1. The Garage Door Itself

Residential garage doors have several known vulnerabilities that most homeowners have never thought about.

The most common exploit is the emergency release cord. Every garage door has one, a red cord hanging from the trolley that allows manual operation during a power outage. This cord can be reached from outside the garage by inserting a thin hook or wire through the gap at the top of the door, catching the cord, and pulling it. With the release disengaged, the door can be lifted manually without any code or remote.

This technique takes under 30 seconds and leaves no evidence of forced entry. It is widely known among people who target residential garages and is largely unaddressed by most homeowners.

The fix is inexpensive: a zip tie or a commercial emergency release lock loops through the release cord and prevents it from being pulled by a hook inserted from outside, while still allowing manual release from inside when needed.

Rolling code technology in modern garage door openers addresses the old vulnerability of remote signal interception. If your opener is more than 15 years old and does not use rolling codes, an upgrade is worth considering. Modern openers from most major brands use this technology as standard.

2. The Door From the Garage Into the Home

This is the vulnerability that matters most and receives the least attention.

Most homeowners treat the door from their garage into their home as an interior door. It often is, in terms of how it was built: hollow core construction, standard hardware, no deadbolt, no reinforced frame. The logic is that the garage door is the security perimeter and the interior door is just a door.

The problem is that once someone is inside your garage, which as described above can happen in under 30 seconds without breaking anything, the interior door is the only thing standing between them and your home. A hollow-core door with a standard lever handle is not meaningful protection. Most can be defeated in seconds.

The garage-to-home door should be treated as a full exterior security door. Solid core construction or a steel door. A Grade 1 ANSI-rated deadbolt. A reinforced frame with steel strike plates and 3-inch screws anchored into the stud. This is the upgrade that makes the garage a genuine security layer rather than a passage that bypasses your front door entirely.

3. Windows in the Garage

Garages with windows, which is common in older Toronto homes, have an additional vulnerability. Standard glass in a garage window provides direct visual access to the interior and often provides physical access to the garage itself or to the interior door latch.

If your garage has windows that are visible from the street or from an accessible area, consider whether they need to be there and what they provide access to. At minimum, they should have functional locks and consider whether STRIKEGLASS is appropriate for garages with windows adjacent to door hardware.