Locks and How They Can Affect The Home Security Of Your Residence

Locks and How They Can Affect The Home Security Of Your Residence
HSC Staff Writer

The type of locks you use on your home or apartment will determine two things. The first is the locks you have will tell a criminal how serious you are about protecting your family and assets. If a criminal sees cheap no name locks on your residence he’s much more likely to believe you have little or no protection in place and therefore his chances of being caught are lowered. The second thing the locks on your home will tell a burglar is how difficult of a time he’ll have getting into your home. Keep in mind the tougher it is or appears for a burglar to get into your place the higher the odds he’ll go looking for another house or apartment that has signs of being a weaker target.

Home Security and Locks


Here are some tips on locks to help raise the level of security and protection in your home or apartment.

Chances are the door knob lock provided with your door provides little or no security. Burglars see and defeat these locks daily. Always add deadbolt locks to your exterior doors.

We’ve all seen door chains which allow doors to be only partially opened. Door chain locks are useless and are easily defeated with a push or shoulder to the door. Do not rely on door chain locks.

More about deadbolt locks. We highly suggest all exterior doors have deadbolt locks installed on them. These deadbolts should extend into the door frame a minimum of one inch. The door frame itself should have a steel strike plate with three inch screws to go far into the structure of the home. Remember the doors of your home must be able to stand up to repeated blows from a criminal attempting to get into your home.

Patio or sliding doors are a favorite entry point for burglars. The locks on these doors are usually very cheap and unless reinforced provide little security. A simple inexpensive measure to reinforce patio doors is to use a simple wooden stick placed in the bottom track to keep the door from opening. An extra step is to add simple flip locks to both the bottom and top tracks of the patio door.

When you move into a new place immediately have all locks replaced with new locks. Keep in mind the previous home owner had keys to your home and who knows what neighbors or friends he may have given them to. Have all locks in the house replaced with quality locks.

These are just a few tips on locks and home security. The locks on a home say a lot to a burglar and more importantly protect your family and home. Upgrade the security locks on your home today.