Front Door security

[backy]

After my car was raided last week (grr!) I've decided to improve my home security. I have an original (1900) wooden door which has two large glass panels in the top half. The door is very sturdy and I'm happy with the quality of the locks. My paranoid concern is that a small burglar could smash the glass and climb through the hole! I do not want to change the door but wondered what I could do to make it safer? A local glazier tells me the rebate is not wide enough for a sealed double-glazed unit to fit. Would I be wiser to reinforce the frame or maybe put another lock in higher up. Anyone had a similar situation? I'd be grateful for advice. Slightly OT, can anyone recommend a good saw for removing hands and join me hiding behind hedges in Walthamstow waiting for the nightly visits of the two hooded scumbags who I routinely see eyeing up parked cars on my way home from night-shifts? Ta.

[Dave Liquorice]

Change the glass for wired (looks a bit naff) or laminated or *real* polycarbonate?

[Owain]

"backy" wrote | After my car was raided last week (grr!) I've decided to improve | my home security. I have an original (1900) wooden door which | has two large glass panels in the top half. The door is very | sturdy and I'm happy with the quality of the locks. My paranoid | concern is that a small burglar could smash the glass and climb | through the hole! I do not want to change the door but wondered | what I could do to make it safer? A local glazier tells me the | rebate is not wide enough for a sealed double-glazed unit to fit.

A burglar's main concern would be to get the door open so he can get a quick exit carrying the loot, so if your door is not unlockable from the inside without a key that will be a deterrent. (Consider how you will open the door in the event of fire, if this is when you are in the property.)

I would suggest a wrought iron grille over the glazed area, fixed by bolts passing through the door with the nuts on the inside. You can get bolts which have a smooth domed head and would be fairly unobtrusive when painted over on the outside, a part square shank to prevent rotation, and then braze the bolt/nut/grill together once it's fixed. You and a blacksmith should be able to come up with a design that is harmonious to the house.

You could also consider replacing the glazed panels with polycarbonate, which is a lot harder to smash.

Owain

[Dave Plowman]

Did you ask about laminated glass? Suitably fixed it's stronger than double glazing.

[Lobster]

Can you not just replace the glass with panes of toughened stuff, and never mind double glazing units (though I'm puzzled as to why the DG won't fit if you've already got it glazed)? Toughened glass would be pretty much as strong as the door itself.

I recently reinforced my workshop windows by fitting a bespoke steel grid to the inside of the window frame; which is another possibility. It doesn't actually make it look like a prison cell! because I deliberately positioned the vertical and horizontal struts of the grid to mimic the size and position of the leading between the panes of the leaded windows of the adjacent house. It 'looks' (and is) pretty impregnable to any would-be tea-leaf, which hopefully means they won't even bother trying to break in. With the toughened glass route (which I also considered) the risk is they'll bugger up the window frames with crowbars etc before realising they aren't going to get in.

David

[Andrew Gabriel]

Why, is that the only place in the house where someone could smash a window and get in?

Wired is not any protection against being smashed in my experience, the wire simply breaks. It helps stop the glass falling out when it cracks in a fire, at least for longer than non-wired glass stays in place in a fire.

[dg]

Unless in a sheltered position, front doors are not the preferred access methods for burglars.

A laminate glass, or some of the self adhesive security film will hold the glass together perhaps long enough to cause the burglar to give up and move on. Otherwise an internal decorative grill.

Regards the saw, then a Dewalt cordless reciprocating saw with a tree pruning blade should suffice. You may have to tone the yellow casing down for night use though.

dg