Does Your Automated Garage Door Meet The Legal Safety Requirements?
Very few people are aware that there are several laws in place surrounding the operation of automated garage doors. These laws have been created to ensure your own safety and protection. Trustworthy garage door professionals should be well aware of these laws and will make sure your garage door is in line with the legal requirements when they install or carry out repairs on your door. However, if you have self-installed or used someone without professional expertise, your roller garage door might actually be against the law.
What is The Law?
It is unlikely that you will have studied the law surrounding garage doors unless you work in the legal profession or are a garage door technician. This is why we have decided to explain the basics in this blog so you can be confident that your powered garage door is safe in the eyes of the law. The main legal documents which are relevant to garage doors are:
- The Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 2008 (SMR)
- The Construction Products Regulation 2011 – EU No.305/2011 (CPR)
- European Standard For Garage Doors (BS EN 123241-1:2003 + A1:2011)
Each of the above laws requires that your automatic garage door meets certain safety criteria when putting on the market and installed. If your garage door has a CE marking then it is probably in line with all these documents. A CE mark is given as a certificate to indicate that the item conforms to the health, safety, and environmental protection standards for products sold within the European Economic Area. At Garage Door Rescue, we ensure all the work our technicians carry out is in line with the safety regulations and any products we install are CE marked.
How to Check your Automatic Garage Door?
Thousands of homes across the UK have automated garage doors which are unsafe without even realising. Therefore, you should not assume that yours is not one of them. We have created a simple guide explaining how to check that your garage door is safe and legal. Here is a list of things you should look out for:
- Doors which are in compliance with the legal standards will be CE marked and come with a declaration.
- You can ask to see the file that details how the regulations have been complied with from the person responsible (usually the business owner or garage door retailer).
- All automatic garage doors are required to come with a hold to run control. This is a safety device that can be used to test run the door as well being used if the automated system fails. It should be located in a safe place on the door and it clear sight.
- There should be a motion detection system, such as sensors on the sides of the garage door. These systems are there to check the doorway is clear for the garage door to close safely. If something blocks the sensors, the door will halt, preventing it from closing on a person or object. Please note that this system alone is not enough of a safety precaution to meet all the legal regulations. It must be used in conjunction with some of the other features listed here. This is why it is important that you use garage door technicians you can trust.
- Carry out frequent tests on your automatic door to check that sensors are there and working. You could pass an object under the door whilst it is closing to see if the door stops.
Once you have carried out these checks you should have a better understanding of whether your automatic garage door meets the safety requirements or not. If you think your door might be in breach of the regulations, then contact us at Garage Door Rescue and we can make the modifications needed to improve the safety of the door. For more help and advice, please do not hesitate to contact a member of our team on 01793 393503.
Why Was This Law Created?
You may be wondering why there are so many legal regulations surrounding garage doors. The answer is that they were created to ensure your own safety. The laws were put in place because there have been many accidents over the years of automatic garage doors impacting a person or an object. The laws mentioned above require that all new garage doors must be verifiably safe when putting on the market to minimise the risk. Therefore, it is in your own interest to check that your garage door meets the requirements set out in the laws and make sure that any future work is carried out by professionals you can trust.
The Problem With Photocells
As discussed in the checklist above, your automated garage door is required to have a motion detection system, however, this on its own is not enough to meet all the legal regulations. A common method installed on automated garages across the UK are sensors called photocells. However, using photocells alone is now deemed an unsafe conduct. Any person intending to fit an automated garage door with only a photocell for safety is now conducting an illegal installation and leaving the door a danger to the user. This is because photocells only provide a means of stopping the door at one point across the opening – where the beam goes from one side to the other. This leaves users vulnerable to being struck by the closing door at any other points. They can also be easily knocked out of place, leaving your garage door with zero protection. If you believe your automated garage door has no other motion detection system other than photocells, call us now on 01793 393503 so that we can fix this for you before any damage is done.
The Solution
At Garage Door Rescue, we now have the perfect solution to ensure all automated garage doors are safe. We are very excited to announce that we are now offering a new security product called Roll-Smart. It is a cutting-edge, next-generation product, designed to deliver an unbeatable safety performance in real-world situations. It is fully compliant with the CE certificate and, unlike photocells, Roll-Smart is incredibly effective, detecting children, cars, and any obstructions within the doorway. With this product, you can rest assured that your door in line with the legal safety regulations and that no damage is going to be caused. Call us today on 01793 393503 for more information on Roll-Smart.
