By learning about these 12 ways to significantly improve front door security you can help to keep your home secure from the threat posed by criminals.
Now is it possible to make your home impervious to would-be intruders?
Unfortunately, it is not. But, what you can do is make your home the type of home that criminals don’t want to target.
Criminals aren’t looking for a challenge, they are looking for an easy score.
If they see that your home is fortified and will be more difficult to break into than another home in the area, then they are probably going to target someone else instead of you.
The problem with the front door on your home is that it’s a natural weak point that criminals target.
That’s why learning these 12 ways to dramatically improve front door security is so important if you want to keep your home safe.
Protecting Your Front Door: FBI data & Burglar verified study.
We examined data & studies from the FBI, DHS, and an extensive study with investigative journalist and inmates from the Oregon Department of Corrections and pulled together the best 12 tips the experts recommend to protect your front door security to prevent your house from being broken into.
Survey conducted at Oregon Department of Corrections
When your car is not parked in your driveway (if no garage) then your house will likely be chosen if a burglar is on your street.
Forceable Entry occurs almost 60% of the time
According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report for 2017, ” 57.5 percent of burglaries involved forcible entry, 36.2 percent were unlawful entries, and 6.3 percent were attempted forcible entry. ” – FBI
The evidence is clear. If your house is not hidden by vegetation and it looks like someone is home and you utilize expert recommended security measures than your chance of getting burglarized is significantly reduced.
Here are the 12 Ways To Significantly Improve Your Front Door Security
Download the checklist below
1. Front Door Locks
While doorknobs are fairly easy to overcome, a good deadbolt represents a much harder challenge.
A good deadbolt, combined with a solid exterior door, is a great deterrent against potential criminals.
Obviously, if you want to keep your front door secure you need to have a lock on it.
But, not just any lock will do.
In fact, not a single lock will do either. You need to have a solid doorknob that locks, and even more importantly you need to have a deadbolt.
So why is your deadbolt not enough?
While the deadbolt is built to enable you to securely lock your door, it only goes about an inch and half into the door frame. People who really intend to gain access to your home already know this.
In fact, they have the tools and the know-how to get past the deadbolt.
However, there are a number of ways in which you can completely secure your front door.
Pros: Easy to install, inexpensive
Cons: None
2. Solid Core Door
Having a solid core door should be the bare minimum when it comes to making your front door as inaccessible as possible to criminals.
Ideally, you’ll have a wooden door that has a steel interior.
This type of door is extremely difficult to break through, provided of course that it is properly mounted and has good locks. While a criminal may be able to break through a solid core door, doing so will be difficult and time-consuming.
It’s also likely to be very noisy.
These are all effective deterrents, but even if a criminal decides to attempt to break in any way, they are probably going to be spotted due to the noise they make and the time it takes to break through a solid core door.
One of the ways to accomplish that is to ensure there are no hollow spaces left in your door.
This means that if one tries to gain access by kicking, the door wouldn’t give way.
Pros: Makes a door more difficult to breakthrough
Cons: More expensive than a door without a solid core
3. Lock With Key
Keyed deadbolt for minimum front door security
This goes back to having a good door lock, but having a lock that requires a key for entrance is a necessity.
While there are keyless entry locks you may be considering for the convenience, the fact is that nothing really beats an old-fashioned key when it comes to making a lockless accessible to criminals.
If you have a security door you should also make sure that the lock on it requires a key to open from both sides.
This is important because a criminal may try to cut or break through a weak point in a security door screen so they can access the lock.
But, if that lock needs a key, then this approach isn’t going to get them anywhere.
Pros: Easy to install, inexpensive
Cons: None
4. On Guard
Ever heard of a On Guard?
This is a brilliant security product on the market. With a night lock, an intruder may open your lock from the outside but soon realize that your front door is fastened from the inside.
A night lock presents an unexpected puzzle to anyone seeking to gain unwarranted access to your home.
When most burglars face such challenges, they simply give up.
It is constructed of two wide pieces of metal.
The first is mounted to the floor and the second slides between the metal base and the door.
This makes it almost impossible for a burglar to get inside your house.
Mount It To The Floor
Doors are weak points that criminals will exploit, but you can do a lot of things to make that weak point less vulnerable.
One thing you can do is mount your doorframe to the floor in addition to mounting it to the frame of your house.
