Attack Proof Your Home
Attack proof your home, the average home isn’t anywhere near as attack proof, protected and secure as we would like to think. Even worse than that, the conventional wisdom that is passed off as “house security recommendations and advice” is practically useless. All it really does is to help keep the honest people honest; it does not keep those bad people out. Why, do you know it is fairly easy to kick the average front door locked with a deadbolt wide open!
The issue is that a lot of house security procedures do not take into consideration an attack by armed enemies. All the security measures only help to keep out individuals who wish to quietly sneak into your home then sneak back out. If someone who really does not care about the noise these measures will not keep them out. After all, a locked window isn’t much of a deterrent to the attacker if they have a rock, tool, or baseball bat in hand.
The most typical and the easiest entry points for those robbers, aggressors, and criminals are the first floor windows and doors. To attack proof your home and make it more secure against these intruders start with these areas and make them stronger.
The Details
• Replace Hinge Screws. The screws holding your front door hinges are only around 3/4 inch long and will just go into the door frame. That is not very much security to relay on. Replacing these screws with 3-inch case-hardened screws, that are long enough the screws will go into the stud behind the frame. If you have hinges on the outside make sure you have NRP hinges. (None Removable Pins).
• Security Door Strikers. Deadbolt’s are great but only if they are installed into something strong enough to hold them. The typical door frame is wood, not metal. If it was metal, it would be real hard to kick it open. The metal striker plate is small and only mounted into the door frame. When kicked, the deadbolt will break the doorframe itself, which is the weakest part of the system (of course). By replacing the normal striker plate with a security striker plate, these can be 12 inches to 60 inches long, the force of the kick is spread over a larger area, making it a lot harder to break through the door open. Be sure to put the security striker in with 3-inch case hardened screws.
• Door Clubs. These devices connect the door knob side of the door to the floor. The drawbacks to this system are that it has to be manually locked after closing the door and cannot be opened from the outside. However, once in place, the door club makes it almost impossible to kick the door open. Any intruder would have to break the door down in order to get in, probably hurting themselves in the process.
• Replace Sliding Glass Doors. Sliding patio glass doors are the least secure area of any home. They are typically hidden at the back of the house, where neighbors can’t see what an intruder might be doing. The door might be difficult to pop off its track, but all it takes is a rock or hammer to turn that door into a pile of broken glass. Your best option is to install a regular entry door and apply the security measures mentioned above. Window Security Bars. Like the sliding glass door, windows are easy to break through if the intruder doesn’t care about broken glass. The best solution for this is to install security bars. The bars attach to the brick or siding of the home. While it would be possible to get them off by hooking a chain to a truck, they make it impossible to easily break in through a window.
• Window Security Film. If you don’t like the idea of putting burglar bars over your windows, cover the inside of them with security film. This usually has to be installed by a professional installer, but since this precaution protects the window from breaking, it’s well worth the effort. An intruder would have to pound on the window with a hammer to get it to break. The film is also great for protection and safety in an earthquake.
Continued on next page.
Checkout the video on the next page.