I'm as interested in general opinions as I am with hardware suggestions. What's cost-effective, most effective, etc.? My neighborhood is gradually turning over and I have a feeling that my standard door locks just aren't going to be up to snuff by today's standards.
Your hardware will never overcome the fact that your door frame is weak.
Focus on reinforcing the door, strike, jamb and frame first. That's most cost effective.
Nobody messes with my front door when I have two large dogs barking and jumping on it from the other side.
FWIW, we use Cove, all self install and you can choose the hardware. The price is reasonable, but there's also the cost to connect to the local police. It's minor compared to the monthly subscription.
Motion lights, and a shotgun?
Shops have a steel frame and a steel door , pretty hard to kick in ,
Locks keep honest people honest , I wonder how hard it is to pick a good luck , even when YouTube guys make it look easy.
I would even think of a 3rd lock , a deadbolt going down into the sill ,
Extra points for the large dog option. Lovable and solves many issues. Without fear anything is open to penetration. Good call on the all the security cameras and lighting as they create some nice barriers.
In reply to californiamilleghia :
Are you suggesting he retrofit a commercial metal door and frame into a residence?
Do people break down front doors anymore? Seems that lights (motion and simple landscape) and cameras and locked doors are the best answer.
if they're getting in through brutal force, windows are just as easy if not easier to get through.
add a loud dog on top of that and you're probably pretty set.
If you have the space for it, I'd suggest pigs. Any criminal worth the title knows what pigs can do to bodies and will stay away, bonus, you get fresh pork every year.
Really I got nothing, we don't lock our house or cars at home because no one is dumb enough to steal from any of the rednecks here in the hollow. Even the junkies in town don't come out this way.
I'll go even further, do people break into houses anymore? I hear of car breakins often, but I don't ever hear of random home burglaries anymore.
In reply to lnlogauge :
Depends on where you live. A LOT.
SV reX said:In reply to californiamilleghia :
Are you suggesting he retrofit a commercial metal door and frame into a residence?
yep if what he is worried about in the future is doors being kicked in when he is not home ,
it does not need to look like a commercial door .....
In reply to californiamilleghia :
I disagree.
Commercial doors and frames aren't strong because they are metal. They are strong because they are installed completely differently than residential doors.
First, they swing out (for egress). Residential doors swing in to allow for the installation of a screen door, and so they don't knock people off the porch). Swinging out means when they close they close against a full continuous stop (which is part of the frame ). This is really strong. A residential door relies entirely on the strike and latch mechanism. When someone kicks it in, they only have to get a few inches of the jamb to fail.
Commercial door frames are also set in the wall entirely differently. If it's a masonry wall, the frame is laid in the wall when the wall is constructed, and filled with concrete making it part of the masonry wall. If it's a frame wall, it's a metal frame, and the door jamb actually wraps around the wall and the wall is built around the frame (unlike a residential door frame that is installed after the wall is built and fits in the opening).
The primary strength difference isn't because it's made of metal. It's because it is an entirely different construction process.
There isn't any way to install a commercial style metal door frame in an existing wood framed residential wall and have it be as strong as a commercial door frame.
But a residential wood door frame can be reinforced.
In reply to SV reX :
My front door swings out. Is it a hurricane/wind load rating thing?
In reply to Slippery :
Some do. Yes, for hurricanes. In this country.
But that's not the standard. That may be 1% of residential exterior doors in the US.
Standard Commercial door frames are also 4" taller than standard residential ones.
Your security system is only as strong as its weakest link. Doesn't matter how strong your front door is if there's an easier point of entry somewhere else.
Dogs are statistically the best theft deterrent system. Size of dog doesn't particularly matter. Any dog is going to draw attention and slow you down which are two of the things you want the least.
Next best thing is motion-sensor floodlights. Has to be on a motion sensor. That draws attention.
Signs that say you have a security system are as effective as an actual security system.
Seems like stealing packages off of porches is the preferred method of theft these days. Quick. Easy. Low risk.
