How to secure 3rd floor apartment?

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ns66

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The apartment has a large porch, with sliding glass door to the bedroom, trees like a few feet away, I wonder if someone can get to the porch somehow (climb tree? or climb up with rope is that possible?), kick down the glass door while my family is asleep, there's no time to wake up and grab gun, so anyway to secure the porch?

The front door is also accessible easily, intruder can just walk up to it and kick the wood door down, any suggestion to make it more secure?

using gun as self defense will be the last resort, I hope to make the apartment secure enough so bad guys won't be able to get in in the first place.

thanks a lot!
 
ns66
How to secure 3rd floor apartment?
The apartment has a large porch, with sliding glass door to the bedroom, trees like a few feet away, I wonder if someone can get to the porch somehow (climb tree? or climb up with rope is that possible?), kick down the glass door while my family is asleep, there's no time to wake up and grab gun, so anyway to secure the porch?

The front door is also accessible easily, intruder can just walk up to it and kick the wood door down, any suggestion to make it more secure?

using gun as self defense will be the last resort, I hope to make the apartment secure enough so bad guys won't be able to get in in the first place.
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Odds are the BG isn't going to climb a tree to a 3rd floor porch and and then kick in the glass. Sure it can happen, but odds are against it. If you're concern about someone kicking in your porch door, install security/safety film (about $200 for patio doors) to the glass and drop a steel bar or wooden dowel ($5) in the rail to prevent opening. It won't prevent break-in but it will definitely buy you time to get your weapon and call 911.

Your front door will more likely be the ingress point for the BG. Secure it with deadbolts ($50) and a security bar ($20). The security bar will buy you time when you're at home. The deadbolts will slow down the BG when you're not home. You can also get a wireless IP cam ($100) to face your front door that is motion activated. It'll sound an alarm and send a pic or video to a remote site, email, or iPhone/Android device upon activation. Pretty sure the BG will bail when he realizes his mug's been captured.

Also, something for you to consider - living on the 3rd floor... A couple of collapsable fire ladders and large fire extinguishers.
 
motion detector and light, and a fake camera with a red led coming on. tune it to the task.
 
In my 15 years experience in security I've never seen a breakin where somebody climbed a tree or a rope to enter a building. For the most part those guys are lazy and go in the easiest way possible.
 
A Doberman or Rottweiler with an attitude should make it easier for you to sleep at night and rest easier when you are away from home..

P.R.
 
In my 15 years experience in security I've never seen a breakin where somebody climbed a tree or a rope to enter a building. For the most part those guys are lazy and go in the easiest way possible.
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Not sure where he's from, but when I lived in South Florida, there were many. "Spiderman" robberies all the time. Why? because the easiest way in was the patios on the 3-18th floors.. because people felt no need to lock their doors on those levels.
 
Not sure where he's from, but when I lived in South Florida, there were many. "Spiderman" robberies all the time. Why? because the easiest way in was the patios on the 3-18th floors.. because people felt no need to lock their doors on those levels.
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This is true. When I lived in college apartments, people were always getting robbed because they never locked their 2nd story balcony's sliding doors. A friend of mine got a laptop stolen this way.
 
Just lock your third storey sliding glass doors.......protect the main entrance......don't go overboard/zombie/apocalypse - there really isn't a boogie man behind every lamp post
 
If it's a 3rd story walk-up that is a deterent right of the bat.

If there are large enough tree branches to support an adult's weight that close to your window, see about getting them trimmed back a little bit. (Easiest to say that there is problem with birds on them.)

I am not q fan of sliding glass doors but the wooden dowel prevents opening. It's useless if they just break the glass.

Put a deadbolt on your door if there isn't one already on it.

At night, sleep with your bedroom doors closed and locked if desired. It will buy an extra few seconds of time and an additional barrier between you and a home invader.

Keep breezeways and stairways well lit.

An alarm system can be nice too.
 
So burglars were climbing ropes to get to those 3-18 story patios? Wow, it takes nerve to climb a tree or rope 18 stories. That's some bad dudes in Florida. Did they use grappling hooks?
 
We lived on the third floor of an apartment building in Chicago when I was in grade school in the '60s.

We had a front door that opened onto an interior landing and stairwell and a back porch which led to wooden stairs.

My father installed metal gates at the front and rear doors and the back window which were locked with padlocks. He also installed a steel prop rod which fit into sockets in the floor and the back of the front door.

I would put a sliding metal gate in front of or behind the sliding door.

The cops actually chased a guy up the back stairs and onto the neighbor's porch (we shared the stairway) when I was a kid. They jumped him before he could get to our side. After that, my father put in a locking wooden gate to separate our porch from the landing and stairs.
 
like those on a bathtub/shower, sliding doors lift up and out for instalition and removal, so a stick in the track is not the whole answer. rather sheet metal screws every 16 inches through the upper runner. don't screw it all the way in--just enough to allow the door to slide but prevent it from being lifted up for removal. and a claymore cant hurt (well,for very long anyways...)
 
