5 secrets to fortify your front and back doors like Ft. Knox

Also, a chair wedged under the doorknob works well when one is home alone. It worked for me. :0)

It isn’t my doors I’m concerned with; it’s my windows! Those ARE easy to break, right? How do I fortify those?

Instead of a turn knob on the dead bolt get one with key lock on inside and outside

Thank you!

changed all screws to 3 in deck screws in all doors and plates-drilled hole in floor & installed slide locks @ bottom of all doors-flip over locks @ top of doors & steel chains! have monitored alarm system & 4 camera 24-7 video survailence w-ups(total cost $325 brickhousesecurity.com & upsforless.com)over kill?

1. Add a chain so the door can be opened only part way without closing and removing chain.
2. Deadbolt should be long enough to fit into the 2×4 frame. That may be more than one inch.
3. Add an electric alarm that can be set to call police when away from home over night.
4. Do not allow shrubs to obscure door. They tend to conceal burglars trying to get in house.
5. Add inexpensive timer switches to inside lamps that give impression of occupancy.

If you’ve secured the sliding glass door with an iron gate, make sure you can still get out through it in case of a house fire…you don’t want to be trapped inside!

I have screen doors but they create a “hot-house” effect on the door and it peels the paint off. So, I am forced to leave the sliding glass in the screen slightly up to let air circulate. I don’t think this makes it easier to get through the locked screen door, but it could. I have the dead bolts and two big german shepherds outside–no one comes near without our hearing the barking!!!

I disagree with putting viewers in a door. If an intruder is armed with a gun and is determined to get in regardless of who is home, looking out a viewer that goes through a door gives the intruder a perfect head shot as soon as you put your eye to that typed of viewer. A remote view is safer and can give you more information about the intruder and his back up and vehicles.

One of the best doors is a “Fire Door” (metal covered) with a steel frame. 3″ deck screws or brass boat screws for hinges. Commercial door latch AND deadbolt make the best. Window glass can be replaced with Lexan greenhouse panels – lets in light AND eliminates the “fading effect” ( MUCH stronger than glass).

Use at least 3″ screws on hinges and strike plates.

Your 5 things are important but the most important is #6 . Reinforce the king stud. That is the wood post that the deadbolt “slides” into. ( the door frame ) This can be done by using a piece of red iron “c” channel full height around the stud. Screw the channel to the stud and drill out for the bolt. This makes it very difficult for anyone using a “ram” the break out the jam to gain entry. ( red iron is a heavy gauge metal available through building supply stores)

In the day I used to drill a hole in the window sill side that would be just enough to get alittle fresh air 4-5″ insert a long NAIL. It worked the sliding glass doorin the center frame there is a commercial device that is a pin that goes thur the layers of the frame so it becomes solid on lift out there. Dogs help,be armed but be aware,

Heres my story, kid came to the door pleding for help I let the kid almost in when the others rounded the corner on the top step the kid coming in go a blast in the knee –what a shock–for him the others gathered him up and they got an over head blast and a warning. NOT HERE EVER.
Strange how that makes the neighbors look at you from then on. But it began to give them a backBONE too. If a woman will stand her ground then why not the men. Years later I found I am a DAR decendant. Guess its in the blood!? Be ready at all times. Be aware of your surroundings and by all means never doubt your power as a human to respond. Stand up for right, and others will follow.Lead by example!! Thank you all for your efforts to protect yourselves and our country.

Installed a strike plate that runs entire length of my door with cut outs for both knob set & dead bolt.
Long screws with pilot holes drilled so screws don’t break off. Dont use stainless screws, heads strip out too easily. Redoing my back door with 4 x 6 treated wood so it can take the ones who think they can kick in the door. Solid doors only with no glass on my house & all open inside. Windows 1/4″ glass with film and do not open.

Re the sliding glass door; in addition to the wooden dowel, ensure that your sliding glass door cannot be lifted out of the tracks from the outside.

When I had a new house built in Colorado Springs back in the 1980s, I installed a security system that had wireless sensors (mounted with double-faced tape) on all doors and windows. About two months after moving in, the security system alarm sounded at about 2:00AM. When checking all doors and windows, I discovered the sensor on the sliding door was loose except for the bottom edge of the tape, indicating that the door had been lifted.

Since I didn’t want to install a different a whole new sliding door that could not be lifted, I drilled a small hole in the door frame at the front and back top corners, and put a screw in each hole, thus preventing it from being lifted out of the track.

