Securing up and over garage doors

[R D S]

Someone broke into my lock up an Saturday night and stole a couple of BMXs. I've had it almost 3 years and this is the first sniff of bother so doing better than expected. They basically made a hole in the door with a hammer and screwdriver then made a mess of it with bolt cutters (which oddly they left behind) in order to get to the mechanism.

Is there any realistic way of making these doors more secure? I can't bolt anything into the floor in front of the door as it's gravel (unless I put some concrete down).

Everything i've looked at so far that I can fix to the top/sides doesn't look like it would put off anyone determined to get in get in.

[HarpingOn]

Nothing will do that, so you might want to stop looking.

[Martin Brown]

Sadly it is the season for that sort of thing.

So they didn't just spring it? You might get lucky if there is any DNA on the bolt cutters.

I swapped the original locking bars for something with about 5x the cross section which means it takes a lot more force to defeat it. The mechanism is also guarded by 1/8 steel plate and allen key bolts.

You can't stop a determined thief getting in. But you can make their life difficult enough that they will go next door instead.

Chaining items of high value together and/or to an immovable object isn't a bad tactic either. You have to accept that they may well trash what they cannot steal and still have to claim on your insurance.

[R D S]

They took nothing else other than the bikes, there is (or was, i've shifted it) an air compressor, copper tube and some other stuff of value so i'm guessing they were targeted.

[DerbyBorn]

R D S wrote in news:m5i18b$uat$ [e-mail]:

A neighbour followed police advice and fitted a couple of "rack and pinnion" locks that lock the door to the frame. I havea hasp and staple on the side of mine to make breaking in a bit noisy.

[harryagain]

Probably kids. Up and over doors are so flimsy the best they can do is keep the weather out. You could get a roller shutter door. There are some secure ones about.

But then it's quite easy to break in the roof of standard garages. Or even the walls if not brick/concrete. Best some sort of alarm/fake/real cameras. Automatic lights?

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[R D S]

They had bolt cutters but then again they sell them in the local bucket shop for next to nothing.

It's well lit by a street light, reasonably open plan and there's about a dozen houses within 20 yards.

I might get a screeching battery powered alarm but given the amount of noise they must have made making the mess they did, and the fact that there is ALWAYS an alarm going off in the neighbourhood there's probably not much point.

I'll put some wall brackets in and chain anything vaguely valuable to the walls.

[Dave Liquorice]

In a word: no.

If you had protected the mechanisium they'd have just cut a bigger hole in the door... Or made a hole low down and pulled, folding the door in the process.

You can make it harder but that has to be visible, which may be an invite to some to find out what is worth protecting...

[Nightjar]

I recall watching the Police opening a garage door that a suspected drug dealer had tried to reinforce. They simply jacked the two sides out until the door folded in half.

[fred]

In article , R D S writes

The trick is to use layered protection, you have a door with basic security on it and then you have a sounder in the confined space that is so loud that it would be physically painful for someone to remain inside the garage. Securing the bikes with a decent chain inside the garage means that they can either continue to attack the security or they can retain their hearing, their choice.

[Bill Wright]

What about gas? Zyklon B is good.

Bill

[damduck-egg]

That so that if caught they could say "It were a plant Guv".

G.Harman

[ss]

As a previous poster suggested get layers of protection, beefing up the lock wont stop entry but then you can make it interesting... Bolt chain things to the floor. Then put an alarmed padlock on them (the bikes) so that when they carry them off up the street the alarms keep going off. (about £6 on ebay) You can also rig up shed alarms (the type with the pull out pin) a couple of those with the string stretching across the garage. There are all sorts of cheap alarms on ebay. I believe Aldi or Lidl had individual PIR alarms a few weeks back I think for about £7. personally I think noise is the better deterrent for something like this.