What should be on a garage door vacation security checklist?

The garage is one of the most targeted entry points for home burglaries, and an unsecured garage during a two-week vacation is an open invitation. A 10-minute check before you leave covers the main risks. Here is what belongs on your list.

Lock the door from the inside before you go

The first step is engaging the manual lock on the garage door itself. Most residential sectional doors have a slide bolt on the inside of the bottom section or along the track. Engaging this lock prevents the door from being lifted manually. An exterior-accessed code, a lost or stolen remote, or a relay attack on rolling-code remotes cannot open a mechanically locked door.

If your door does not have a manual slide bolt, you can achieve a similar result by threading a padlock or cable lock through one of the track holes near the bottom bracket on each side. This prevents the door from traveling up the track.

Do not rely on the opener alone to keep the door closed while you are away. Openers can fail, programming can be compromised, and emergency release cords can be pulled through the top of the door from the outside using a simple wire tool. A mechanical lock closes that gap.

Security step	Purpose	When to do it
Engage manual slide bolt	Prevents physical lift from outside	Every trip over 2 days
Enable vacation mode on opener	Disables all remotes and keypads	Every trip
Lock door to house	Stops garage access reaching interior	Always
Remove spare remote from car	Eliminates theft-from-vehicle risk	Any extended absence
Disable wall button	Prevents activation from inside garage	Longer trips

Put the opener in vacation or lock mode

Most openers made in the last 10 years include a vacation mode or lock mode that disables all remotes and keypads. On LiftMaster and Chamberlain units, this is often activated by holding the lock button on the wall panel for a few seconds until the LED blinks. In this mode, remotes will not open the door even if the code is correct.

Vacation mode is separate from the mechanical lock. Use both. The mechanical lock stops someone from lifting the door. Vacation mode stops the opener from being activated while you are away, including preventing someone from using a garage door relay device.

If your opener has a MyQ app, turn off remote access in the app as well. This removes the ability to open the door from the app, which matters if your phone is lost or stolen during the trip.

For very long absences, some homeowners unplug the opener entirely. This is a reliable backup step, but remember that you will need to plug it back in and possibly reset the time clock when you return.

Secure the door from the house to the garage

The door between the house interior and the attached garage deserves specific attention. If a burglar does get into the garage through any means, this door is the next barrier. It should be solid core or metal, installed with a deadbolt, and hung in a reinforced frame.

Many attached garages in older Denver homes have hollow-core doors between the garage and the living space. These doors offer minimal resistance. If you have a hollow-core garage entry door, consider replacing it before your next extended trip. This is a high-return safety and security upgrade.

Before leaving, lock this interior door with the deadbolt every time, not just when you are going on vacation. Make it a habit so that the garage is always a two-door barrier from the interior of the home.

Manage your remotes and keypads

Remove any spare remote from your car if the car will be parked outside or somewhere other than your secured garage. A car break-in followed by a garage entry is a common sequence in residential burglaries. The remote is the key.

If you have a wireless keypad on the outside of the garage, change the code before a long trip and change it again when you return. This is quick to do (the manual or the manufacturer's app walks you through it) and closes the risk from anyone who may have observed the code being entered.

For homes where a house-sitter or neighbor will be checking in while you are away, create a temporary code if your keypad supports multiple codes. Delete it when you return. This avoids sharing your main code with someone who should only have temporary access.

Colorado-specific notes and return-home inspection

Colorado summers mean high temperatures in unventilated garages, sometimes over 100 degrees. Heat affects the opener's logic board over time. If you will be away for more than two weeks in summer, make sure the garage has some ventilation and that the opener is not sitting directly under a hot south-facing skylight or vent.

In winter, the risk shifts to ice and weather seal stiffness. If you are leaving for a winter trip, make sure the bottom seal is fully seated. A gap in the seal invites ice to form under the door, which can cause the door to stick and put stress on the opener on your return.

Security does not end at departure. When you return from a trip, a quick inspection takes two minutes and catches any signs of tampering or weather damage.

Check that the mechanical slide bolt is still engaged before you unlock it from the outside. If the bolt appears forced or the door appears shifted in the frame, do not enter the garage. Call the non-emergency police line to have the home checked before you go inside.

Look at the door itself for signs of prying or impact. Attempted forced entry often leaves marks around the bottom corners or on the track brackets. Look at the sensor brackets too: if they have been disturbed, the sensors may need realignment before the opener will work correctly.

After disabling vacation mode on the opener, run the monthly safety check. Lay a 2x4 board on the floor and close the door to test the auto-reverse. Wave a broom handle through the sensor beam to test the photo-eyes. After a trip, it takes two minutes and confirms the safety system is still working before you resume normal use.

Re-enable the keypad if you had it in vacation mode. If you gave a neighbor or house-sitter a temporary code, delete it now and change the main code as a routine precaution. Most keypads allow code changes in under a minute with the manufacturer's instructions.

Finally, check the exterior weather seal on the bottom of the door. Winter trips in particular can result in ice or debris being forced under the seal while you were away. A compromised seal lets cold air and moisture into the garage and can cause the door to stick when closing in cold weather.

If any security or mechanical issue turns up on your return inspection, G Brothers can usually get it addressed the same day. Broken locks, malfunctioning openers, and weather seal damage are among the most common post-trip service calls, and all are quick fixes when caught early.

G Brothers Garage Doors serves the Denver metro and Front Range with free estimates, same-day service on most security hardware and opener upgrades, and 24/7 emergency response. Licensed and insured.