The builder of the same house did not install a garage door opener. At move in time, the keys to the door lock could not be located. Knowing that anyone with the keys could open the garage door even though I locked it from the inside, I cut a short piece of 2″ x 4″ to wedge between the top of the door and the garage ceiling. A fortunate thing because I discovered the door unlocked about a week after moving in. Only a person (a thieving carpenter, no doubt) with the key could have unlocked the door. I had a garage door opener installed the same day, which made the use of a key to open the door almost impossible.

The person who intended to burgle my house apparently had watched to see when I was moved in, but hadn’t planned on my action to at least partly secure my home. He/they hadn’t also noted my back-up security system — two very protective and vocal Dachshunds!!

I installed steel reinforcing plate called a strikeforce two on all my doors. All my windows got film on them. I also drilled a 6″ deep hole in the floor so I can insert a three foot steel rod. On the front door I added a second hole 6″ back so I can insert it and open the door and it’s still blocked.

When installing the strike plates in the frame, Throw away those 3/4 inch brass screws. You may need to pre-drill the holes, but use 3 inch deck screws. these screws go through the door frame and into the 2 x 4′s that the door is “rough” framed with. Do this for the doorknob and especially the deadbolt. this makes the door a lot harder to kick in.
Also consider installing a plate on the outside of the door to cover the strike. if you can slip a credit card in when the door is closed, your door that isn’t deadbolted, can be opened quicker than with a key!!!

a good lock picker can get past the typical locks on doors..schlage locks are more difficult and locks with double edge keys are very difficult to pick ..have to be drilled if you lose a key

Also too….it was not mentioned that “IF” your door opens to the outside, the hinges are on the outside too, making it easy for one to knock out the pins of the hinges, and allowing the door to open from the opposite side. Adding 2-4 buck-pins in door (on the side the hinges are on) keeps this from happening, Buck-pins are 3 – 4 6″ inch screws that are screwed into the door, an closed just enough to mark the frame on the hinge side, and then 3/16″ hole drilled in about 1 1/4″ into the door frame. and with the heads cut off of the screws, allowing them to fit into the drilled holes and serves as 3-4 dead bolts on the other side of the door from the other locks. Rendering the door secure! (A crowbar cannot open the door because it is dead bolted on both sides,, and the Buck Pins never have to be removed..

I have a steel door but when he tryed to go through the window next to it. i shot him in the head and that stoped him but after all the drama and the city problems after that i put 3 layers of 3m security tint on all my windows. The death of one man over security tint won’t happening agin

I learned that at the advice of boyfriend years ago, (he installed a viewer and a deadbolt lock on my apartment door with management approval). I was able to get a view of a man quickly trying to break into my apartment (within seconds he jiggled loose my cylinder lock). he was not able to get in. don’t know if he heard me as I quietly backed off to call the police (quietly made way to kitchen to call in low voice). The man had taken off and the cops arrived but I was not able to do anything about it. was told he had to be caught in the act even though I said I could identify him. I was upset. I came up with this idea. When you have someone constantly ringing your doorbell (not sure if it was the cubans or cuban I could identify) or some childhood friend who I didn’t trust anymore after he joked about rape one day. (and I told him angrily, that that kind of joking was not funny) I decided to myself that he was no longer allowed to visit me. I stopped being his friend. I stuck a clothespin under the bell (metal alarm) inside my apartment, so I didn’t have to hear my doorbell ring at all, and if anyone was trying to see if I was home or not, they couldn’t tell. I varied coming and going times and stayed alert. and finally got armed with a weapon to defend myself. I was not afraid to use it. By the way, I began to wonder, that sometimes, some self-defense methods are best kept to oneself. (because there are people that just talk too much and it gets into the wrong person’s ears, then there go the secret defense methods)!

Good Afternoon, I have all the items you identified above. I would like to place a 4 x 4 on my side doors as it doesn’t have a store door. I am wondering if there are holders that would allow a 4×4 to swing up and latch or swing down to extend between the door and wall when in the down position. I have looked for these but have had no luck. If you have questions as to what I am talking about, please email me. Thanks Don

I’ve had the wood trim pried from the door frame and the latch poped as easily as turning the knob. This was back in the 70s, but it still works. A locked door knob isn’t enough… Since then I have always installed a dead bolt, and/or lockable sliding latch.

Goog thinking I need to upgrade asap.

Just want to mention that you can purchase, what looks like an efficient, and mobile door jam from the NRA catalog. Could buy you some time or save your life!

i liked your door protection ideas, they are good —– but what about this ——- did you ever notice that commercial establishments doors always open out–its the law in case of fire etc. I replaced my entry doors to also open out almost impossible to kick in, sure you have to use anti pick hinge pins or weld the normal pins in place , but its worth it, anti-pick lock covers are also needed for the best protection. what do you think frank ? thanks for all of your work

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