Door Reinforcement For Extra Security
Home Door Reinforcement Safeguards Against Kick In Burglary.
You fully realize the importance of ensuring that the external doors to your home are not an easy point of entry for burglars or for home invaders.
You have made sure that all doors into your home are of good, solid exterior construction and you have deadbolt locks fitted with a throw of at least one inch.
Also, every time that you, or a member of your family leaves the house, those doors are closed and those deadbolts are locked without fail.
Good for you.
Is there more that you can do?
Yes there is. A good lock correctly fitted will reduce the risk of picking, bumping or the lock being wrenched off the door.
A solid exterior quality door will reduce the danger of burglars kicking in or shoulder barging their way through your door.
However you can further improve the chances of your entrance withstanding a kick in attempt by taking a few simple door reinforcement measures.
It is a sad fact that many home exterior doors are attached to a weak and thin jamb by screws that are of insufficient length.
Likewise the strike plate, or strike cup, is often set into a thin jamb and held by short screws, sometimes by screws just one inch long.
If brute force is applied, and with short screws fitted it would not take much, although the door itself may resist it, the screws do not and the deadbolt is busted free.
Remove one of the screws holding on the strike plate and check how long it is.
If it is not around three and a half inches then it is likely only holding the strike plate to the thin jamb. You want the screw to go through to the framing. Check all the screws and replace with long ones.
You have reinforced your door for the cost of a few screws.
Do you want to further fortify your external door?
Door Jamb Reinforcement.
Consider fitting a doorjamb shield. These are available from several manufactures and consist of a steel strip 40 to 60 inches long.
There are holes in the shield to match with your deadbolt strike plate and latch bolt strike plate (if you have one.)
Not the way to reinforce a door |
Naturally the screws that fix the jamb shield are of the longer type.
Now you have more screws holding that strike plate and longer ones at that.
You also have steel instead of soft wood around the important area of your doorjamb. You have improved door reinforcement; your door will withstand greater brute force.
As a bonus, the jamb shield will narrow the gap between the jamb and the edge of the door. This makes it more difficult for burglars to jimmy the door open.
Protecting The Lock.
Now check the screws that hold your deadbolt lockset that is mortised into the door edge. Short and stubby? Replace those.
As you will be screwing into the door edge care will need to be taken, you may not want to use three and a half inch screws but the longer the better, use at least two inch. Carefully drill pilot holes so that your screws go in straight and square.
Door edge shields are available that give additional protection to the lock area.
However if you have a jamb shield fitted there may not be a sufficient gap, between the door and the jamb, to allow you to fit both.
Door Reinforcement – The Hinges.
Now that you have the lock side of your door sufficiently reinforced you need to protect the hinge side. That’s right, many homeowners simply do not consider that hinge screws can be ripped right out by a hefty kick or barge to the door.
If your lock is good and everything is reinforced on that side, then the door hinges become the most vulnerable point.
First thing is to check your hinge screws. It’s very likely that, once again, screws of insufficient length have been used, replace them.
Don’t remove all the screws from a hinge at once, remove one, replace with a three inch or longer screw, remove the next and so on.
Then on to the next hinge.
You must, of course, ensure that you screw in all screws tight enough so the heads are flush with the hinge, countersink if necessary.
Replacing those short, pretty much useless screws with ones long enough to go right through the jamb and into the stud, will mean a big security improvement for the hinge side of your door.
However you can further reinforce this side of the door.
Hinge shields vary in their design but most all cover the hinge and an area above and below.
Typically two of the hinge screws are used to secure the shield plus a further two at each end.
Installation is a simple do it yourself job if you follow the manufactures instructions.
In the peaceful town of Parsippany, Morris County, New Jersey, three burglaries took place on the same day between the hours of 3 to 8p.m. The same means of entry was used in all three cases, the font or rear entrance door kicked or shoulder barged in.
One home owner discovered his front door busted in on returning from a trip to the store. The main bedroom had been plundered and personal effects including jewelry were missing.
Reinforce All Your External Doors.
Nothing too costly in these steps you can take to beef up the security of your external doors.
Don’t stop with just protecting your front door, burglars are not fussy which door they use to get into your home. Reinforce your back door and the door in through the garage as well, they are every bit as important.
The big snag for burglars, or home invaders, with smashing open a door is that it makes a certain amount of noise and that attracts unwelcome attention.
A burglar who has the skills to pick or otherwise work on the lock, avoids that risk. But comparatively few burglars have those skills. The most common method of illegal entry through a door is sheer brute force.
If a fortified door offers resistance the criminals likely will not spend too long attacking it. They will move on and find a home that has an easier door to kick in and there are plenty of those.
Home door reinforcement is a worthwhile investment.
Door reinforcement kits are available from Amazon.com
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Door Reinforcement.
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