Do You Have Sliding Glass Doors? Here's How to Improve Your Home Security
Of course, everyone wants privacy, serenity, and safety at home. Therefore, if you want to maintain peace of mind, it’s important to be on the lookout for possible flaws at your points of entry, what shape your locks are in, and the overall condition of your premises. A glass sliding door, although certainly a good addition to your residence ~ often allowing sunlight to come in from the patio area ~ is also a security risk, for various reasons. Let’s take a look:
Glass Door Disadvantages
Sliding glass doors are easy targets for trespassers, due to these vulnerabilities:
The glass itself is susceptible. With enough force, any reckless thief can break the glass.
The entire door can be lifted out of the tracks by a robber with basic tools.
The door’s location doesn’t help, since any criminal knows they’re often found at the back of your house, where tampering can probably be done without the neighbors seeing.
The brackets that keep the stationary panel in place have screws that theoretically could be unscrewed from the outside by an intruder.
The lock is really the weakest aspect of your sliding glass door. The single-locking mechanism isn’t very difficult to breach. A burglar with knowhow can pry it open or cut the lock with a hacksaw. With some glass doors, if you simply shake it hard enough, it can come unlatched.
How Best to Secure Your Sliding Glass Door. To deter a potential prowler and more effectively secure your patio glass door, stop a crook from even considering breaking in. Delay anyone who may have any success whatsoever, and immediately detect that person for a fast arrest.
Discouragement & Postponement
Install an extra lock. There are excellent locking devices that will complement a regular lock. Most you can easily work from the inside. The superior ones will fasten your sliding door to the frame. The advantage of these locks is that they prevent the door from moving horizontally or vertically. Even if someone breaks the traditional lock, it will still be hard to open the door. You can also put in a battery-powered lock with an audible alarm attached to it.
Replace the glass with higher-quality glass, such as premium-quality glass, double-paned glass, or glass with embedded wire.
Install window film, which helps secure the glass door. You can do this by yourself. The film holds the glass together even if it gets broken ~ making the door virtually shatter-proof, because the shards will remain in place ~ preventing, or at least delaying, any trespass.
Put a decal on the glass door, near the latch, warning any potential prowler that there’s a Neighborhood Watch in place, or declaring that you have an alarm system (even if it’s not true).
A safety bar makes it so that the door can’t be moved horizontally across the exposed track. Put in a piece of wood, a pipe of the right length, or a dowel. Some safety bars are extra strong, capable of withstanding up to 1,000 pounds of force. You can also install a security bar attached to the doorjamb and the bracket at the door’s edge. This type of bar will be seen instantly by a potential thief. Additionally, this strategy allows you to keep your door slightly open for ventilation, while still preventing someone from entering.
Always keep your glass door locked! Criminals often look for this, because folks often forget to lock their patio doors at night or even whenever they’re gone.
Detection
If you have an alarm system, wire it to a contact on your sliding glass door, so that if a break-in ever even begins to occur, it will alert you and the security company right away.
Be in touch with your neighbors. Be a good neighbor. To establish trust, adopt the habit of communicating once in awhile. A good neighbor watches out for your home when you’re gone. It’s the right thing to do to look out for each other, and stay aware of any suspicious activity. Let next-door neighbors know when you’re on vacation. And, return the favor when given the opportunity.
Use sensors or cameras to identify a breach the moment it arises. Surveillance cameras, motion sensors, and glass-shatter sensors will add another security layer. If you put in a video surveillance system, you can choose cameras that record all activity, so you’ll have video footage as evidence for the police.
Preventative Maintenance
Keep the rollers and door tracks in good condition. If they don’t move easily, the door might be able to be lifted right up from the tracks. Keep away debris and dirt, because they can cause eventual breakdown. If, even after cleaning, the door still won’t move properly, modify the size of the rollers. Some doors have little adjustment holes on the bottom, and top edges that fit a Phillips screwdriver, so that you can expand or compress the rollers.
Do It Yourself. You can do a lot yourself to make your home more secure and safe. No property is totally impervious, but there are numerous ways you can protect your property and your loved ones from criminal trespass. The same strategies applying to your sliding glass doors go for your sliding glass windows. Put a wooden dowel on each of these windows, for instance, to stop a prowler from sliding it open from the outside. To adhere to your local fire code, make sure that any window-blocking devices can quickly be removed from the inside. Also, install screws half-way into the upper track of the window’s movable glass panel, to keep it from being lifted out in the closed position.
Hire an Expert. If you’d like to install a new sliding glass door, ask an accomplished professional to do it for you. Why take any risks? Shoddy installation will cancel out all the security measures you originally intended.
When deciding upon how to address your home security issues, it’s a good idea to choose a reliable professional you can trust. If you notice any weaknesses in your home’s security, bring all your questions to a dependable residential locksmith specialist to discover how to remedy each problem. If you live in San Tan Valley, Arizona, you may want to request a free consultation from a reputable local company such as AA San Tan Valley Locksmith.