Garage & Driveway Security

Pick in 10 seconds

• If the big door has no lock of its own → the garage door slide latch, one bolt through each track.
• If you want to know when someone turns into the drive → the wireless driveway alarm, which chimes indoors.
• If the approach is dark → the solar motion security light, no wiring.
• If it is a shed, a side gate or a detached garage with no outlet → the solar motion siren + strobe.
• If a bike or motorcycle lives in there → the disc lock alarm, 110 dB at the wheel.
• If a car or trailer lives on the driveway → the steering wheel lock for the car and the trailer hitch coupler lock for the trailer.

Securing a garage, in the order that matters

A garage door is a large panel on rollers, held down by an opener carriage rather than a lock, which is why advice about deadbolts and strike plates doesn't apply to it. Work through it in this order.

1. Pin the door to its track

The slide latch fixes to the inner end stile of a sectional door, and its steel bolt slides into the vertical track beside it, so the panel stays down. Two come in the pack, one for each side. The one rule: use it only when the door is manual or the opener is disconnected by its emergency release, because an opener trying to lift a latched door will damage both. Most owners latch it at bedtime and before a trip.

2. Cover the side door and its window

Many attached garages have a second, ordinary door into the yard, often with glass in it. It is out of sight and it is a normal lock on a normal frame. A TremShield vibration alarm on that door or its pane sounds at 125 dB at the first pry, before anyone is inside, and a reinforcement lock holds an in-swinging door shut even if its main lock is picked.

3. Know before they reach the door

The driveway alarm has two sensors that catch movement up to 24 feet out and chime on a receiver indoors. Aim them across the path, not at the road; placement is covered in how a wireless driveway alarm works. The solar motion light puts three adjustable heads over the drive and charges itself. Out back, the solar siren sounds 110 dB with a red strobe when someone crosses it, with strobe-only modes for spots near a neighbor. Its sensor can't tell a person from a deer, so point it at the route to the shed door rather than the open lawn. More in securing a shed or detached garage without power.

4. Lock the wheels

The disc lock alarm slides over a brake disc and its 6 mm pin locks through a hole in it, so the wheel can't roll far. A knock or a shove sets off a 110 dB siren at the wheel. It fits motorcycles, scooters and disc-brake bicycles with a hole the pin passes through, not rim brakes. Take it off before you ride, every time. See how to keep a bike or motorcycle safe at home.

What a burglar wants in there

A garage often holds the tools that would open the rest of the house, plus bikes, and often a door into the kitchen nobody locks. It is worth securing for its contents, and again for what sits behind it. The full walkthrough is in our guide to securing a garage door.

Alarms go further than the side door: the same disc sticks to the garage window, the door into the house and the reachable ground-floor glass. Six are $99, $16.50 each, with 2 free no-drill window locks.