French Door Security

French doors, Oh la la, how chic and stylish.

How wonderful to have a set of double doors that open straight onto your patio, decking or lawn area.

On fine days enjoy the freedom to move through the wide space from the inside of your home to the outside.

On days that are not quite so fine, your French doors allow you a marvelous view of the outside.

Yes your double opening glass doors provide you with many benefits.

However, along with those benefits there are French door security issues.

The type and quality of lock that you have on your French doors plays a big part in making the doors as secure as possible. A deadbolt lock will will give your double doors greater protection than a latch, or rim, lock ever will.

A double cylinder deadbolt lock is locked with a key either from the outside or the inside. Should a burglar break the glass in your French doors he will not be able to reach in and unlock a double cylinder deadbolt because he does not have the key. Nice and secure, but . . .

. . . your local area building code may not permit double cylinder locks on exit doors. The reason being that having to unlock a door with a key may prevent, or slow down, escape in the event of fire.

A single cylinder deadbolt lock is locked with a key from the outside, but a catch or a thumbturn locks or unlocks it from the inside. In an emergency your French doors could be opened quickly without having to hunt for the key.

The down side to having a single cylinder lock for your French door security is that all that the burglar has to do is smash the glass near the lock. He can then simply reach in and unlock your doors using the catch.

If you install a single cylinder deadbolt, (easy escape in an emergency,) you could be providing the burglar with an easy way in.

However there are one or two things you can do so you can have French door security and a single cylinder lock.

You could protect the glass with window security film. The film is clear flexible sheeting that is fixed to the inside of the window. This would make it virtually impossible to make a hole in the glass. If your French doors have individual small glass panes, you may only need to protect those close to the lock. Alternatively, consider replacing the panes with laminated glass.

If you have a security alarm system, your French doors should be connected to it. Don't rely only on an alarm for your French door security, good locks are still essential. With most wireless alarm systems it is a simple matter to add glass break sensors that will alert you if window glass is broken.

As French doors do not have a center post they can only be secured by locking to each other. If the main lock were the only securing point, this arrangement would be most unsatisfactory. A push on inward swinging doors, or a pull on outward swinging doors would likely result in the lock bolt springing out of the strike plate, and. . . disaster, your door is open.

For this reason slide bolts (flush bolts) are fitted to the 'inactive door.' With the bolts in place it gives the active door something more solid to lock to. It would be substantially more difficult to force open French doors with slide bolts engaged on the 'inactive door.'

Do you always engage the slide bolts when you lock up your French doors? Are the bolts still in good condition and capable of securing the inactive leaf? Would your French doors be more secure with an extra set of slide bolts? Slide Bolts Available From Amazon.com

If those slide bolts are able to be locked so much the better, there would be no chance a burglar can break the glass and unbolt them. If the locking bolts are on the inactive leaf only then you would still be able to escape a fire.

Yes there is no doubt that French doors tick all the boxes for being visually pleasing, in fact they may even help to increase the value of a home.

But keeping in mind that these doors are nearly all glass, which is why you hear them called French windows, they do pose some security problems. By ensuring your French doors are well maintained, fitting good locks and doing all that you can to provide good French door security, you will be able to enjoy the benefits with peace of mind.

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