Patio Door Protection

April 20, 2020 0 Comments

How to Secure Your Patio Doors Against Unwanted Intruders

Often, a burglar will assess the rear entrance of your home first as a potential entry point, as patio or French doors are well known to burglars for their intrinsic design flaws that make them less secure than single leaf doors.

So, what is it about French doors that make them vulnerable to attack and what can you do to protect them?
Weakness 1: Large glass panels

If fitted with ordinary glass, the panels in your French door could easily be broken by a thief to then reach through and open your door. We suggest upgrading your windows anti-break acrylic or laminated glass to make them harder to break.
Weakness 2: Standard Euro cylinder

As discussed in our previous blog post, a mortice lock creates a natural weakness when fitted in timber doors, as a section of the door must be removed to fit the lock. This makes the door more susceptible to kick-in attacks, as the area around the lock may buckle under the force. Luckily, there are a variety of products on the market designed to strength your door against this form of attack including rack bolts, hinge bolts and sashlock/deadlock guards.

Installing these products may prove fruitless if your mortice lock is fitted with a standard Euro cylinder, as your door will also be vulnerable to a lock-snapping. For more information on lock-snapping please read our recent blog post. To protect yourself against lock-snapping, we suggest you fit all entry doors with a British Standard 3* cylinder that has passed the required anti-snap tests.
Weakness 3: Outward Facing Hinges

The majority of French doors swing outward which requires the hinges to be fitted externally. Again, this creates a security weakness, as these hinges can be easily manipulated to remove the door from the frame. If it is feasible (and most importantly, legal!) to do so, we suggest adjusting your French doors to swing inwards to protect from tamper. If local building codes restrict this kind of modification, we recommend upgrading your hinges to locked pin hinges or installing hinge bolts.
Specialty Product: PATLOCK French door Lock

French doors open up your home by filling it full of light. Unfortunately, they also open your home to unwanted miscreants due to multiple designs flaws. For home owners, this means installing a careful chosen selection of security products to overcome all flaws.

Well, that was before the PATLOCK French door lock came onto the market.

The PATLOCK French door lock simply slides over both internal door handles, securing them with minimal fuss or effort. This inexpensive unit requires no keys or codes and not only protects you from a lock snap, slip or bump attack but offers a visual deterrent to a would-be-attacker.