By Gates Dearen
Imagine coming home from work one
evening only to discover that while you were away, your house has been burglarized and vandalized.
Many of your
prized possessions are missing and your personal, private space has been ransacked
and is now in disarray by the thieves who
not only stole your valuables, but
intentionally ransacked your house, ate some the food in the fridge, left it
open so the rest of your food spoiled, sprayed obscene graffiti on your walls,
upturned furniture and other items, and generally left your home uninhabitable. A frightening scenario, indeed.
In the first segment of this mini-series
I’m first going to provide some security To Do’s that are predominately common sense,
but are worth considering. I’m then
going to focus on front and back doors. In
a follow-up article, I’ll focus on windows and share more general home security
tips.
Home Security Basics
If you’re planning on being away
from home for a several days, take some necessary, common sense steps to make
it less obvious you’re away.
For one
thing, if you subscribe to any newspapers, ensure their delivery is temporarily
stopped.
Similarly, you can also arrange
to have the post office temporarily hold your mail.
Or you should make arrangements with a trusted
friend, relative or neighbor to retrieve it daily.
Don’t make any purchases in advance of your
leaving so that packages or attempted delivery notices by firms such as FedEx,
UPS, DHL, etc., are hanging on your front door.
If you use a lawn service, have it trim your lawn just prior to your
leaving (so yours isn’t the only home in the neighborhood with an unkempt lawn).
Bring in any trash/recycling containers.
If you’re planning on leaving your car at
home, park it in the garage.
My colleagues at
Working the Web to Win also advise being wise online.
While it’s tempting to do so, don’t tell the entire world via social
media sites such as Facebook that you’re going on vacation.
You
're just advertising your imminent absence
to would-be thieves.
Don’t post photos
of yourself while you’re on vacation either.
This also tells the world you’re not at home.
Wait until you return home to show off your vacation
pictures.
Invest in an alarm system.
There are many good firms out there, and with
digital technology, you can have your house monitored 24/7. Consider installing security
cameras. Even a couple of inexpensive cameras at the front and back doors can
help deter would-be thieves. You can set them up to record/playback the video
feed on your PC, smart phone, tablet, etc. You can buy manual timing devices
or, if you have a
smarthome, program various lights and appliances (i.e., TV,
radio) to turn on and off at varying times, emulating your physical presence at
home.
Front Doors
Statistically, it’s been found
that most burglars gain access to a house via the front or back door.
Some windows are also susceptible.
While no home is 100% burglar proof
(depending upon a thief’s ability), by upgrading your home’s access ways ―
doors and windows ― and taking other smart steps, you can minimize the chances
of an intrusion.
Always keep all doors and windows
securely locked, even when leaving home for a few minutes. Why make it easier for burglars to gain
access to your home in the first place? The best-built locks in the world will
do you little good if you don’t use them.
I’ll talk more about locks a little later.
Are any of your home’s exterior
doors hollow? If so, you should replace them right away. Hollow doors are merely sheets of veneer over
a cardboard core, therefore they are not very sturdy at all. How can you tell if any of your doors are
hollow? Simple. Knock on them. You’ll hear a resonant sound versus a solid
“thwack” if your door is hollow. While
hollow doors may be fine for inside the home, all exterior doors should be
solid, built of several main materials such as fiberglass, solid wood, solid
wood core (a layer of veneer over solid wood), or metal. With metallic exterior doors, be sure that
they’re reinforced inside and have what’s known as a lock block. If not, these metallic doors can be bent out
of the frame with a car jack.
While it’s true a solid door without
windows provides more security than a door with glass or windows, today’s technology
provides for strong, impact-resistant glass, which is much harder to smash
through This not only protects you from being burglarized, it’s also
advantageous for severe weather.
From a design/security
standpoint, your home shouldn’t have any windows close enough to the door so as
to facilitate a thief being able to break the window and reach inside to unlock
the door from the inside.
Sliding Glass Doors
If you have sliding glass doors
or glass door panels or nearby windows, make certain to cover the glass with a
security grate or grill on the outside. You can also have a clear, unbreakable
polycarbonate panel secured behind the glass on the interior side of the glass.
