Doors are the preferred path of entry for people who are not committing a crime. Doors are also preferred by criminals, especially if they can be opened quickly and unobtrusively. Climbing through a window draws a bit of unwanted attention. Knocking a hole in a wall attracts even more attention. While both of these indeed do occur, they are less likely than a criminal gaining unauthorized entry through a door. When you make security improvements to your home, including the doors, you are seeking to increase the cost a criminal has to pay to enter, in terms of time and attention. The longer it takes, the more obvious something shady is going on, the more noise has to be made, the more people who see, so on and so forth, the more likely it is that A, someone will notice and B, an appropriate response will occur in time to prevent the crime or capture the criminal.
We’ll talk about doors first off. Basically, there are two types of doors for residences: those intended for interior use, and those intended for the exterior. The interior doors are the light, flimsy, often hollow core doors. These kinds of doors are intended to provide a bit of privacy and help divide interior spaces. They are not designed to prevent forced entry. Exterior doors, on the other hand, must provide a measure of prevention against unwanted intruders and weather. Naturally, doors intended for exterior use are heavier and commonly made of either metal over an insulation core or solid wood. This type of door should also always be used between the garage and the interior of the home as the garage is much easier to gain access to. Some easy tips for securing garages can be found elsewhere on CrimeRepellent.com. Another use for an exterior grade door is to create a safe room where your family can retreat to in case of emergency. A walk in closet that lacks any windows is fantastic for this type of use. Strong doors used for this purpose must be treated just like exterior doors in terms of locks, strike plates, and hinges. If you wish to further strengthen a door, an escutcheon plate may be added to protect the area around the lock as well.
Locks on exterior doors should be deadbolts with at least a one inch throw. This means the bolt itself extends at least one inch from the door when in the locked position. The gap between the door and frame should be too tight to easily insert a hacksaw blade to attack the bolt. For the most part, single tumbler deadbolt locks are best for residential use. A single tumbler lock requires a key to lock or unlock from outside, but has a knob allowing anyone to lock or unlock it from inside. This prevents any difficulty evacuating the building in case of emergency. The one instance where I recommend a double tumbler deadbolt, which requires a key to operate from either side, is when the lock is located within reach of a window either in the door itself or the wall close to it. Requiring a key to unlock it from inside prevents an intruder from merely smashing a window and reaching through to unlock the door. Special care must be taken to insure the ability to evacuate in an emergency however. Perhaps a small “in case of emergency break glass” box or a twisted wire with a lead seal to insure the key stays there. If the key is merely stashed near the door, it is almost certain to be missing or forgotten when the unforeseen occurs.
Finally we come to hinges. On an exterior door, the hinge should have at least four screws on each half of the hinge. Light duty hinges for interior doors sometimes only have two in each side. Often these screws are fairly short, providing sufficient strength to support the weight of the door but not to resist forced entry. Replace any short screws with three inch wood screws. This will greatly reduce the chance of a hinge being pulled right off the door or frame. Make sure to drill a pilot hole of appropriate size for the screws you are using otherwise you risk splitting the stud, turning a simple modification into a much more difficult repair.
One last thing you can do to make forced entry more difficult is to pin the hinges. Pinning the hinges is especially important if the door opens outward as outward opening doors provide exterior access to the hinge itself, making it especially vulnerable. To pin a hinge, you first remove one screw from each side of the hinge. These screws must be positioned so that when the door is closed the screw heads are directly opposite each other. Obtain a piece of “all thread” from your local hardware store. This is basically a bolt that is threaded for its entire length and has no head, giving the appearance of a threaded steel dowel. Choose one about two or three inches long, and as thick as will fit through the screw holes you have available on the hinges. Using a drill bit the same size or just slightly larger than the all thread, drill approximately one inch into the frame side and the remaining length of the all thread into the door side. Test fit the all thread and make sure you are able to close the door with it in position. It may be necessary to slightly bevel, or open up the entrance, of the hole on the frame side. Once you are satisfied with the fit and ability to operate the door with it in position, apply some glue (I like two part epoxy) to one end of the all thread and press that end into the door. This will insure the all thread remains in position while opening and closing the door. Promptly clean up any excess that flows out of the hole. Allow the glue to cure, and voila. Repeat for the other hinge. Recently I have seen hinges with a feature similar to this built in, so look for them if you are replacing hinges. You call also locate additional pins in a similar manner away from the hinges. If you do so, especially with a wooden door, I would recommend adding additional metal cladding to strengthen the door and prevent splitting. Custom cut and drilled plates would not be difficult to fabricate, though if you wish to go to such lengths, you may be better off with a commercial grade high strength door as well.