Can Garage Door Be Opened From Outside?

How can garage door be opened from outside? As a garage door repair company in Calgary, we often hear this question from our clients in desperate situations. The most common scenario is a lock-out situation, when the homeowner goes out for a walk with no keys, hoping to get back in through the garage using the keypad.
Another reason for asking how can garage door be opened from outside is due to security concerns. Some homeowners want to make sure they take all necessary precautions to prevent unauthorized entry.

How to Open the Garage Door From The Outside If The Keypad Is Not Responding?

If your only way back home was through your garage door, but it won’t open up, you might be in trouble. However, you can try a few things before breaking in or calling the locksmith to pick your house lock.
If the keypad is unresponsive, you might have a dead 9v battery.
Most homeowners never replace the garage door keypad battery on time, finding themselves in trouble as a result. If you got stuck outside your house with a dead keypad battery, your best bet would be to replace it and let yourself in. But where do you find a replacement battery if you can’t even get inside the house? Well, borrow it from your neighbor.

Chances are, some of your neighbors have garage door keypads as well. If they’re at home, ask them to borrow a 9v battery from their keypad for a few minutes to swap it with yours so you can get back home. Alternatively, you can do it without asking if they’re not at home, but make sure you don’t get shot for trespassing, depending on where you live;)
Replacing a keypad battery is a very simple task. Simply slide the small cover downwards, and you’ll get access to the battery compartment.

How to Open Your Garage Door From The Outside If The Door Opens Up a Foot and Stops?

Well, “lucky you!” Your garage door spring snapped while you were outside. If you don’t have the keys from your house and the only way in is through the garage, there’s a trick for you. Enter the PIN code for your garage door keypad, and as soon as the door starts moving up, grab it by the bottom section and start pushing it until your garage door is fully open. You see, when one of your garage door springs breaks, your garage door opener won’t have enough power to lift the door up. Therefore your assistance will be needed to compensate for the broken garage door spring. As soon as you let yourself in, call a local garage door repair company and let them replace your springs for you. If you live in Calgary, AB., you might give us a call, and one of our Calgary-based garage door technicians will get your garage door up and running in no time!

How to Open Your Garage Door From The Outside If There is a Power Outage?

Unfortunately, your chances to open a garage door from the outside when there’s no power are slim. It would be a non-issue if you would have a battery backup garage door opener, but assuming you have a regular unit, you might be in trouble. The garage door opener is hooked up to your door and acts as a lock when it’s in a closed position. So simply trying to force the door up will not bring any success. Instead, you can damage your garage door while doing that. Hiring a locksmith to pick the lock or waiting until the power comes back is your best bet. However, there’s one thing you can try to let yourself in.
You most likely remember a red emergency cord hanging from the opener rail? It’s located right behind the upper section of your garage door, and if you manage to unhook it, you can lift your garage door by hand. You will need a long and stiff piece of wire with a hook at the end. Think wire hanger, that will be an ideal tool for this task. You will need to sneak it through the opening between the upper section of your garage door and the frame. You might need to remove or bend your weatherstripping if it sits too tight. Having windows in the top section will make your life easier, as you’ll see exactly where the emergency cord is and will be able to unlatch it quickly. Otherwise, you’re acting blind, and the process may take hours with no guarantee of success.

How to Prevent Someone From Opening the Garage Door From The Outside?

Some homeowners are worried their garage door can be opened from the outside. That’s true, the burglars can try to open your garage door from the outside by pulling on the emergency release cord. If your garage door has a row of windows in the upper section, it will be much easier to do. Luckily, with a bit of effort and one small zip-tie, you can protect your garage door from unauthorized entry. In order to unhook your emergency release lock from the outside, they would need to use a wire hanger and try to pull down the cord. So if you secure the locking mechanism with a tiny zip-tie, all their efforts will lead to a failure. And if you’ll need to unhook your garage door from the opener for any reason, simply cut the zip tie, and you’re good to go.

Another way to gain access to your garage from the outside is by duplicating the codes from your garage door opener remotes, which is a much more sophisticated task. Read more about this in our article called ” Can Garage Door Openers Be Hacked? “