My comments are based on living in a sometimes-sketchy neighborhood for 40 years, with around a half dozen break-ins or attempted break-ins during that period. First thing as mentioned is to make sure your doors, door jambs, and locks are in good shape. I have a security system that monitors doors, with motion sensors strategically located inside so they cover the entire first floor of the house. It also monitors smoke detectors, a rise of heat detector in the garage, and a low temperature alarm. It has several LOUD alarm horns inside the house and garage, so if anyone does get in they'll be hit with 140dB of sound. It's also a monitored system - if I happen to be on vacation far away, or more importantly if there's a fire at night and I'm incapacitated by smoke I'm sure there will be someone who is able to respond and call the necessary emergency personnel if necessary (my experience may be better than others, but any time my alarm went off the police were on site within minutes. I do live only about 5 blocks from the local precinct house, and 3 blocks from the local fire house.) Adding window sensors and/or glass break sensors would be good too, although I don't have them (for whatever reason, even though breaking a window seems like it would be easier to me, they nearly always try to go through the doors.) Another option that I don't have is a floor flooding sensor, it could be useful if you have a hose on your washing machine break.
I think the smoke alarm detection is actually more important than any security issues. My sister and her husband died in a house fire, if they had had something similar they may have gotten out safely.
These days adding video is a good idea too, since the price has come way down and the video quality has improved so much in recent years. I don't have cameras but I should - my neighbor has sent me videos from his system that show suspicious people lurking around the neighborhood at night, and the images are amazingly sharp and clear. However, video isn't going to be a deterrent, but it will give you images of the people carrying away your stuff that may be useful for identifying them afterwards.
In the end, if someone wants to break in bad enough you're not going to be able to stop them. The best you can do is discourage them so they go somewhere else.
Does anyone have alarms in the house tied to their cellphone for video/notification?
You can do that with with a Nest camera
Definitely cameras and motion light help. I'd focus on windows also. I woke up to someone opening my bedroom door after breaking in my 1st floor apartment a few years ago. They first rang the door bell a few times but I didn't do anything other than peek out the front window and didn't see anyone on the stoop. They then broke one of the open side living room windows and climbed in followed by unlocking the back door from the inside for someone else to join. Ran when they realized people were home. We had motions lights but no camera at the time. Camera didn't deter porch pirate though, those guys are brazen AF. A few other friends and acquaintances that have had break ins have also had either windows broken or 1 busted out a sliding glass door for back patio while family was on vacation.
johndej said:Definitely cameras and motion light help. I'd focus on windows also. I woke up to someone opening my bedroom door after breaking in my 1st floor apartment a few years ago. They first rang the door bell a few times but I didn't do anything other than peek out the front window and didn't see anyone on the stoop. They then broke one of the open side living room windows and climbed in followed by unlocking the back door from the inside for someone else to join. Ran when they realized people were home. We had motions lights but no camera at the time. Camera didn't deter porch pirate though, those guys are brazen AF. A few other friends and acquaintances that have had break ins have also had either windows broken or 1 busted out a sliding glass door for back patio while family was on vacation.
Someone starts ringing my doorbell in the middle of the night the first thing I'm doing is picking up my handgun and looking around. I hear more noise I'm calling the cops. Hopefully the cops get there before the person breaking in makes their final mistake because its cheaper for there to be an arrest than having to deal with the fall out of a self-defense shooting.
If you hear someone attempting to break in, before you start shooting I suspect that 9 times out of 10 yelling "Hey, what are you doing!" or similar will chase them away. They'd much rather go somewhere else that's unoccupied.
A door is only as strong as the wall it's installed in. Which is to say, not very strong. They are enough to keep an honest man honest but that's about it.
If you want to spend money on security, I would go with cameras. I have 13 covering my house and yard. More than once I have recorded someone walking up into the yard or driveway, they see the LED on the camera light up and turn around and leave the yard.
When the vandals came through a couple of years ago spray painting cars, they avoided my house, both neighbors on either side of me and the house across the street.
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