Deanimater and Claude, those are great ideas but if they are climbing up 200 foot trees to get on 18th floor balconies like the guys in south Florida do u really think anything can help/
 
I certainly wish 3rd floor will be too much hassle for BG to break in, but in terms of security I just can't depend on wishful thinking or whim of the BG's

problem is the apartment is a rental so there aren't much I can do to change/secure it, I don't like sliding glass door at all, but what can I do about it? I wish I could install metal gates but I doubt that can be done. I can put window films like suggested, or maybe some steel wire over it? or put a mosquito net around the porch to make it hard for BG to get on the porch in the first place? should the porch light be on all the time or be turned off when I sleep?

front door I think I could try a surveillance camera (at least a fake one as suggested), lighting should be covered by building management, maybe a picture of a pit bull on the door with other warning signs...
 
I just found alarm called Electronic Watchdog, that sounds very interesting, anyone has any experience with it?
 
Its far easier to just climb the patios than the trees and make the leap. As far as the 18th floor you gain access to the roof and climb down which is really easy.

A dowel in the bottom of sliding glass can normally be defeated by sliding something under to push the stick out. They make bars that can be mounted at waist height and can be locked and are fairly inexpensive. Its also visible making it likely a thief is going to bypass your place and pick something easier.

Your front door: how solid is it and the frame. Generally your lock even if it is good has a throw that goes into the frame. This is normally met with a plate that is held in by half inch screws that never enter the 2x4s of the frame. Its not hard to kick through a half inch of wood. First thing I always did was remove those screws and screw the plate in with 4 inch screws that go through the first 2x4 and well into the second 2x4 of the frame. This normally costs a buck. Even more secure is to pull the small plate and replace it with plate that runs the length of the doorway, top to bottom then screw it in with 4 inch screws top to bottom. This spreads the load of a kick and makes it very resistant. Mated with a solid door the person doing the kicking is going to hurt themselves before getting through the door. They are going to need a real ram.
 
A master lock door security bar is $13 + shipping - a good option if you are renting and don't feel comfortable changing locks or that type of thing.

A door-stop alarm is useful (at home and when traveling) - it'll keep your bedroom door from opening easily and warn you that someone is trying to come into your bedroom.

If you want to spend $23 on a dowel for your sliding glass door, they sell one with an alarm built in.

Cheapie battery-powered window/door alarms are also popular.

Don't store desireable stuff on your patio - thieves see a nice bike or grill, and they might get drunk enough to come get it.

If your door doesn't have a peep hole, your state probably has a law that you can demand the landlord install one at no charge to
you.

If you can park your car where you can see it from your apartment, you'll be happy you did. In my ancedotal experience, car break-ins are the canary in the birdcage for telling you if you live in an area where apartment break ins are likely.

An ideal apartment alarm is loud enough to annoy neighbors into calling the police.
 
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Make certain there are no attic access doors that could help anyone in the attic to crawl down into one of your closets!:uhoh:

Also, you can get a sensor that is set inside (even behind a wall) and will sound a barking dog if someone comes within range (in your case, onto the balcony).
 
Go to your local home depot and look for a metal baby proof lock. It bolts to the back of the sliding door and you push up on the latch and it sends a dime sized by 3 inche bolt up into a pre drilled hole (3inches up) in the drywall and framing. I don't know the exact product name (had it for a few years) but it is so damn great, half the time I can't even get it open without a struggle. Then I would get the safety film for the glass. The safety class in a dark color will also act as a window tint and cool your house a little better. just my .02 cents. this will cover you from them lifting on the bottom of your door to "jump" the sliding glass door lock or stick. Add in the laminated tint and they're going to be leaving a nice trail of blood trying to make a hole through all that sharded glass and will most likely give up and search for a easier house/apt. Cameras hooked up to a DVR well hidden couldn't hurt either. (or one that streams to a remote location ie, work/hard drive/work hard drive etc...)

You can also just drill a hole through the sliding glass door frame and into the other (without penetrating the back of the stationary non moving door) and just use a bar connected to a chain.
 
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I'm not sure In understand, why would they climb a tree to your porch to kick in the glass door, when they could simply take the stairs to your FRONT door and kick that in? It makes less noice anyways.
 
thanks a lot to all the folks and all the links, they are really helpful and very appreciated

regarding to the cheap alarms, one can also try something like this
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/wireless-entry-alarm-826

it's $1.88 shipped, can't beat that price, and lots of other items search for "alarm" for example, i am just a happy customer before not related to the site in any way

the security bar seems very useful i will get that

the reason i worry about porch is i always feel glass is much easier to break than hard wood front door, and porch is so much closer to the bedroom just no time to react, so i better make sure it's secured, but it seems unless i install metal door there there's no easy way to really bullet proof it
 
So burglars were climbing ropes to get to those 3-18 story patios? Wow, it takes nerve to climb a tree or rope 18 stories. That's some bad dudes in Florida. Did they use grappling hooks?
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They usually just climbed the aluminum/metal structures. I do remember the occasional suction cup or hook climber. South FL has some very nasty criminals.
 
GWARGHOUL said:
They usually just climbed the aluminum/metal structures. I do remember the occasional suction cup or hook climber. South FL has some very nasty criminals.
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i wonder what to do to prevent that?
 
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