How Secure are Your Doors? A Quick Self-Test

How Secure are Your Doors? A Quick Self-Test

Exterior doors are one of the most common entry methods for burglars.  It’s important that these doors are hard enough to break-in to cause would-be thieves to consider moving on to easier targets.

Exterior doors should be solid hardwood or metal.  Never use a hollow door, such as those used for interiors, as an exterior entry. Door locks should be high quality deadbolt locks with bolts that are at least 1-inch long.  Strike plates are the metal plate attached to the doorframe that receives the bolt.  These are often a weak point.  Unfasten one of the screws in your strike plate and check the length.  The standard 3/4” screws are woefully insufficient as they only fasten into the doorframe and not the wall studs.  Replace these with 3-4” screws.  The best lock in the world won’t help you if the strike plate breaks away from the doorframe.

The door should fit tightly in the doorframe and there should be very little space for insertion of a pry bar or other tool.  Check for wood rot or decay in the door and surrounding frame.

Consider, too, the proximity of windows.  If there are windows in the door, or within about 30 inches of the door, the deadbolt lock will not provide much security.  A thief can simple break one of the windows, reach in and unlock the deadbolt.  You may have to replace your door with a windowless model, or replace door or window glass with shatter and break resistant Plexiglas.

Although exterior door hinges are commonly located inside the home, in some areas (such as hurricane prone regions), exterior door hinges are common.  Exterior hinges make it possible for thieves to remove the hinge pins and gain entry by lifting the door off the hinges.  If you have such hinges, contact a locksmith or a hardware store as there are a number of simple solutions that require only a few hand tools.

Finally, exterior doors should have a peep-hole so that you can see anyone outside without opening the door.  These are inexpensive, and should have a wide field of view so you can see people standing to the side of the door.  Mount these approximately 5’ high, and have a step-stool handy if anyone in your household can’t easily peek through the peephole at that height.

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Tags: burglars, deadbolt lock, entry door locks, exterior doors, window glass

This entry was posted on April 28, 2010 at April 28, 2010 and is filed under Home Security. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.