Your home is something that needs to be secure and safe. One of the most important factors in the security of your home is the strength of the entry doors. Burglars who break into homes look for the quickest and easiest way. Most doors can be kicked down with 3 kicks, and in 3 – 5 minutes the criminal is in and out. If a criminal is unable to take down the door with 3 kicks they will usually move onto the next house. With the average police response time at 20 minutes, it’s important to make sure your doors are secure.
Whether in a bug in situation or just wanting to keep criminals out it’s important to secure your doors. For starters, entry doors need to be solid wood or metal doors with little to no glass and feature a quality deadbolt. Glass might be pretty and decorative but it does nothing for your security. Glass is easily broken and can allow a criminal to get right in. The door frame itself is something that needs to be closely inspected. Most contractors skimp when it comes to securing the door frame to the wall and this can be a critical weak point in the door. The deadbolt might hold but if the frame doesn’t hold it comes down just as easy. If you don’t think the contractor used enough screws, get some 3 inch wood screws and add them all around the frame.
A beefed up striker plate should also be added along with 3 inch wood screws. Most stock hardware comes with weak 1 inch screws. Replace these with 3 inch wood screws that go all the way into the wall framing. Do the same for the hinges. Replace all the stock screws on the hinges with 3 inch wood screws for added strength. Additionally a door lock guard and striker plate guard can also be purchased to further reinforce the lock from coming out of the door itself and keeping the deadbolt inside the door frame.
A reinforced entry door isn’t going to hold up to a battering ram, but could buy you some time and allow you and your family to get to a safe room and get yourself armed. These are some simple and cheap tips that can be used on any door at all entry points of the house. Protecting your home and family should be the number one priority and making sure the doors are secure is the first step in securing their safety.
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3 comments
Aloha2U
October 6, 2009 at 10:13 pm (UTC 0)
Great post! We also have a steel or metal type screen door with a deadbolt lock on it as well before you even get to the hardwood frontdoor.
Our sliding glass door that goes out to the patio was completely removed and changed with a more secure and solid structure and the glass is tinted as well so you can't see in from the outside but we can see from the inside looking out.
We replaced this as soon as we bought the house, replacing and reinforcing all the doors and locks as well. We also got our rotts as roving security and installed motion sensor lights going around our house.
The neighborhood that we live in had and still has a tendency of breakin's, a lot of our neighbors homes were broken into and we weren't about to be part of that statistic. Most if not all the homes in our neighborhood have dogs because of it.
The meth druggies roam the areas and live with their parents so we really keep on top of things when it comes to securing the home.
Anonymous
October 7, 2009 at 10:22 am (UTC 0)
as a 20 yr maint man,I can tell you most doors are a joke.the weakest part is the jamb.most kick ins the jamb splits letting stike plate fall.good advice on long screws.get security striker with at least 4 holes and use screws long enough to go in to stud under jamb.
matthiasj
October 7, 2009 at 7:28 pm (UTC 0)
Thanks Aloha! I have read that you can get this film to put on glass that makes it nearly unbreakable. I'm not 100% sure but I'll try to look it up.
Anon good advice most doors are weak and need to be beefed up quite a bit.