Definitive guide to reinforce the entrance of your home

How do most burglars get into houses?

The answer may surprise you. They don’t sneak up the chimney or climb through your basement window, most simply walk up to your front door and knock on it.

It may be hard to believe, but the statistics back it up:

• 34% of burglars enter through the front door
• 22% enter through the back door
• 9% enter through the garage

In short: 65% of all burglaries mean that the criminal has managed to defeat the security of the front door of the home.

Securing your home with a monitored security alarm system would be perfect to start with, but a layered approach offers even more protection than relying solely on a burglar alarm to call the police.

The best place to start securing the perimeter of your home is to concentrate on your first line of defence – the outer doors or front doors.

Is your door strong enough?

One problem we see in many homes is that people use an interior door at an exterior entry point.

An interior door is the most likely to be used for your bedroom or bathroom. These hollow-core doors are usually made of a thin sheet of metal with a hollow centre; they are designed for privacy, not security.

At PONSICO we recommend the installation of armoured doors, as they provide maximum security for the entrance door to your home.

Next we are going to give you some advice to reinforce the access to your home.

Reinforce the door

Installing a Door Armor: This essentially consists of a metal sleeve that is screwed around the door in the area of the doorknob and latch to give that part of the door additional strength.

This helps prevent the door from breaking in the lock area from a knock attack.

The door armor can also be used to temporarily secure a door that has been recently forced, giving it some strength until a new door can be installed.

ALWAYS lock the door: Surprisingly, many burglaries occur in homes that have been left unlocked. The burglar did not have to force the entrance at all, just turn the doorknob or insert a piece of plastic through the slot in the door.

It is really easy to gain access to a house by just slamming the door without locking it. Sometimes people make the lives of burglars even easier by not closing the door in the first place.

Most commonly, garage doors are left open, but police warn that they often find cases where flat, bedroom and house doors have been left open, and that the thief took the opportunity to break in.

It is also true that some types of locks are not much better than leaving the door wide open. You need the right kind of lock on your door if you want some protection.

These are some locks and closing points that we recommend to install from PONSICO:

• Multipoint locks: They are one of the safest locks there are, due to the different anchorage points that this lock has. They are mostly used for armoured doors.
• Cylindrical locks: Also known as European profile locks. It is frequently used in the entrance doors of houses. They have a system in the shape of a cylinder, which is only operated if the correct key is introduced.
• Built-in locks: These are the most commonly used in entrance doors. These locks come embedded in the doors, which only leaves the slot for introducing the key visible.
• Mortise lock: It was one of the most used models until the cylinder locks became popular. The keys used to open these locks have a tube and a kind of tooth at the end.
• Lock: It is a simple option. Some models have a button that prevents third parties from opening it. Another cheap option is to add a chain to offer more protection.

Conclusion

Securing your doors properly is an investment of time, money and energy. But the protection it provides is essential to keeping your home safe.