Garages

Next time you're house shopping take a quick look at the garage area and the doors. This can give you some idea of safety concerns and repairs that could be needed:

• Electric garage doors should have photo-electric sensors installed at the bottoms. when the beam is broken the door should reverse.
• Electric garage doors should reverse when they hit something when closing.
• Garage door springs should have a safety cable inside the spring. This will prevent it from flying around and hurting someone should it break loose.
• The door separating the house from an attached garage should be an approved fire door.
• The door separating the house from an attached garage should be auto-closing (spring hinges).
• There should not be any holes or gaps in the walls and ceilings separating the house and an attached garage. This will prevent a fire from spreading from the garage to the house framing.
• Any appliance (hot water heater, boiler, oil tank) located in a garage needs a cement post or pillar to prevent possible damage from a car.
• Any combustion source in a garage (some hot water heaters, boilers, furnaces, etc.) need to be raised off the floor to prevent vapors in the garage from igniting.
• Any pipes carrying water in an unheated garage need to be insulated.

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