To better secure any sliding
doors, install keyed locks at the top and bottom. You can install a stop bar that
swings down from the door frame to the middle of the door to stop it from
sliding. Some people recommend placing some type of rod. A
thick wooden dowel can work here, or a tight-fitting 2' x 4' wood plank in the
bottom track to keep it from being opened.
Reinforce the glass with polycarbonate panels.
With the exception of sliding
doors, all exterior doors should have a deadbolt lock in addition to the lock built into the doorknob.
This deadbolt
should be high quality (Grade 1 or 2 solid metals with no exposed screws on the
exterior), with a throw bolt (the bolt that comes out of the door) at least one
inch (2.5 cm)
long.
If any of your
doors have a low-quality deadbolt or throw bolts shorter than one inch, these
should be replaced.
In addition to the deadbolt,
consider having a dead-lock installed. These
provide extra security when you’re at home.
Sometimes referred to as an “exit-only deadbolt” this is a type of lock
that doesn’t have an external key aperture.
The mechanism itself is visible on the exterior of the door, but these
can’t be broken into unless a burglar destroys the door, the door frame, or the
lock itself. While, by design, these
locks don’t work when you’re away from home since they can only be manually
turned from the inside, its visibility on all external doors may be sufficient
to discourage a potential intruder.
Burglars have removed or damaged
lock cylinders by hammering, wrenching, or prying them off of
doors. Protect your lock cylinders (the part where
you insert your key) with cylinder guards, which are either metal guard plates
or protective rings on both sides of the door.
For better protection, use guard plates with
round-head
carriage bolts to prevent them from being unscrewed.
Free-spinning rings around the cylinders will
prevent someone from using a pipe wrench to twist the cylinder out.
Many locks already come with these, but if
not, most home supply stores carry them.
Weak or flimsy strike plates can
also facilitate someone gaining access.
The strike plate is the metal plate that surrounds the lock-set (the
hole in the door frame where the lock bolt enters). All exterior doors should have heavy-duty
metal security strike plates secured by four, three-inch screws. Open up your
front door and inspect yours. To save
costs, the exterior doors for many homes today, and especially condos and
apartments, have lower quality strike plates, often only secured with short
screws that are merely inserted into the door jam. Longer screws affixed into the underlying stud
provide much better protection.
Hinges
Your
door’s hinges should be on
the inside of the door. If
yours are
not, rehang the door or secure the exposed hinges with non-removable pins.
You can do this by removing at least the two
center screws on each side of the hinge and replacing them with non-removable
hinge pins. You can get these at a hardware store or use double-headed masonry
nails.
Hinges that are not exposed
should be secured to the frame with three-inch screws.
Door Frame
Even with a strong door and
quality, properly-installed locks, a burglar may be able to gain entry by
breaking or prying the door frame. Most
door frame moldings are simply tacked to the wall, and so a crowbar or a solid
kick can easily separate the frame from the wall. Secure your door frames to the walls by
installing several three-inch long screws along the frame and doorstop. As with the strike plate screws, these, too,
should reach into the wall stud.
Viewers, also called peep holes,
allow you to see who is on the other side of the door. Install wide-angle
viewers at eye level on all exterior doors. If you have to open your door to
see who’s there, your lock won't do you much good. Even better: look for peep hole models with
covers to prevent people from looking back inside with special tools, like a
reverse peephole viewer.
In this first part of our
mini-series on home security, I offered some general information about how to
increase your home’s security. I then focused on exterior doors and their
various components, including locks, hinges, frames, and discussed how to make
them safer.
If you found this article
helpful, please forward it along. If have a comment or question, please post it
in the “Comment” section below.
As
always, thanks for taking the time to visit our blog.
If you would like to
receive an official factory authorized 30% discount coupon for your
next window replacement purchase, print out this article with the coupon on it and bring it with you when visiting HomeRite.
Gates Dearen is the
co-owner of HomeRite Windows and Doors in Jacksonville, Florida.
Owners Dearen and Richard Walden have been serving the
building products industry in Florida for over 25 years.
They know the products, the industry, the market and what adds great
value to a home. Their approach is a somewhat different than others. They strive to match
the homeowner with the right windows and doors for their home
and budget. They know some home
improvement projects can be a hassle. They strive to make the process pleasant with
first-rate, energy efficient products; affordable prices; and expert,
award-wining installers that employ the best practices and who respect
your home as if it were their own.
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