I own a single family home with attached garage. The garage door stays closed probably 95% of the time with the exception of when someone is pulling in or out of the garage or when some sort of activity is going on where it makes sense to have it open, such as yard work, car maintenance, etc. Guests park in the driveway or street and use the front door.
I’ve noticed in my neighborhood and others in my city that some people seem to leave their garage doors open all the time with no activity going on in or around the garage. I assume someone is home since there are usually cars in the garage or driveway but what makes me curious is that no one is around. I jog in the neighborhood and often it is the same houses with garage doors open, which makes me think people do this regularly for a reason and I’m not just seeing the occasional door that was forgotten to be closed.
I should note that I certainly feel that my neighborhood is safe but the majority of crimes I hear about are crimes of opportunity. A friend who lives a couple blocks away had things stolen from his garage and I’ve talked to a couple people who had stuff taken from unlocked cars. For me, any conceivable convenience or gain of leaving my garage door open is far outweighed by even the tiny chance of something being stolen, or worse.
I’d like to hear from people who leave their garage door open all the time. Why? Am I missing some great home-ownership tip? Is there some shoes on/off type cultural difference of which I’m unaware?
Can’t help ya there. While I’ve been known to leave the screen door locked but the main door open whilst running quick errands, I can’t imagine leaving a garage door open all the time.
Maybe it’s nice weather, and there’s a bedroom above it that is cooler when it’s open? Or maybe their inside door to the garage is open too, to make a breezeway.
Other then that, I’ve got nothin’.
Some smokers/beer drinkers/teens hang out in garages but want the door open for ventilation. They might not want to disturb the whole house with the rumble rumble every time they step out.
I know some people who leave it open in nice weather to get some air into the house. They have a screen door from the garage to the house. I think they also like to be able to look outside and see their driveway and any one who might be coming up. It would be hard to do from other rooms in their house. They never leave it open when they are not home, or even if they are, say, in the backyard where they couldn’t keep an eye on things.
Depending on the particular layout of their home, it might make sense for someone to leave the garage door open.
You’re right that every open door is an increased risk.
I’m guilty of leaving the door open, intending to be back within a few minutes and getting distracted. Or the opener gets bumped and I don’t notice.
Each of those times is an increased risk.
However, my insurance company doesn’t reduce my premium for having my car in the garage. Their risk assessment says that the make of car is a more important risk factor than it’s location.
And the only theft from my garage (in ten years) was when it was locked. Our local policeman said that it would have been noticed that I cycled and my property noted as it’s just enough distance from the busstop for the risk to be outweighed by laziness (his words). My neighbour has had three bikes stolen from his locked garage over the same period.
When I do that, it’s usually on Sunday. And I’ve been drinking. I’ll be in the garage, come in for a while, then get sidetracked and forget that it’s open.
Monday morning when I walk the dog, I’ll see it and express gratitude that my
neighborhood has proven neighborly again. (After a quick inventory.) So far nothing
has ever been stolen, and I’ve done that a handful of times.
Thanks everyone for your responses. Wisp00 and Taomist, I hadn’t considered that someone might have a screen door between the house and garage and I can understand doing that for air circulation.
I forget fairly often. They actually make little reminder devices that alert you when the door is open.
It’s a weird feeling going into the garage in the morning and realizing you left this huge gaping hole open all night, anyone could have walked into the garage and into the house (I don’t keep the door between the garage and the house locked.) But in a way it makes me feel good too because nothing has ever been disturbed.
In the winter a lot of snow and ice gets tracked into the garage. If I get a nice sunny/breezy day and I’m home I often pull the cars out and leave the door wide open to let the floor dry.
I hate leaving the garage door open - it just looks tacky. When we lived in Florida, I noticed a lot of people parked in the driveway and used their garages as casual living space - some even had a carpet on the floor, some furniture, and maybe a TV or fridge. Not that the garage was ever finished like a room…
Anyway, I keep our garage door closed unless I’m working in the front yard. I don’t want to tempt anyone with my spare box of kitty litter…
My neighbor (suburban subdivision of single family detached homes) always leaves his, which faces the street, wide open. Tacky as all get out in my opinion. His garage is a freaking mess too.
My two garage doors come into the side of my house, and they are closed 95% of the time, unless I’m out there doing yard work or car stuff.
Growing up in the Boston suburbs we often left the garage door open all day on weekends, and often it stayed open after school since us kids were going in and out of the house periodically. The garage led to the mud room, which was the preferred entrance for kids with dirty shoes. Many of the families in the neighborhood with kids kept the garage doors open; no one thought much of it.
In our neighborhood, idiots park nice cars worth upwards of $30,000 or more OUTSIDE, but in their garage they have no room to actually park a car and instead have piles of crap in boxes that are probably worth a grand total of $28.50 - tops. Granted, storage space in some of these homes is lacking, but still - an odd priority of valuables.
Our neighbor sometimes forgets to close her garage door and I have to remind her to do so (there is a bus stop next to her house and people stand right there next to her garage in the shade). Not that I think all bus riders are thieves, but having dozens of random strangers milling about an open garage is probably not the wisest of ideas. Plus, she never locks the door from the garage to the house, and that is also not the smartest of ideas.
At any rate, our garage door opens only to let one of the cars out or in. Otherwise, always closed.
Well, I would imagine it is harder to steal a car when it is in a closed garage. At least here in Las Vegas, car theft is quite a big deal and although numbers have gone down somewhat recently, it is still one of the major crimes here.
Does your car reduce in value by not parking in the garage? Well once again, exposing the cars to the elements might not be great - but my guess is having cars stolen can’t do much to help increase the value of a non-existent car - nor lower any insurance rates you have.