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If you want to keep your home safe, it’s important that you don’t compromise the security of your external doors. The materials that the doors are made from, the locking mechanism and your own habits all have a role to play in keeping your external doors secure.
The strength of the materials
How easy would it be to kick your front door in? That’s probably not something you think about when you’re considering your home’s security, but kicking through a flimsy external door is one of the easiest ways to break into a house.
One of the reasons that we always recommend our composite materials for a house’s front and back doors is because the ABS plastic reinforcement that runs through them makes them much, much harder to break through than a standard uPVC door. Not all Nottingham made composite doors are as secure as ours. Some are predominantly made from uPVC, making them vulnerable.
Patio doors are another matter. The material used around the frame of the door won’t cause any problems. Instead, someone trying to break in will focus on the glass. We provide double glazing with all our doors as standard, which is much harder to break than single glazing. We can even provide triple glazing on certain doors for additional security.
A determined person may still break through double or triple glazing, but it will be much harder to get through than single glazing and breaking it will be incredibly loud, which will alert your neighbours if you’re not at home.
The locking mechanism
The locking mechanism is the other main consideration with an external door. A poorly made lock can render the strength of the materials worthless. KLG Rutland takes the security of all of our locks very seriously. The mechanisms that we use are approved by Secured By Design, an initiative of UK Police intended to encourage better security in the way that products are designed.
In the past, the locks of patio doors were known to be particularly vulnerable. Newer doors with good locking mechanisms can eliminate this security concern, but it might be time to think about an upgrade if your doors are older.
Common sense practices
If you want your external doors to stay secure, you need to do everything you can to help. State of the art manufacturing processes and locking mechanisms can’t help if you leave your door unlocked when you go out.
It’s essential that you lock your doors completely whenever you leave the house, making sure that it is closed properly and that every mechanism is locked. This goes for both front and back doors.
In addition, you should be careful to keep any keys you’re not taking with you in a safe location. Try to avoid leaving your keys in a ‘safe’ place outside if you can. If you know that you often need to leave keys outside, consider investing in a small outdoor safe to protect them.
You should also be careful to ensure that any keys left in the home are out of sight. Someone who is determined enough may be able to retrieve spare keys through the letterbox, but if they’re safe in a key cupboard that will never be an option.
Much of this advice is common sense. If you follow basic guidelines like these you won’t be putting your home in undue danger. By combining good habits with good, modern installations, you’ll be able to keep your external doors secure.