Imagine if one day, you locked up your patio door and went to work only to arrive home, shocked that all your belongings had been stolen. Ever since cheap patio doors were first introduced, it has provided new opportunities to burglars for breaking and entering your home. Why? Patio doors come with a problem, burglars are able to lift the whole door off effortlessly. Also, if your patio door features a full length glass pane in the middle, burglars could break the glass and enter the house easily.
Fret not! The sole purpose of this article is to provide you with the options to reinforce the security of your patio doors. As we all know, normal glass panes breaks easily when a crushing force is applied. However, we can counter this problem by swapping the normal glass panes with a reinforced glass or thick laminated glass which can withstand higher crushing force and does not crack easily. This option normally costs more but ensures better protection.
Besides that, to prevent your doors from being lifted off by the burglars, you can choose either one of the options below.
* One method is to glue or screw a strip of wood or metal into the full length of the upper track. This should be done with the door fully open and checked when finished to ensure that the door can still slide freely in its track.
* The other method is to screw in several large, flat-headed screws into the upper track. Make sure that the screws do not inhibit the sliding movement of the doors. This should provide safety from being lifted off.
Another safety precaution that you may want consider is installing an auxiliary lock such as a deadbolt mechanism which can totally inhibit the movement of the door in any direction and make it difficult for the burglars as there is no lock to pick in a deadbolt.
Apart from using locks, you can also consider using a safety bar that can be stored. This safety bar when placed in the opposite direction to the movement of the door can inhibit the sliding motion of the door.