Best Front Door Security Enhancements

The front door is the main entrance into a home and plays an essential role in safeguarding your family and possessions. But, those front doors often prove the easiest for burglars to enter. Recent statistics have it that most home break-ins go through the front door: they’re either forced at the locks or through a weak door frame. For the sake of full protection for your house, you must double up your security measures for the front door. In this guide, you will learn best ways to secure a front door, including upgrading locks, reinforcing the frame, and applying some technology.

Table of Contents

Assess Your Current Front Door Security

Before doing any upgrades, first look at your existing front door setup. First, examine the door material. Doors made of solid wood, metal, or fiberglass provide good security, whereas hollow-core doors can be easily broken into. Next, assess the door frame; indeed, a weak or rotten frame makes for an easy entry via the front door. Finally, inspect your locking systems-whether it is just a latch, or a deadbolt, or perhaps even a smart lock. By knowing your present level of security, you would be able to pinpoint certain areas that might benefit from upgrades.

Upgrade Your Door Locks

Upgrade Your Locks: Front can be the first accessway an intruder might target; accordingly, it can also be among your front-line security barriers against intrusion.

Install a Deadbolt Lock. A Grade 1 or 2 deadbolt is best since higher levels of protection are offered against picking or forced entry attempts.

Smart Locks allow you to enter keyless, and from your phone’s app, you can track what has happened to your door. You can even check activities and see who has entered your house and when.

Add Reinforced Strike Plates: Reinforce the strikes with a heavy-duty metal plate to prevent kicking in the door.

Reinforce the Door Frame and the Hinges

They say a strong door can be blew open if the door frame or hinge is weak. Do it this way for reinforcement:

Replace those regular short screws put on by the door-frame guy with the neat-looking security screws, about 3 to 4 inches long, that set deeply into the wall studs.
If the door opens outward, install hinge bolts to keep intruders from removing the door via tampering with the hinges.
You might want to consider a door jamb reinforcement kit, as these can apply steel plates to vulnerable parts in the frame.

Strengthening the Door Material

And so, your door should stand strong against break-ins. Hollow-core doors are easy targets, so:

Consider solid-core wood or metal doors that will offer better durability and protection.
A door security bar or brace can be installed as the second line of physical defense against forced entry.

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Install a Peephole or a Doorbell Camera

Ask yourself who is standing outside before opening your door-an easy, yet effective safety measure:

Install a wide-angled peephole to allow you to check out visitors while still keeping your door closed, thereby reducing the risk of surprise encounters.
Besides motion alerts, these video doorbells from Ring and Nest also offer real-time video monitoring and two-way conversation features to keep an eye on your porch at any time from your smartphone.

Improve Outdoor Lighting & Visibility

Burglars prefer darkness and will avoid well-lit places:

Install motion sensor lights near your front door, so the lights will go on if they detect movement.
Keep all shrubs, trees, and other landscaping trimmed so as to eliminate potential hiding spots for intruders.

Add Additional Security Measures

Some other features to consider, for greater security:

Security Screen Doors-Metal mesh security doors give you another physical barrier while allowing airflow.
Door Alarms And Sensors-When forcibly entered, a loud alarm goes off, scaring away the intruders and alerting your neighbors.
Security Signage: Sometimes signs stating that there are CCTV cameras or alarms can be enough of a deterrent even if said signs are fake.

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Creating Good Security Habits

No matter how good your hardware is, bad attitude can inhibit good security.

Always ensure you lock your doors, even when someone is inside the house.
Spare keys should never be hidden outside; store them in a small secure lockbox.
Either give access codes or keys to a trusted family member or a friend.

Professional Systems Consideration

For full protection:

In the context of a monitored alarm system, ADT or SimpliSafe true-to-name represent round-the-clock ones, which respond in a heartbeat to emergencies.
It might be very much in accord with a Plex-style installation in a smart home, controlling those devices or at least giving alerts to the phone.

Conclusion

Front door security is not rocket science. A door gets even better with good security habits coupled with chain locks and a steel-reinforced door frame, and if you can install some cameras, then the odds against a break-in drop by a great deal. At least two from above should start implementing today to build up a safer environment at home. So, do not ever wait-anything that you can do for your home, securing it right away, will be worth the time!