follow these five steps and your metal garage door will look amazing and be able to last the test of time.

Step 1: Wash the Metal Garage Door Thoroughly With Water

It’s important to wash your garage door with a garden house to get off all the grit and grime that has built up over time. After the initial spray down you should take a brush or sponge with soapy water and give it a good cleaning. Make sure you give it a final rinse and move onto step number 2.

Step 2: Power Sand the Door

You should go out to your local hardware store and pick up a medium to high grade sandpaper to sand the entire door. Sanding your garage door will ensure the new paint that is applied goes on effortlessly. Make sure you dust off where you sanded and clean up where you sanded with a broom.

Step 3: Set Up For Painting

You will now want to get the prep work out of the way to make sure you don’t have any primer or paint on your driveway or garage floor. Simply place a tarp or newspaper around the area of the garage door. If you happen to have windows on your garage door, you will want to make sure use painters tape around the windows and handles.

Step 4: Apply the Primer

If you want to make sure you have a good paint job for your garage door, then you will want to have a coat of primer down. The primer will help the paint adhere to the metal and gives it a smooth appearance. Primer usually will take up to 8 hours to dry, but this can vary depending on the temperature and if it is windy.

Step 5: Apply Paint

You should have your garage door the color that you want it to be as long as it’s an acrylic paint. Acrylic paints are best used for galvanized metals such as those used in garage doors. Starting from the top move downwards in straight lines using a brush or roller allowing overlapping of parallel laps. You will want to pay close attention to edges and corners that may be hard to reach. You can always come back after one coat is dried and look for any missed spots that can be corrected with touch ups. You should allow 12 hours per coat when painting your metal door and when it’s dry it should look brand new.  

Painting your metal garage door shouldn’t be hard as it only takes proper preparation and time. Painting your metal garage door adds life to the door and keeps it safe from the outside elements. We hope that you take into consideration what you learned today as it will help give you the best results for your garage door. 

Creating a “Man Cave” in Your Garage

A man cave has always been considered the special part of the house and is allotted for him to carry out his pursuits, including spending quality guy time with his friends. The ideal man cave is loaded with all the items guys appreciate: a pool table, foosball table, arcade games, dart board, poker table, a well-stocked bar and a mini home theater. One of the main issues of having a man cave is where to place it. Some people place it in an extra room or perhaps the basement, but what happens when this isn’t an option. The only alternative source you may have is your garage. So what can you do to optimize space in the garage for your man cave? Today, we will go over the appropriate steps you can take to making your garage your new man cave. Let’s get started!

Putting Your Plans on Paper 

You should focus on how you want to get your idea of a man cave from paper to reality. You should draw out what type of layout you would like to have by taking into consideration building materials you might need. Building your man cave may be a long process from start to finish based on your unique style. But it shouldn’t just stop with unique surroundings, you have to remember to incorporate the flooring as well.

For a Great Floor, Use Epoxy Flooring

If you want to protect your concrete floors, then opt for epoxy flooring. When making a man cave, the floors could be stained due to oils or fluids, and this will cause damage due to its corrosive effects. When you coat your concrete floor with epoxy, it forms a protective layer on top and fluids or oil will not penetrate into the floor. In addition to this, epoxy forms a much harder and durable film when compare to other paints, and gives you a floor like no other. You can custom design your floor with epoxy to have your friends wondering how this work of art was perfected. As an example if you choose a metallic pearl epoxy floor, and not only does it look cool but it hides repair work that may have been done to the surface, and it is simple to maintain its glossy look.

Insulating Your Garage

Your garage tends to be one of the most uninsulated portions of your home. It’s important to have properly installed installation to keep your man cave cool in the summertime and warm in the winter time. This would include insulating your garage door and can be easily done by yourself though online DIY or by contacting a local contractor in your area that knows how to handle this kind of work.

Stepping Up the Electrical Work

Typical man caves have extra goodies like flat screen TV's and stereo equipment and the typical garage may or may not have the proper electrical outlets in place. Electricity can be very dangerous if not respected. You should seek the help of a certified electrician in your area to install extra outlets to make sure everything is up to code.

Sharing Your Man Cave Creation

As guys, we all need a place to call our own in our homes. A place to escape from the wife and kids where we can relax and call our own. We hope that you take into consideration some of the steps you learned today to transform your garage into the ultimate man cave. Good luck!