How to Secure Your Sliding Glass Door

Sliding drinking glass doors and French doors are a cute add-on to any habitation, simply they're not without gamble. Considering they tin be difficult to secure, they pose a safe problem, both when it comes to keeping intruders out and keeping little kids in. We've found the easiest and best ways to secure your patio doors without sacrificing aesthetics.

How to secure your sliding glass door

  • Install a sliding glass door lock

1. Consider roofing your doors

Almost people love the natural calorie-free and views their sliding glass doors and French doors allow in, simply sometimes it's those very views that make the doors unsafe. They offer a broad-ranging wait into your home so anyone can see what you have and what might be worth taking. The problem is fabricated worse by the fact that most sliding drinking glass doors are in backyards where possible intruders can take their time casing out a house without anyone seeing.

A simple fix for this problem is covering your doors. Most people opt for long, vertical blinds because they tin be easily opened and closed. Withal, these break hands—particularly if you lot accept pets or children. Other stylish options include sliding panels or shutters, which allow for opening and closing but aren't as flimsy equally vertical blinds.

Panels and shutters can get expensive pretty quickly, though. If you're on a upkeep or accept pets (or kids!) that tin can be destructive, consider using decorative window film. At that place are a million different varieties, merely all of them will let in light while notwithstanding obscuring an outsider's view and protecting your home from unwanted optics.

two. Install a sliding glass door lock

The strongest style to secure your sliding door is with a sliding door lock. These locks are installed at the top of your door where the stationary glass and the sliding glass door meet. These locks piece of work in improver to the door locks and can merely exist opened by an adult or tall child. They make it incommunicable to jimmy the door open, from either the within or the exterior. Most of these locks come with ii locking positions: 1 that volition lock it completely closed and a second that will let you lock the door in place at either iii or half dozen inches open to allow for ventilation.

Installing these locks is more complicated than the other items on our list, simply not by much.

  1. Close your door all the way
  2. Clean out the upper runway on your sliding glass door
  3. Position the lock in place and mark holes
  4. Drill pilot holes
  5. Secure the lock in place

Later on you've installed the tiptop piece in the upper track, you lot'll need to follow a similar process for the locking piece on the door itself. You'll position the lock, marking the spots you demand to drill, and so drill the holes and secure the lock in place. (For more detailed instructions, see the manufacturer'south guidelines. These are some of the clearest instructions nosotros've seen!)

These locks are both super secure and subtle. Guests will likely not even discover them, only your doors will be much safer and just as beautiful.

3. Get a security bar for sliding glass doors

Remember going to your grandma's firm and always having to pick up the dowel or broomstick she had lying in the track of the sliding drinking glass door? She was doing her best to proceed her home condom, just equally whatever enterprising kid can figure out, if you jiggle the door hard plenty, you can get it to jump the track or make the stick move. It's not the perfect plan to go on a home secure, but it can work in a pinch.

1 of the best ways to secure a sliding glass door is to keep it from sliding, and there are many varieties of security bars or "Charley confined" available that do just that. Security confined are typically placed in the track of your sliding glass door. Charley bars are placed farther up the door and mounted with screws on at least ane finish, which allows for the bar to hands swing in and out of place. These can be swell if y'all take small children who are likely to tamper with a security bar in the track. (Toddlers, we're looking at you!)

After placing the security bar in the track of your sliding glass door, all you exercise is set it with a pressure mounting system (like some shower curtain rods). Many models take padded ends to make sure the force per unit area doesn't harm your doors.

A security bar is a two-minute install. With the Charley bar, you'll need to have a drill to spiral in i side. Only after that, simply conform the bar to the correct height and push it into place.

4. Get a security door brace for french doors

The beauty of French doors isn't merely that they let in light merely that they open wide for unobstructed views. But they can also pose unique challenges when it comes to security. Similar sliding glass doors, the locking machinery isn't ever the strongest and the corporeality of drinking glass surrounding the lock makes it like shooting fish in a barrel for a infiltrator to work around.

The all-time way to secure French doors is to literally finish the doors from opening with a security caryatid. A caryatid can withstand a lot of force and pressure, and information technology will keep the doors from opening past simply holding them in place. Even if the glass is broken and the doors are unlocked, a brace will agree them in a airtight position.

Door braces come with ii main parts and are another easy install. 1 role screws into the flooring at the base of the doors. It should be centered across where the doors open and prevarication flush with the molding on the bottom of the door.

The second part slides in and out of identify and actually pushes upward against the middle where the French doors meet. It'southward only about 3 inches loftier and 9 inches wide, just it gets the job done. When you lot need to open your doors, you lot only slide the second piece out of place and fix it on top of the door frame.

If you lot have a tile or stone flooring, you might need a professional to install the caryatid because y'all'll need special screws and drills bit to work through those materials. About homeowners can install a security brace on wood or laminate floors without any problems.

five. Install smart sensors

If you want to accept things one step further, consider installing some form of electronic security. These options are usually less effective when it comes to stopping a break-in but are corking at alerting you lot or the constabulary to one.

Most of the electronic options are sensors that you put on your doors, and yous can get door sensors that are part of a larger home security system. These monitors will alert yous to intruders past sounding an alarm or by sending a notification to your phone.

Yous can purchase independent monitors, or glass intermission detectors, for your sliding glass or French doors, too. Glass break sensors are easily installed straight on the door and will sound if the glass is smashed. They aren't a good selection for keeping your doors close, but they're dandy for letting you know when your doors are compromised.

You lot can too check out our picks for the best home security systems in the country to find security systems with door and window sensors.

FAQ

Door reinforcements (which are stronger versions of your hinges, door jambs, and shields) work best on French doors and traditional exterior doors. They aren't recommended for sliding glass doors because the runway system requires unlike parts.

Security bars are going to be your best option because they will keep the door deeply closed and often require no anchoring screws.

You can replace your glass doors with touch on-resistant glass doors, only it's very expensive and you typically accept to purchase them through and have them installed by a window company. With price tags well over $1,000 per door, this isn't practical for anybody. You can buy security window film  that will make glass doors somewhat more shatterproof, merely it can be tricky to install.

Whatever route you determine to have to secure your sliding drinking glass or French doors, y'all'll exist adding a greater level of safe to your home for a pocket-sized cost and minimal effort. That sounds like a win-win to the states!

SafeWise methodology

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Katherine Torres

Written by

Katherine Torres

Katherine has had several years of feel developing and executing multichannel marketing campaigns, only actually started her career path in journalism. Though she switched gears, she continues to be driven past the demand to deliver information that tin be helpful for individuals. As an possessor of two rescue dogs, she is nearly interested in technology and products that allow her to go along a close eye on her pets when she's abroad.

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