Garage door motor installation: close up without leaving the car

A garage door motor sounds like a convenience, and it is. But the real benefit is what it takes away: the minute or two you spend out of the car in the dark, unlocking and lifting the door while the engine runs behind you.

With a motor, you open the door from the street, drive in and close it behind you before you open the car door. If your garage has a door into the house, you're inside without stepping outside at all. That matters most for whoever gets home on their own after dark, or arrives with a sleeping child in the back seat. Pair it with a gate motor and you go from the street to a closed garage without leaving your seat.

The type of door decides the motor and how it's fitted.

• Sectional doors are made of horizontal panels that roll up on tracks and lie flat under the ceiling.
• Tip-up doors are a single panel that swings out at the bottom and up into the garage.
• Roll-up doors roll around a drum above the opening, like a shopfront roller shutter.

Whatever the type, the door has to be running well before it gets a motor. A door that's heavy, sticks on its tracks or has tired springs will strain the motor and wear it out early. We check the door first and tell you if anything needs attention. Garage door springs hold a lot of tension, so adjusting them is a job for a technician, not a weekend project.

A garage door motor needs a plan for when the power goes off. Some motors can run off a backup battery for a while. Every motor should also have a manual release, so you can disconnect the door and open it by hand from inside.

At hand-over, we show you where the release is and how to use it, and how to reconnect the door afterwards. It's worth practising once in daylight, so you're not working it out in the dark. If you want the door to keep running through power cuts, ask about battery backup when we quote.

Safety matters too. A garage door motor should stop and reverse if the door meets something on the way down, such as a car bonnet, a bicycle or a child. We set this up and test it during installation, and we show you how to test it yourself, with a cardboard box rather than a foot.

We don't publish prices, because doors and garages vary a lot. These are the things that change the quote:

• The type of door: sectional, tip-up or roll-up.
• The size and weight of the door, and whether it's a single or double garage.
• The condition of the door, its tracks and its springs.
• The ceiling height and the space above the door for the motor and rail.
• Whether there's a power point close by.
• How many remotes you need, and whether you want battery backup.
• Whether you're doing the gate motor at the same time.

The quote is free. If the door needs work before it can take a motor, we tell you upfront rather than fit a motor that won't last.

The garage is often the easiest way into a house, because the door is wide, out of sight and connects straight to the inside. A garage door motor helps you get in quickly. A door contact on your alarm system tells you if someone opens it while you're out. An electric fence and a working gate keep people further away to begin with.

DBS Security is family-owned, with 25 years in the trade. Pieter de Bruyn Jr and his son Marco quote every job themselves, and they stay your contact after our technical team has done the work. Get a free quote for a garage door motor, or see the areas we cover.