1. Take everything out. It’s much easier to make a plan for organization when you know how much you have. Once you pull out the contents of your garage onto your driveway, you’ll probably realize that you have a lot more stuff than you thought you did.
2. Assess what you have. Is anything broken or totally useless? Chuck it, give it to a friend or a family member, or have a garage sale. De-cluttering is 75% of organization.
3. Make distinct piles of your items with labels such as “tools,” “auto supplies,” “emergency items,” “bikes,” and “toys.”
4. Measure your garage to determine the size of the furnishings you’ll need to make everything work. Knowing the extent of your space may also lead you to do some additional de-cluttering.
5. Determine what you’ll need for each zone. Consider purchasing a workbench, shelves, cabinets, or rolling shelves for storage. If you’ll be hanging items directly to a corkboard or the ceiling, you’ll need to pick up some heavy-duty hooks.
6. Use bike storage. Bikes, poorly arranged, can take up a lot space. Consider purchasing a bike rack or hanging your bikes on the wall.
7. Hang up your ladder. The ladder can take up a lot of space, so hang it on the ceiling from some heavy duty hooks or hang it from the rafters.
8. Label everything. This is the last, important step. You put so much work into this good organization: help yourself out by leaving behind some reminders of how the organization works and why you chose to do it the way you did.

For more tips on all things to do with garages, contact the Utah garage door experts!

It’s quite common for burglars to go from home to home, simply opening unlocked garages, slipping in, and disappearing into the night with hundreds of dollars in valuables and the homeowners none the wiser. And leaving your garage door unlocked could have even more dangerous consequences. An Iowa man, telling about a recent burglary attempt on his home, shares the following harrowing story:

Mike Franzen was awakened by his wife at one a.m. when the doorbell rang. Franzen went to his interior garage door to see who it was, and opened the door to see a man in a black ski mask pointing a shotgun at him. Franzen slammed the door shut but the burglar fired the shotgun. The door mostly absorbed the blast, but Franzen took a couple of BBs to the hand. Franzen and his wife spent the next couple of hours hiding out while the burglar ran away.

Luckily, the story ended without casualties, but could have been avoided had the garage door been locked, preventing the burglar from getting to the interior garage door at all.

Make sure your Utah garage door is equipped with an automatic opener and is locked every night to prevent any tragedies from occurring in your home.

1. Use the right cleaners. Clean your door regularly with a mild detergent and a soft car brush. It’s best to wash your door each time you wash your car. The more regularly you clean your door, the better it will look and the longer it will last.
2. Easy on the salt. Most of us need to salt our driveways in the winter. To the extent possible, avoid salting the driveway immediately next to the garage door. The less salt that gets on your door, the longer it will last.
3. Have a regular lube, tune, and inspection. Regular lubrication ensures that your door will continue to open and close as it is meant to. A careful tune-up from A+ Garage Doors also helps to ensure that the door’s rollers never come off the track. We’ll make sure that your door is in ship-shape for a very long time.

For more garage door maintenance and repair help or to have a new door installed in your home, contact the Utah garage door experts!

Before you stow away your toys for the winter, you’ll need to make sure your garage is fully equipped to keep your car safe and happy all season long. Make sure you have the following features in place:

1. A Garage Door Opener. If you’re opening your door by hand, you present a serious risk to your possessions. With an opener, you not only save yourself the energy of opening by hand, you also get the ability to lock the door, keeping your goods in and the bad guys out.
2. Composition. While wooden, vinyl, and fiberglass doors will keep the weather out, steel doors provide the best insulation no matter the conditions.
3. Garage floor covers. Not only do garage floor covers make for a more comfortable space, they also keep dripping antifreeze from staining or contaminating your concrete floor in the winter.

Make sure that all of your vehicles are ready to go when warm weather returns in the spring. For more info on winterizing your garage or to have a new door installed, contact the Utah garage door experts.

Every six months, you should

1. Remove dirt and grime from the windows with regular glass cleaner.
2. Wipe down the surface of the door using household detergent and water.

Once per year, you should

1. Do a thorough inspection. Here are a few important things to check for:
• Are there any rollers with bent shafts, worn-out bearings, or broken wheels?
• Are any of the hinges bent or loose?
• Are there any missing or loose bolts or screws? If so, tighten them up.
• Are the extension spring-lift cables running properly in the pulleys? Is there any rubbing taking place?
2. Take a few minutes and lubricate all of the door’s moving parts.

If you run into any hiccoughs along the way, contact your Utah garage door repair experts!

