Home Security Checklist: What Actually Makes a Difference

The highest-value change you can make, and one of the cheapest. When a door is kicked, the deadbolt rarely fails: the strike plate tears out of the jamb, taking a splinter of soft trim wood with it.

A reinforced strike spreads the impact, and three-inch screws pass through the trim into the structural stud behind. Same door, same lock, dramatically more resistance.

A knob latch is a spring bolt: it can be shimmed with a card and it retracts under force. If any exterior door has only a knob lock (commonly back doors, side doors, garage entries and basement doors), that door is the plan.

The bolt should extend at least one inch into the frame. See deadbolt installation.

If you have to lift, pull or lean on a door for the bolt to turn, the bolt is not fully seating. The lock is providing a fraction of its intended resistance, and worse, people in the house start leaving it unlocked because it is annoying.

Almost always a strike or hinge adjustment. See lock repair.

No amount of hardware helps if someone can walk in with a key. If you have moved recently, lost a key, had a tenant or roommate leave, or given keys to contractors, the honest answer is that you do not know how many working keys exist.

Rekeying resets that to zero for a modest cost. And "Do Not Duplicate" stamps do nothing: only a restricted keyway actually controls copying.

Garages hold tools and provide a concealed route into the house, and the service door between garage and house is often the weakest door on the property, frequently a hollow interior door with a knob latch.

Treat it as an exterior door: solid door, deadbolt, reinforced strike. Reset opener codes when you move in, and never leave a garage remote in a car parked outside.

Sliding patio doors are usually secured by a light latch that can be defeated by lifting the panel out of its track. Secondary locks or a properly fitted bar address that.

Where glass sits in or beside a door, the risk is reaching through to a thumbturn. Security film or laminated glass is a better answer than a double-cylinder deadbolt, which requires a key to escape and creates a serious fire risk.

If your household is repeatedly locked out, hides a spare outside, or hands keys to cleaners, sitters and contractors, keypad or smart locks solve the underlying problem: codes can be issued and changed instantly and there is nothing to copy or leave under a mat.

See smart lock installation.

Exotic lock attacks. Picking and bumping are real but rare in residential burglary; force and unlocked doors dominate. Spend on the frame before spending on an exotic cylinder.

Fake hiding spots. Rocks, planters, above the door frame and under the mat are all checked routinely. Leave the spare with a person, not a rock.

Hardware without installation quality. A Grade 1 deadbolt fitted with short screws into a loose jamb is worse than a Grade 2 fitted properly. Installation is the product.

We do security reviews as part of residential visits across Jefferson County. Call (205) 259-8892.