Making The Doors Of Your Home Burglar Proof
Doors, unsurprisingly, are the focal point for burglars and intruders and once these are bypassed, they are given full and easy access to your home and any valuables inside it. The importance of burglar-proofing your doors should not be underestimated, as some criminals will stop at nothing in their efforts to get in if they think the rewards will be worth it:
Some criminal methods for getting past your doors:
By using brute force, some burglars will kick and ram down a door. Others may resort to drilling into the locks on your doors, attacking the lock cylinder and if successful, giving them entry to your home. Picking the locks takes a lot longer and so is not such a common method used by criminals. One method that does prove popular among criminals, however, is lock bumping, in which specially modified keys are used to exploit vulnerabilities in most pin tumbler locks.
How can you protect your doors, and your home, from burglars?
Begin by looking at the material that your entry doors are made from ideally your doors should be solid, core doors and not be constructed out of plywood. They should be strong enough to resist when kicked, rammed or forced and should be proofed against the elements, too.
Then take a good long look at your door frames; do your doors hang strongly from their frames and are the frames themselves strong enough to support the door if a burglar were trying to force their way into your home? Once you’ve established that your entry doors are solid, not damaged and can hold up to force, then you can start thinking about the locks that you’ll need.
The best kinds of locks are never the cheapest ones, and should stand against brute force attacks, lock picking and the many other methods used by criminals to illegally enter homes. For most residential properties, deadlock bolts are commonly used, along with other, higher security locks, and are effective against many criminal entry methods. That said, choosing the right locks for your doors may not be as straightforward, and you’d be advised to talk to your local locksmith about your options. They may recommend that you select a Grade 1 deadbolt for exterior doors and make the lock more burglar proof by using longer screws to attach the strike late to the door jamb. They may also advise you to purchase a lock that has anti-drill, anti-pick, anti-bump and anti-snap features that will greatly minimize the chances of a criminal being able to compromise the lock.
Whether you use other deterrents in and around your home, such as closed circuit cameras, a burglar alarm or even a ferocious dog, you still need to ensure that your locks are strong enough to prevent a burglar or intruder from being able to force their way into your home. Talk to your local locksmith today if you are at all concerned about your doors and locks, and if there has been a spate of burglaries in your area, then make this your top priority.