Before cars, when the wealthy primarily drove carriages, they kept them in the same barn-type structure as their horses. When the car came along, it seemed natural to simply replace the carriage with the car, right next to the horses and riding gear. Naturally, though, this began to stink up the cars, which upset car owners. So some intelligent individuals settled upon the idea of larger garages that would house only cars – and large numbers of them – for a monthly fee.

This lasted for a while until people decided they needed a more convenient option for stowing their automobiles. Many began building sheds exclusively for housing their cars near their homes. First the shed had outwardly-opening barn doors. Then came the advent of the sliding track, which made it possible for doors to slide to the side, rather than opening outward – this was more practical but required a very wide garage. Innovators then designed a door that was divided into folding sections, making it possible for the door – sliding to the side – to retract into the garage, decreasing the width required of the garage.

In 1921 and 1926, C.G. Johnson invented the overhead folding door and then added an automatic opening for people with disabilities. Today, electric openers have become a standard of convenience for all garage doors.

And there you have it – the history of the garage door from your Utah garage door repair experts!

You probably know that it’s important to keep your garage door closed at night. But if you don’t have an automatic garage door opener, thieves can easily open your garage door and walk away with your belongings at any moment. If, without much effort, you can lift your door by hand to put your car inside, then you can be sure that thieves are willing to do the same.

What are thieves looking for when they break into someone’s garage? Statistics show that thieves will take any of a number of things, including:

• Food in the fridge. Statistically, alcohol is a popular target.
• Bicycles
• Cars
• Personal items, such as wallets or purses.

Most garage thieves are not aware that entering a garage without the owner’s permission and removing anything from inside can earn them a charge of aggravated burglary.

To prevent this from happening to you, have an automatic opener installed on your Utah garage door. A garage door opener automatically locks each time it closes, keeping your possessions safe inside. Garage door openers are important for additional reasons as well, such as keeping your children safe: a manually-opened garage door could potentially fall on an unsuspecting child, whereas automatic garage door openers come with special sensors to ensure that the door cannot close when there is someone beneath it.

Protect your valuables and your family by having an automatic garage door installed today.

• Wood doors. These provide a custom, timeless, rustic look to your home. Wood doors tend to take a little more maintenance, as they need to be painted about as often as the wood trim around your house.

• Composite doors. Vinyl and fiberglass are notable for their durable quality – they won’t crack or dent, even under forceful impact. These tend to be lighter, so they’re ideal for those who don’t have a garage door opener and must open their door by hand.

• Steel doors. These create a sleek, professional look for a home or business. Steel doors can be insulated, which will go a long way toward keeping your house warm in the winter and cool in the summer. They usually come with a longer warranty. They’re also low maintenance – unlike wood doors, they never need to be painted. Steel is the strongest of the materials, so just one door will last a long, long time.

To see some of the options available to you, or to set up an appointment, feel free to contact A+, your Utah garage door experts!

The most common cause? Surprisingly, it’s not lawnmowers, snowblowers, or garbage disposals, but garage doors. What’s worse, 20% of those injuries happen to children. Most often, these injuries result from placing fingers in between panels while closing the door by hand.

Now, as your premier Utah Garage Door provider, we love our kids just as much as you love yours. That’s why we’ve decided to offer the new FingerShield protection system from Martin Garage Doors. The FingerShield system is the most comprehensive to date, and includes the following features:

• Protected Section Joints
• Track Mounts
• RollerShields
• Hemmed Edges
• Curve Shields
• Safety Hinges
• Reduced Hole Sizes

You’re doing everything you can to make sure that your kids stay safe. That means that you can never be too careful around the garage door. But with the help of the FingerShield protection system, you can rest easy, knowing there are seven extra layers of protection between your kids and a vicious finger injury.

Your child may or may not be a world-famous concert pianist someday, but it doesn’t hurt to keep that option open. So give us a call to learn about getting FingerShield at your home. A+ Utah Garage Doors: protect those fingers!

The #1 reason to own an automated garage door is, without a doubt, convenience.  But, just like the fixtures in your bathrooms, or the appliances in your kitchen, your garage door should provide functionality, safety and attraction.

3 Reasons why you need an automated garage door:

1. Protection
2. Convenience
3. Safety

Key safety features

Good news! By law, every automated garage doors must come with a safety feature that will keep the garage door from closing if there is anything beneath it.  This will keep your children, pets and neighbours safe from harm.

Another already installed feature is the automatic locking system, which will keep you car tucked away safely inside the garage every night.

At A+Garage Doors, we offer a variety of additional safety features and designs to ensure you have that attraction and guaranteed safety with each and every door we offer.    We are your Utah garage doors com experts. Call us today!