Making your house harder to break into.

[avmech]

2 items not mentioned:

With a monitored alarm system, get the "cell phone" backup........in case the BGs cut the phone line.

On sliding glass doors, put some screws inside the track, adjusted so that the heads barely miss the slider, so that one can't lift the door out of the track.

 

[JamisJockey]

Lights. Lots of lights. Check out your home after dark, on a really dark night (like a moonless night). See if any of the dark spots are entry points or staging points. Put in solar lighting to correct it.
During the day check for blind spots and those are the places to really worry about hardening the most.
Alarm.
Burglars don't like attention. What they do like is time. Anything that gives them time to access your home is what they want.

 

[nemoaz]

Great thread.

Well...check that out and as soon as the house is inspected, remove that turn bolt, and replace with a dead bolt that requires a key from interior as well.

My father does this. I think it's foolish because more people die from house fires than burglaries. I didn't like leaving my kids at the house because I know they could never get out if there were a fire. There is a key close, but they could not reach it, even my 12 year old. Yet a thief determined enough to break the glass on the door could easily break a window and climb in.

 

[748]

If I had concertina wire around the house my wife would be pissed, people in cars that see it would speed up as they go by and people would walk on the other side of the street.

"Inexpensive motion sensor sprinklers?"
I like that idea, all most like proxsimity mines with out the blood and guts.
I have to replace the sewer line any way (my self), I'll use "installing the sprinklers" as a reason to dig up the front yard and get that pesky sewer line while I'm in there.

I have storm windows over "old fasioned" windows. kind of like getto 2x pane windows. If some one does pop out one of those old windows to gain access to the window latch they are in for a supprise. Remember the dry wall screws and metal rods?

And when I go to the range I will start bring back my targets, and lay them near the top of the trash can or maybe hanging out a little on trash day.

One side of my house is real dark, I will give it more attention now.

 

[MAKster]

steel doors

I've thought about replacing my exterior door with a steel one, but am concerned that direct sunlight in the summer will heat up the door and cause it to expand. Which could cause the door to not shut properly or the locking bolt to be out of alignment with the hole. My storm door gets rather hot after being exposed to direct sun all afternoon.

 

[748]

I have had houses with steel doors. I never had a problem with them not shuting right when hot. If you painted it white you would have less heating.

 

[brickeyee]

"I also put one of those door knob reinforcement braces on the door. It is a piece of 16 or 18 gauge steel screwed into place that wraps around the door to beef up the part of the door right around the door knob and door catch."

The weak point on doors is the joints between the vertical stiles and the horizontal lumber.
A couple of dowels (at best) is all that holds the door together.
Many are just glue and the 'trim' decor milled into the wood.
With a heavy blow the entire knob or hinge stile simply breaks free.

Older doors at least had decent sized tenons at the corners.
There are rather ugly locks that go in the interior of the door and stiffen the door, but even those are often a victim of the basic door construction.
Even a fire door with a sheet metal face is still held together with a few dowels (at best).

A well built hardwood (oak is preferred) door with mortise and tenon joints and NO panels is pretty decent.
An steel door (decent face thickness and welded perimeter) is even better, but they are pretty rare in residential.

Monitored motion sensing alarm systems or a big dog are a good alternative.

 

[748]

I think I need a bigger door.

Do you think I could beef it up with some 4'' deck screws driven into the door at the right points?

 

[Sir Aardvark]

I love these threads - all it takes is LOT$ of money to fortify your home:

Bullet-proof glass, because what good is a $150.00 Medeco door lock when they can just bash your window in...

http://www.secureglass.com/index.html
http://www.shattergard.com/home.html

Security Mesh to reinforce your walls, that way a bad guy can't use a sledge-hammer to just pound his way in...

http://amico-securityproducts.com/mesh.htm

Bullet-proof fiberglas wall panels - why get these?... because they're bullet-proof, silly!...

http://www.armorcore.com/

Expandable grills to fit in doorways and windows - better than bars on the windows because these can be folded out of the way...

http://www.trellisdoors.com/product.php?product=S01

Bullet-proof doors that will stop a .30-06...

http://www.cecodoor.com/bullrest.htm

Money, money, money - that's all it takes to do it right.

 

[rdhood]

Quote:
Vinyl siding, thin "insulate" , 2x4 framing, drywall and then interior.
I think you might be confused. The thin insulation goes over top of a plywood or OSB exterior wall. Without that, the framing wouldn't have the rigidity to support a roof.

