Home Door Security

Sometimes, the easiest way through a door is to go around it. A lot of doors have window trim around the side and the easiest way to circumvent a door with a window next to it, is to have a single cylinder deadbolt lock.

A single cylinder lock has a keyed cylinder on the outside and a knob on the inside. When thieves see windows beside a door, the first reaction is to break a pane, reach inside and feel for the knob. If the lock is single cylinder, the robber is inside in a flash.

Solution

Double Cylinder Deadbolts. This means that the lock will have a keyed cylinder on the inside as well as the outside. Don't leave the key in the lock. If the door is used regularly, hang a little hook or shelf for the key away from the window. If the door is not used regularly, then just keep the key on your ring and unlock it when you need to.

Regarding deadbolts, you should get the highest ANSI Grade as possible, Grade 1 being the highest quality.

If you don't upgrade to double cylinder deadbolt locks, you can still improve the security of your single cylinders with the Lock Jaw.

This simple device makes it impossible to turn the cylinder from the outside, making it impenetrable to picking and bumping.

Just attach the device to the door above the deadbolt (can be adhered or screwed to the door), and press down on the switch. Two prongs come down to engage the deadbolt so that it can not turn.

Note that the Lock Jaw can only be used from the inside, and shouldn't be used if there is a nearby window because a burglar could raise the Lock Jaw just as easily as he can turn the deadbolt. Since the Lock Jaw is portable, it is perfect for travel where you might not trust the quality of your room's security.

Many times, doors have good security, but it is the rest of the house that fails. Good burglars look for weak jambs with poor door fit in order to go around locks or simply kick in doors that stay strong but fall open when the jamb breaks and splinters. Upgrading your door jambs helps improve door security by making it harder to separate the door from the jamb.

The area around the locks and at the hinges are also vulnerable. The points where the door connects to the jamb (hinges and deadbolts) are only as strong as the wood that they are screwed into. The area around hinges and locks should also be reinforced to prevent drilling, sawing and kicking in.

Solution

A & G Door Armor. This kit includes 3 different elements - a jamb plate to reinforce existing jambs or repair a damaged jamb, hinge plates to reinforce the hinge areas, and 2 lock plates to encircle the deadbolt and doorknob.

The jamb plate works on jambs with locks between 5 and 12 inches apart and makes it harder both to kick in a door, and to slip things between the door and jamb to pop the lock. The hinge plates reinforce the hinge area making it harder to drill or pop hinges. The lock plates make it harder to get to the locks to remove them from the door by drilling or sawing.

As a complete kit, it reinforces an already solid door, and although they can be painted to match the door, they are obvious enough to make a thief think twice about trying to break through them.

Note: You should have at least a solid wood door, if not a steel door. Hollow wood doors don't provide any protection to anyone trying to break in, and no amount of door or jamb reinforcing will help a hollow door. Although it's obvious to bystanders, a hollow door can be punched right through and the thief can enter without opening the door at all.

Improved jamb and lock security will make it tougher to kick in a door or circumvent the lock in the door, but there are some big dudes out there that break in through sheer force rather than finesse.

Fortunately for you, a door that is barred is almost impossible to force open if the hinges and lock are in place.

A high quality security bar that goes under the doorknob and wedges itself against the floor makes your door a rampart that is strengthened many more times than it would be without the security bar.

This particular model is made of 20 gauge steel, rated to resist 350 pounds of force. It is adjustable and can also be used as a bar for sliding doors. Flexible and strong.

Burglars want an easy job. If your neighbor's house looks easier than yours, you'll most likely get a pass. If burglars see that you are advertising that your house is a tough nut to crack, they'll probably leave your house alone. Advertising security is easy.

Burglars aren't likely to call your bluff. If you say you have a security system, they don't want to gamble that you don't. The same is true with a ferocious dog...or a loaded gun.

You can certainly buy signs and stickers as a bluff. They make great deterrents, but if you advertise an alarm, you should have one. If you advertise that you have a mean dog, you should have one (ideally one who is territorial but friendly - you don't want an antisocial, mean dog for real). If you advertise that you are armed, you should not only be armed, but also know how to handle your firearms properly. Knowing when and why to shoot, or not to shoot, is just as important than being armed in the first place.

Finally, neighborhood watch signs are available. This is a good deterrent because burglars fear being seen, and neighborhood watches are notorious for having busybody members (bless em) who watch vigilantly from unseen places and have no qualms about calling the police when things look suspicious. Knowing your neighbors, and knowing what's right and wrong in your neighborhood helps, so don't just buy the signs, but put some effort into a real neighborhood watch. If you're too busy to help, at least make friends with the busybodies.

One last note on alarms. When you buy an alarm system, it comes with stickers advertising the company. Some people think it's a bad idea to advertise their alarm brand because professional burglars may have knowledge about how to get around each brand of alarm. It's a decent argument, but that's a bit paranoid. Your typical burglar will just see the sticker and know it isn't worth it or, worst case scenario, that he doesn't have long to steal much after the alarm goes off. That being said, the stickers shown here show a company name that makes real products and looks real, but is misleading enough that pros won't be able to figure out your system if you actually have a different brand.

One more thing. Signs can be kind of tacky, so if you don't want to mar your house, keep them to a minimum, maybe a small alarm or dog sticker. If you don't care about tacky, go nuts, but too many signs and stickers might imply that you're bluffing. I suggest no more than two per location (front and back, for example), but if you really have an alarm, a dog and a gun, and you're head of the neighborhood watch, and someone tries to break in, then they were duly warned.

Before you open your door to see who's there, it's important to get a good look outside. If you have windows beside your door, you can get a good look, but then whoever is outside can see you as well.

Sometimes you want to take a peak without indicating you're there. The best way to do that is with a peephole.

The standard fisheye peephole is easy to install (just drill a hole the size of the inside cylinder, slip through and screw the ends together). Just make sure you out the fisheye on the outside so people can't look into your house! Put your eye near the peephole and take a look. Modern high-quality peepholes make it impossible for people outside to see if you're looking through it.

For a little bit more though, you can get a wide angle door scope which uses high quality optical lenses to give you a picture of the outside that you can see from 7 feet away. The picture is so clear through the lens, you could take a picture of the lens with a camera from about 1-3 feet away, and the picture will clearly show what is outside. Pretty cool. It IS 2 3/8" wide which is as big as the backing plate of a doorknob, requiring a much bigger hole. It's a little industrial-looking from the outside so it may be a bit much for your front door, but it will deter thieves who might not know it's just a viewer and not a camera.

Alarm systems can be expensive, and you will pay monthly fees to monitoring companies to watch your house for you. These are useful and valuable additions to your home security, but you can also do it for a lot less, and monitor your home yourself.

The Skylink SC-1000 Wireless Alarm System has all the elements that big brand alarms do (door sensors, motion sensors, keypad, remote fob), but it allows you to dial out to numbers of your choice, rather than calling a monitoring company. If your alarm goes off, it can call you at work, your cel, your neighbors, anyone. When someone picks up the phone, the system delivers a message that you record, up to 40 seconds. For less than $200, this is an easy way to keep tabs on your home, while deafening anyone who breaks in with 120 decibels of noise.

The SC-1000 can monitor up to 24 sensors. Additional door sensors are available.