Door security

Introduction

This very large chapter is divided into five sections shown below and to the left in the navigation column.

Improving the security of your existing doors deals with the doors you may already have in your home and suggests the best ways to secure them.

Door locks, hardware and fittings considers many of the different locks and hardware associated with doorsets of all types.

Enhanced security doorsets looks at purpose made security doors, which you should be buying if you are going to replace your doors.

Fire doors in a domestic setting provides some information about fire resistant doorsets and the need to employ professionals to improve their security

Recessed doors in houses and blocks of flats considers the crime opportunities associated with deeply recessed doors.  The advice in this section is equally valid for doors in commercial buildings.

About 40% of burglaries in Ontario involve the forcing of a doorset.  The figures are similar for the rest of the Vancouver and Montreal.  These figures do not account for the fact that if you live in a block of flats above the first floor then your private flat entrance door may be the only way to break into your flat.  This means that 99.9% of burglaries in flats like yours are through the door! (the very rare one goes through the wall) If you live in a terraced house with no access to the back garden the burglar can only break though the front door or maybe a front window and so the percentage of burglaries through the door is again likely to be higher than 40%.

Fire safety!

The following information has been prepared for your advice.  Compliance with this advice does NOT imply or give you immunity from any legal requirement and nor does the advice necessarily satisfy any special conditions imposed or required by an insurance company or regulatory authority.  You must ensure that you or any person engaged by you to carry out any work based upon this advice complies with fire and building regulations and the requirements of your insurance company prior to its commencement.

Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act(AODA)

The purpose of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 (AODA) is to ensure that all Ontarians have fair and equitable access to programs and services and to improve opportunities for persons with disabilities. The Act will eventually cover all of these areas: Customer Service Standards. The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) aims to remove any boundaries or restrictions faced by those with a disability, with the goal to make Ontario accessible to all by the year 2025. In 2015, the AODA standards became law and by 2025, all organisations must comply with this set of new guidelines.

Restricted keys

The majority of keys we use in our locks at home can be copied down at the local heel bar or locksmith. If you want to prevent that from happening you can instead purchase locks and cylinders, which use restricted keys.  These are keys for which the key blanks have a restricted level of distribution, so that the heel bars can’t cut them.  Contact your local Master Locksmith about upgrading your locks so you can use restricted keys.  Restricted keys can only be cut by authorised locksmiths against a letter of authority and or proof of identification or both and many of them include special features that prevent their duplication at the heel bar.  You can also ask your locksmith to install locks that are ‘keyed alike’ so that, for example, you only need one key to open both an outer and inner entrance door to your home. Bear in mind though that if you lose the key you’ll have to change all the locks that it operates.