I'm a carpenter by trade. I think being able to carve through a wall is a myth.

It's not a myth.... I had a house in Gwinnett County, GA, which was vinyl sided over insulate... as the first poster suggested. If a perp knew this, he could easily just carve through house with a $5 utility knife in seconds.

vinyl-insulate-insulation-drywall. One could probably kick through it in 20 or 30 seconds, but it would make more noise. I think that they have revamped the housing codes because they don't build like that anymore.

 

[Car Knocker]

I'm a carpenter by trade. I think being able to carve through a wall is a myth.

I've seen it - that's why I made the comment in post #2. Plywood or OSB at the corners for seismic/wind bracing, foam board filling in the run in between, covered by vinyl siding. Codes/building practices vary widely across the country.

 

[vynx]

My next door neighbor came home and his sliding glass door was shatterred.

We figure the lawn people hit a rock with the mower and it hit the glass.

Nothing was taken but the noise didn't disturb anyone.

Of course I live in California in the Valley where its 95 to 105 degrees right now so the few neighbors that aren't at work are inside with air conditioning.

I figure if a random thief targets my house all he needs to do is kick in the french doors - reinforced deadbolt or not. Or break out one of the 6ft by 4ft kitchen windows. In California most of the back yards have a 6 ft fence surrounding them so if someone gets over it no one can see them.

 

[Dave Markowitz]

I posted this in another thread.

Firethorn bushes planted under windows will keep pretty much any burglar out. I had one at my house that the previous owner hadn't trimmed back in several years. Taking it out was NOT fun -- imagine inch long thorns that go through heavy leather gloves like a hot knife through butter.

 

[ARperson]

I've seen it - that's why I made the comment in post #2. Plywood or OSB at the corners for seismic/wind bracing, foam board filling in the run in between, covered by vinyl siding. Codes/building practices vary widely across the country.

Yep. This is one reason I won't put my family in a newer home. I have only seen this once, but

 

[mjrodney]

In our neighborhood of closely packed homes, a BG simply broke out the glass on a sliding glass door.

No one was home and the BG knew that, but the next door neighbors were.

No one heard a thing.

With neighbors all buttoned up in their homes and the A/C on, it would appear that you can make more noise than you think.

In conversation with the LEOs that arrived at the scene, I was told that breaking glass is the most common form of entry when the house is un-occupied and otherwise locked up, even in neighborhoods where the homes are tightly packed together.

When I suggested that this event might be a wake up call to put in an alarm system with perimeter sensors on every window and door, he said save your money on the individual sensors and instead use a combination of motion and glass break sensors. The sound of breaking glass will precede any attempt to open a door or window and the BG will still be outside when the alarm goes off.

 

[willbrink]

No doubt, no glass door or window will prevent a person from breaking in if they want to and people are always amazed how much noise others will ignore and how little the BGs seem to worry about that (because most people simply cant/wont think like a BG) and considering how little an alarm costs, there's no excuse for not having one. However, something like 50% of the houses that are robbed have alarms and that's because they alarms were not turned on! Yes, many people do have alarms they simply dont turn on...

People are just stupid creatures....

 

[SSN Vet]

I think you might be confused. The thin insulation goes over top of a plywood or OSB exterior wall. Without that, the framing wouldn't have the rigidity to support a roof.

I don't think he's talking about foam board, but the "semi-structural" Rigid Fiber Board Insulation. This stuff gives you about R4 and can retain fasteners for siding. It also has "some" sheer resistance. You'll mostly see it used on commercial projects where a plan stamped by a professional engineer is required. The engineer will use true structural sheathing (plywood or OSB) at the ends of the wall to get the required resistance to shear and then use the fiber board to fill in the middle to get better energy performance.

I don't think you'll see this stuff on residential or small comercial jobs being built to a "prescriptive code" (i.e. local codes that reference IBC section 2308) which are cook book in nature. These codes work because the first thing they do is limit the size and height of the structure and limit design loads.

I know an excellent framer who's done work for me in the past, and though his sturctural knowledge is quite impressive, he's never installed a seismic anchor or Sturdi Wall. Unless your house is built on a fault line or has an ocean view, most residential construction doesn't require structural engineering.

...and now that I've rambled....

you certainly can cut fibre board with a utility knife....though I wouldn't describe it as easy.

