Secure Door 

Do you know...

• The garage door is potentially the largest and weakest opening in many home to a hurricane?

• According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), loss of the garage door was a major factor for homes damaged or destroyed in Hurricane Andrew?

• Even with shutters, if your garage door fails, the full force of the hurricane will enter your home and possibly blow off your roof and seriously damage or destroy your home?

• Hurricanes exert both a positive (inward) and negative (outward) pressure on all of your home's walls and openings ... including your garage door.

Results of wind pressure

• Regardless of the type and strength of your garage door, it is only attached to the garage frame by its side-wheels that ride inside the garage door tracks. 

• Garage doors fail when the hurricane winds cause the door to physically bend either inward or outward. This bending shortens the width of the garage door and causes the garage door side-wheels to pull out of the tracks thus detaching the garage door from the frame.

• To keep your garage door securely in place, you must not allow the garage door to bend.

Secure Door Attributes...

• Secure Door is made of high-quality aircraft-grade aluminum in the form of a rectangle box-beam that is lightweight yet incredibly strong
• Secure Door has a unique telescoping design that enables it to brace almost all home or commercial garage doors. Home garage doors up to 8 foot in height. Commercial garage doors up to 15 feet (note: although it works on the same principal, the commercial application has not been formally tested and certified).
• Secure Door brackets are directly attach to the garage door's hinges to keep the garage door from being either blown in or sucked out, Secure Door was designed to be adjustable so that it can fit behind any existing horizontal garage door braces.
• The top end of Secure Door is anchored into the wall (concrete header) above the garage door. The bottom end of Secure Door is anchored to the garage floor. Secure Door is then attached to each garage door hinge.
• Secure Door is not permanently attached to your garage door, so you do not have to adjust the garage door springs... which if done incorrectly can cause a very dangerous situation
• The result is that the Secure Door protected garage door is inhibited from bending either inward or outward. 

The following diagram shows a typical Secure Door installation.

Independent Testing Results...

• Secure Door was independently tested by the National Certified Testing Laboratories located in Orlando Florida

• Secure Door was found to exceed ASTM E330 and SBCCI retrofit wind speed standards

• Secure Door was selected by the University of Florida for their Windstorm Training Center hurricane model homes

• Secure Door has received Statewide Florida Building Code approval (FL2364-R2) allowing it to be installed in any county within Florida

Note: The above chart is based upon ASTM E330-90 test on a new 7'x16', 26 gauge (0.0175 thick), windowless, rolled steel door rated at 70 mph. Individual consumer results may very with garage door age, condition, construction method & material of their door.

Protection levels assume correct brace installation. Individual consumer results will vary with the age, size, condition, construction method, installation technique and door material to which Secure Door braces are attached.

Installing Secure Door...

• Secure Door can be installed on almost all residential garage doors.

• Installation takes about 30 minutes per brace using just an electric drill, screw driver and a crescent wrench.

• If you know how to use the above tools, you can install this garage door brace. 

You can DO-IT-YOURSELF

Accordion Hurricane Shutters services the following South Florida cities:
Big Pine Key, Boca Raton, Boynton Beach, Coral Springs, Coconut Creek, Dania, Davie, Deerfield Beach, Delray Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Hallandale, Highland Beach, Hollywood, Homestead, Islamorada,  Key Largo, Key West, Lauderdale-by-the-sea, Lauderhill, Lauderdale Lakes, Lighthouse Point, Loxahatchee, Marathon, Margate, Miami, Miami Beach, Miramar, Oakland Park, Ocean Reef, Palm Beach, Parkland, Pembroke Pines, Pembroke Park, Plantation, Pompano Beach, Royal Palm, Sea Ranch Lakes, Sugarloaf Key, Sunrise, Tamarac, Wellington, West Palm Beach, Weston.

 FAQ

Q: Can your braces be installed if I have horizontal braces on my door?

Q: Can your brace be installed in the center of the door when an electric door opener is installed?

Q: If my door is wood or fiberglass, will your braces help?

Q: How long does it take to receive your brace from the time our order is placed on the Internet?

Q: What do you do if you have windows in the garage door?

Q: Can your braces be installed if I have horizontal braces on my door?

A: Yes, the multiple holes on the "deflection brackets" are designed to permit our brace to be installed behind horizontal bracing up to 4" thick.

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Q: Can your brace be installed in the center of the door when an electric door opener is installed?

A: Yes, but the "hockey-stick" shaped arm that connects the opener to the door must be released before the brace is installed (and re-attached after the brace is removed). This is normally done by removal of a cotter key and pin. Since you may do this several times during the period you own the brace, you may want to consider a quick-release cotter pin available for about $1 at most hardware stores.

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Q: If my door is wood or fiberglass, will your braces help?

A: Yes, our bracing system will strengthen most every garage door. However, we cannot determine how much our brace will improve your specific door's ability to withstand hurricane force winds. Our bracing system works in conjunction with your door and cannot compensate entirely for a door that is in poor repair or condition, improperly installed, or built of flimsy material. Doors that cannot withstand the impact of flying debris are subject to failure for reasons other than just high winds. Similarly, garage doors with windows are at great risk as the windows are often the weakest part of the garage door. Options to protect the window range from replacing that panel of the door to fabricating a shutter to cover them, or adding some form of covering securely mounted inside the door to cover the window area. Of course, the other options are to replace the door with a hurricane-resistant door or adding shutters to your garage to cover the garage door but these latter two options are relatively expensive and may require a building permit.

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Q: How long does it take to receive your brace from the time our order is placed on the Internet?

A: Normally we ship UPS ground within three business days after receipt of an order and the brace then takes a day or two to arrive if you live in Florida or two to three days in other areas on the East Coast of the United States. To obtain our braces quicker or to arrange for professional installation, it may be best to purchase through one of our distributors who normally stock our brace and have trained personnel available for installation.

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Q: What do you do if you have windows in the garage door?

A: The windows must also be protected for the Secure Door bracing system to be effective. Some solutions we have seen utilized by homeowners are to replace the top panel with a panel that does not have windows. This approach would require ordering a panel from your garage door manufacturer that is compatible with your specific model of garage door. A second approach is to cover the windows with a "shutter" fabricated from ¾" plywood and securing bolted to the top panel of the door. A third approach we have seen utilized is to permanently mount Lexan inside the top panel behind the windows to provide added protection. Please note that none of these homeowner solutions have been laboratory tested to assess their effectiveness.