How Easy is It to Open Your Doors?
Most home security measures are concentrated on doors and door jambs. Here you have many options varying widely in cost. Keep in mind that your security isn't improved by spending money on devices that household members don't use or activate. Doors are often the handiest access point for thieves.They'll typically look there first for easy access. It's quicker and easier to walk through a door than to climb through a window, especially if your arms are loaded with loot! With doors, the two main issues are structural integrity and locks.
Many standard residential doors can simply be opened with one sharp kick. You've seen it in a hundred TV dramas. While kicking in a door makes noise, the noise is brief and access is immediate. Neighbors are likely to ascribe the noise to something innocuous like an animal in a trash can. The sharp bang is much less alarming than the sound of breaking glass. Many people are replacing their door jamb hardware with kick-proof hardware making them sturdier jambs. Security doors can be expensive, so people elect to reinforce the existing door jamb and use locks that penetrate further into the strengthened door jamb. However, many standard doors are not strong enough to withstand a well placed kick, even if the frame holds.
Recommended for exterior doors, deadbolt locks are substantial locks that lock the door into the frame in a way that is difficult to jimmy or tamper with. Locks with a bolt that penetrates the frame a full inch are best. Deadbolts come in keyed versions which always require a key and levered versions that only require a key to open from the outside. If the door contains any breakable glass, the keyed version is necessary or the thief simply breaks the glass and reaches in and turns the lever. If you have a keyed version and you leave the key in the lock, you defeat its advantage as the thief can simply reach in, grab the key and use it to unlock the door from the inside or the outside. If no glass is nearby, the lever version is best as it is more likely to get used.
Sliding glass doors present a special challenge. Most are vulnerable to breakage. Security glass gets expensive and very heavy in sliding-glass-door sizes. Most people who replace the glass opt to replace the glass with Plexiglas, although it tends to get scratched over time. The simplest security enhancement is to place a metal bar or broom handle in the inside floor track. This makes it impossible to open the door from the outside without breaking the glass. Some sliding doors can simply be lifted out of their tracks. There are screws at the top and bottom of the inside of the door that control how it sits in the track. Adjust these so that the door cannot be lifted so high that the bottom comes free from the track.