This will give the door frame 4 solid points where it is mounted, making it much harder to breakthrough.
Remember, having a really strong door and lock isn’t going to do you much good if your door frame isn’t solid.
A night lock is more of a permanent barricade.
Nonetheless, a portable or temporary barricade is one of the viable options.
In case you have a swinging or sliding door, a master security bar would add the much needed extra cushion.
One end of this bar should be slightly beneath your door lock, while the other one on the ground.
A door jammer, portable lock is another awesome security product.
This lock can be carried wherever you go to secure the door of your designated room.
It makes it impossible for anyone to open your door from outside.
Every door is only as strong as the weakest link, and in most cases, that weakest link is the screws that are used to mount the door to the frame.
There’s no point in investing money in a solid door and installing the frame properly if you aren’t going to use longer 3.5″ screws to attach the hinges to the door, and then to the frame.
Longer 3.5″ screws offer a much more secure means of attaching a door to the frame than shorter screws since they dig deep into your door jam.
This creates a much tougher door to knock down.
They are very inexpensive you really have no reason not to use them.
Pros: Makes door more securely mounted to the frame
Cons: Slightly more effort during the installation process
6. Security Cameras
Will security cameras keep someone from being able to kick in your front door and gain entry into your home? No.
Will security cameras serve as a highly effective deterrent to would-be criminals in most cases?
They absolutely will.
The average criminal isn’t complicated.
He or she wants to break into your home to get something of value.
They also want to do so without being caught.
When you have security cameras you will have video evidence of them committing their crime.
This will enable you to aid law enforcement in an attempt to apprehend and prosecute them.
While prosecuting someone for breaking into your home is great, there’s something even better.
That something is keeping them from breaking into your home in the first place.
Most criminals will see security cameras and immediately decide that a home isn’t worth it, which is why you should strongly consider having them installed.
Security camera prices have come down dramatically over the past 10 years.
What used to cost $1000 is now available for under $100 – and you can view the playback on your phone!
Pros: Great deterrent, also records evidence of crimes
Cons: Very few
7. Security Door Lock
A security door lock is a low tech approach to security that is highly effective.
An average criminal may try to gain access to a home by simply kicking in the front door.
But, if you have a solid door, and a security door lock that supports it, then nobody is going to simply be able to kick it in.
A security bar is typically installed by drilling 3-4 holes into your door frame and into the stud on the other side of the stud.
These simple yet highly effective locks are inexpensive and work great.
You can find at home improvement stores like Home Depot and Lowes that don’t require a lot of installation except a few 3″ screws.
While a security door lock is a solution you can only use when you are home, keeping your home secure when you and your family are occupying it should be your primary concern anyway.
Pros: Inexpensive, easy to use
Cons: Can only be used when you are home
8. Wide-angle peephole
Sometimes, ill intentioned people are not looking to break through your door.
They also have other strategies to gain entry to your house without using force.
Normally, these are treacherous methods and ploys which involve you opening the door for them.
Luckily, you can protect yourself from such ploys by having a wide-angled peephole.
This is a practical security application that enables you to screen people requesting access to your household, so long as they position themselves in the vicinity of your front door.
9. Strike box
A strike box is more of a metal box that is placed behind the doorjamb.
It makes it difficult for anyone to easily access your door and break it.
Once you install this, you will deter the bad guys from breaking into your home.
When looking for a strike plate that will offer maximum security, it is prudent to look for one with long nuts. One of its advantages is that it is less vulnerable.
An individual looking to break into your house will need more time, and most thieves and burglars don’t have this time.
Given that they aim to do it in the shortest time possible, they won’t succeed with this.
10. Security system & signs & lights (combined)
Posting a sign that you have a security system will reduce the likelihood of you getting burglarized but having motion sensor lights, as well as signs on the front door and a security system – this triple threat, will yield significantly better results than any single means of deterrence.
11. Big dogs
Not just any dog will scare away a burglar and prevent them from attempting to break in your front door. Burglars and data confirm that larger, loud, scary dogs will significantly lower the likelihood of them trying to break in your door.
12. CPTED.
Use Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design principles.
As stated above in the burglar survey – concealed houses are prime targets.
So make sure your bushes and shrubs are trimmed so there is a clear line of sight to your front door.
This is one of the biggest security measures you can use (and it’s free!).
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