- Securing your home

Tips for making your home more secure.

Doors

Make sure your door and jamb are very secure: Try the "Frame Saver": It's a piece of L-shaped aluminum and it runs the full length of the door jamb. It goes in behind the interior and exterior casing. You can then put what's called the "Door Saver" right over the edge of the door making it as firm as a steel plate. Those two pieces coming together make that door very secure. Note: In Europe, doors swing out rather than swing in - that way it is almost impossible to break in.

Front door

Install a door scope: Door scopes are very important because you can see who is out in front before you open the door. Try electronic door locks: That way you can open/close the door electronically while say working outside in the garden. Install a storm door: That can give you all the security of your front door before criminals get to the main door.

Glass

Install locks at the base of French doors and on wooden slide-in windows. Apply safety-security film on all exterior glass - in windows and doors. The glass will still break, but the barrier is retained by the film. Note: Avoid installing single action locks on doors made of glass or doors near windows because once the glass is broken the criminal can just reach in and open the lock.

Locks

Always make sure that your deadbolt locks have plungers in them. That ensures the lock can not be opened with a credit card. Always have a one-inch throw on a deadbolt. Make sure you get the best locks (like solid brass). Make sure your strike plates and receiving plates are good and heavy and an eighth-of-an-inch thick with three-inch retaining screws. Make sure the lock has a heavy duty collar that turns when a criminal is trying to twist the lock out. The turning collar makes it virtually impossible for a criminal to grip it with a wrench.

Security System

Make sure that if you have a monitored security system, the alarm company puts their decals on windows and doors.

Article courtesy of: Shell Busey