 

[Elmer Fudd]

When I suggested that this event might be a wake up call to put in an alarm system with perimeter sensors on every window and door, he said save your money on the individual sensors and instead use a combination of motion and glass break sensors. The sound of breaking glass will precede any attempt to open a door or window and the BG will still be outside when the alarm goes off.

Someone mentioned that glass break sensors go off frequently during thunder storms. True?

 

[Noxx]

Someone mentioned that glass break sensors go off frequently during thunder storms. True?

They can. Some models are fixed in sensitivity, some are adjustable, but in either case a large window can get to rocking and rolling in a boomtastic type Arkansas t-storm.

An alternative, altho more expensive, is an infrared beam across the interior window opening. Installation is more a bear as well.

 

[BitterBeerFace]

I'll add another vote to the "cut into the house in 5 minutes" column. I volunteered a saturday to work on a HFH house in town here... the walls were 2x4 covered by some form of foam, with vinyl siding. When I was working on it, my main concern was flying debris during tornados... hundreds of pea-rocks @100mph would shred that house and everything inside it.

But thinking of security, it's equally worthless.

I'm glad I had my place custom-built, and the builder insisted on using cement siding. Sure it could be shattered with a sledge hammer, but you're not gonna be cutting through it with an exacto knife!

 

[Xenia]

The weak point on doors is the joints between the vertical stiles and the horizontal lumber.
A couple of dowels (at best) is all that holds the door together.
Many are just glue and the 'trim' decor milled into the wood.
With a heavy blow the entire knob or hinge stile simply breaks free.

Older doors at least had decent sized tenons at the corners.
There are rather ugly locks that go in the interior of the door and stiffen the door, but even those are often a victim of the basic door construction.
Even a fire door with a sheet metal face is still held together with a few dowels (at best).

A well built hardwood (oak is preferred) door with mortise and tenon joints and NO panels is pretty decent.
An steel door (decent face thickness and welded perimeter) is even better, but they are pretty rare in residential.

Does this mean this is useless: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000H5Y9YG/ref=nosim?s=merchant&m=A1SV1BYDTUK2Z5&v=glance&tag=nextag-tools-tier4-20&creative=380341&linkCode=asn&creativeASIN=B000H5Y9YG

This was suggested in my Home Defense class I took for the CPL. I have one on all exterior doors round the clock. The exception is of course when I am not home it is not on the garage entry door. But the rest of the time my doors have this at all times.

I would take one with me if I went to a hotel as well.

I am not very concerned about someone breaking in to my home if I am not home to steal my stuff. Material stuff is unimportant to me. (And it shows.... they want my 19 inch TV with no remote... take it... the $15 DVD player? go for it!)

I know that a BG can break into my home no matter what I do. I just want some kind of noise to alert me if I am home and asleep, or sitting at the computer, etc.

I am not good with dogs, but I am considering getting one. Since I have never owned one I would prefer to get an adult dog... is that the way to go? Would any mut from the pound be the way to go or should I get a big dog?

BTW, I have an indoor cat that I would rather not feed to a dog for lunch thankyou.

I love other people's dogs. But have never had one myself.

 

[TCB in TN]

I think you might be confused. The thin insulation goes over top of a plywood or OSB exterior wall. Without that, the framing wouldn't have the rigidity to support a roof.

I'm a carpenter by trade. I think being able to carve through a wall is a myth

.

I did quite a bit of framing a couple of years back and I can tell you that in many places styro panels can be used in place of OSB or plywood in every 2 out of 3 sheets. A sharp pocket knife of box cutter will go right through easy.

Even if OSB or plywood is used a box cutter and a prybar gets you through in just a few minutes. (I did a bit of remodeling also) it took me about 3 minutes to get a whole 4 x 8 section loose enough to have gotten through it.

 

[748]

All the dogs I have had respected my cats.
Dogs love playing with cats, they think the cat belongs to them. A cat can be part of the pack too with no problem.

 

[Confirmedkill]

Are there any particular brands of solar powered motion detections lights I should look at? I noticed how dark the backyard is when there is no moon. Are there locks that you can purchase that limits how far the sliding glass doors move as well? Thank you.

 

[748]

The only thing I can think of right off hand that will keep a sliding glass door from opening up is if you put a 2x2 or some thing down in its track.
I don't know of any solar powered motion dector lights. I only know of the kind that are hard wired into the house.

This is why I still pay my state taxes to Maine:
"Maine Constitution
Article 1, Section 16. To keep and bear arms.
Every citizen has a right to keep and bear arms and this right shall never be questioned."