This Q&A about opening an apartment garage door during a power outage or state of emergency has been answered by Nigel Wraight, Forte Asset Services.
Question: Due to a storm, there is a power outage in our building. How do I manually open the garage door to basement parking so I can remove my car and collect a child from daycare? Our Strata Manager will not assist.
What does the regulation state in regards to being able to remove your car from the garage of an apartment complex when the power is out?
My car is parked in an underground basement parking and because of the electricity being out for the whole area due to a storm, there is no way to open the garage door and use my car. I need to collect a child from daycare.
What does the regulation say in regards to this? My strata company is saying they are unable to provide assistance. Surely there should be some way for them to manually open the garage?
Answer: Most Garage Doors Can be opened manually.
Most Garage Doors Can be opened manually. I am surprised you were not supported given the parameters of the situation. That said, it wasn’t life-threatening and I imagine there was quite a bit of chaos at the time.
Several Car parks we have worked with have installed a UPS (uninterruptable power supply) which has a battery back-up. This should get the door open in such a situation.
A fail safe can also be employed, with the UPS. When mains power is lost, the battery backup power supply is used and opens the door via a fail safe relay (loose power, relay switch to close, UPS Power on & door opens).
Depending on the garage door motor, the size of the door and the physical situation, this kind of thing can be installed for around $2000 – $5000. The price variance is due to the size and type of UPS. A typical Computer UPS is not applicable. The UPS has to be selected to handle the “load” of the garage door.
Best Practice would be to have a manual facility for opening the door or gate such as a clutch on the gearbox to disengage the drive.
Nigel Wraight
Forte Asset Services
E: nigel@forteas.com.au
P: 1800 351 078
This post appears in Strata News #305.
Have a question about manually opening basement parking garage doors during a power outage or state of emergence or something to add to the article? Leave a comment below.
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I live in an aprtment. I have a garage that works automaticaly. I didnt realize that it wasnt opened all the way yet and backed into the door.
a few questions:
– is the door fit for purpose, is this door a fire door for safe egress in a fire situation or not
– is there some other door that acts as a fire door for safe egress
– was the committee member qualified to do this work, that is, is the work compliant to the relevant Australian standard, subject to the purpose of the door
– if the door is a fire door, then is the committee member insured for such work, if not, is there a financial exposure for the committee as a result
– is the insurance company aware of this work and the situation, is there a risk of a claim refusal as a result
– has your fire services contractor “signed off” on the annual fire safety statement
If you can’t answer these questions, don’t assume, if there is a genuine event, and you end up at the coroner’s court, they don’t take assumptions very well.
To resolve this situation, speak to the fire services contractor first, ask if they will write to you, (and the committee) for any recommendations, then, consider a consultant, or a fire services engineer to provide an “engineered solution” to move forward and resolve this issue. The Fire Services Contractor may be able t help on this
If you are still not getting the response you seek, call the council and have a conversation first, they will ask you to write as appropriate or advise the further.
Cost is not an excuse for fire safety.
I hope this is constructive.
There could also be instances where the safety aspect is not just about getting out in your car.
In our apartment block there is a unit that has no access to the street except via the roller door. That is to say that the only door to the apartment exits into the ground floor car-park and from there the egress onto the street is via the car-park roller door.
When the roller door motor was replaced the the safety release of the motor was disabled so that there was no possibility of someone reaching around the column next to the roller door to release the door and access the car park.
No thought was given to the owner / tenant in that apartment should there be a fire, possibly caused by say a major electrical fault causing the block to be alight with no power.
This situation was pointed out to the committee by the fire safety company over a year after the new roller-door was installed . They stated that a push button release should be installed to release the door but went into no detail about how to achieve this. the only assumption was that there should be a UPS or battery backup of some sort. The OC Committee were no help as the thought of installing a UPS on the roller door at the cost of $1,500 to $2,000 was not palatable and could not be agreed upon, presumably as it only benefited one occupant.
In the end an installation of exit instructions for the roller door and the re engagement of the door pull cord, together with lowering the pull cord to the required height was done by one of the committee members. The door is one car width so it’s able to be raised without power.
This had to be done with the premise that it’s better to seek forgiveness than permission.
The container door has to have a chain drive to open the garage door to comply with Fire Safety regulations I understand, if there is no manual way to open the garage door your strata managers, whom appear to a heartless mob and should be sacked, and I think your OC are liable as ignorance is no excuse. 1 thing I don’t understand, how did you get your child today care ?
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