How To Secure Your Doors

Good door security involves considering several important yet easily overlooked details. Review each of these areas of security to improve the safety of your home.

The Door

The first thing to think about is the door itself. Doors should always be made of solid material, not hollow. Metal and solid wood are the best materials, and doors with a lot of glass or a hollow inside will be weaker.

All screws in the door should be high quality, whether in the hinges, plates, or the frame. They should also be long enough that they stay in place even if somebody tries to force open the door. Three inches is the ideal length, but many doors have shorter screws so make sure you check. A shallow screw can easily be dislodged with force.

You also need to consider the surroundings of your doorway. If it is framed by large plants, for example, then an intruder might feel more confident they could go unseen while breaking in.

These considerations are important for your safety and don’t have to take away from the aesthetic of your home’s entry point. If you have a glass door or a lot of plants, there are other security measures you can take. Things like installing cameras and making sure the area is well lit. Follow the tips below to ensure your doors are as secure as possible.

Locks and Plates

Locks are a crucial part of door security. If you lost a key or you moved into a new place and are not sure the locks are new then you could re-key them yourself or call a locksmith. If you’re in a rental, ensure the landlord put in brand new locks and didn’t just recycle them from one of their other properties.

Most door security experts recommend adding a deadbolt. Because deadbolts don’t use spring action, they can’t be interfered with by intruders using sharp objects. This allows them to provide more resistance against forced entry. As with every other part of the door, the deadbolt should be of good quality. The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) grades deadbolts from 1 to 3, with Grade 1 being the best.

In addition to deadbolts, consider adding latch locks, chain locks, and strike plates as extra back up. Strike plates are metal plates that strengthen the most vulnerable parts of your door like the lock and latch areas. The bigger the strike plate, the more distributed impact from attempted forced entry becomes.

Smart Technology

while heavy, secure doors with strong locks are essential, smart home security tech will bring your door security to the next level. Best of all, it is easy to self-install. Cameras, alarms, and sensors work as part of an all-in-one security system that’s linked to a central hub.

An app on your phone will tell you everything that’s going with your home security. You can get streaming from cameras, have sensors alert you if a door is opened, and check the status of door alarms. This allows you to see if a door is open or closed at all times – right from your phone.

Wireless security systems can also act autonomously. We mentioned making a doorway well lit, and that’s a good example of where an autonomous action would be useful. Lights can be set to come on at certain times of day and the time can be automatically adjusted based on the time of sunset where you live. The lights can also come on under certain conditions. Like when it’s after sunset, you’re not home, and a door or window is opened.

Another great feature is that if your alarm is set off your camera will record the ten seconds before it and send you footage. This allows you to quickly determine the cause of an alarm and determine if it is a legitimate threat.

We’ve already covered regular locks, but smart locks take your security a step further. You can control your smart locks as needed and receive logs of your smart lock activity right on an app. You can also set them to automatically lock when everyone leaves your home.

Now that you know what steps to take to secure your doors, what are you waiting for?

The abode all-in-one security system has everything you need to start adding smart tech to your home security. Check out our site to learn more about how to make your doors, and every other part of your home, more secure.