Sliding glass doors are usually positioned in the back of homes, and are a welcome sight for burglars, as they are pretty easy to break through. Sliding glass doors can allow burglars entrance into a home even if the front door is protected through a strong deadbolt lock – since these doors are usually only protected by nothing but a latch. Here’s a guide prepared by our home security experts as to how to maintain a strong and secure home that has glass sliding doors.
Securing Glass Doors
Many homeowners decide to place a dowel stick within the door’s track – which is a simple, yet really effective tactic that’s both affordable, and successful. If you want, go to a home goods store and have them cut out an exact measurement of PVC pipe or a wood dowel stick that fits your sliding glass door track exactly. The only drawback to this technique is that in order to unlock and open the door, you will have to bend over to remove the dowel – which can be somewhat frustrating, to be honest, if you’re using the door often. However, if you don’t utilize the door that often, just on special occasions, this technique is an absolute security must.
Other Security Issues
Sliding glass doors, are of course, super vulnerable to being smashed with anything from a baseball bat to a nearby rock. Whatever expensive and important security system you install, it won’t be going off when the glass sliding door is smashed, unless you’ve installed glass breaking sensors – which is decidedly an option that’s pretty affordable for the security it gives you. If you don’t want to take this approach, however, you can place window film over the glass – so even if the window glass is smashed, it won’t give them immediate free access – instead requiring the burglar to navigate their way through the dangerous combination of glass and film, delaying their attempted crime and increasing their chances of getting caught – or just giving up.
Additional Security Options
You can also drill a hole through the door’s top frame, and insert a long sliding bolt to connect the top and the frame. Another option is installing a swinging bolt latch so that the door won’t be able to move even when people try to lift it off the track. Both these sorts of options can be totally disabled from the inside if the door with a lock is broken through – but since there’s even more of a chance of a window being broken into, it’s worthwhile to install a quality home security system that will monitor windows. Also: if you don’t want to cut your own dowel for your sliding glass door, you can get premade dowel type frame and door locks available on the market. We recommend, however, utilizing a combination of a few of the above described security tactics.
