Ways to Secure Sliding Doors

Everyone wants their homes to be as safe as possible and talk of security systems and locks are always at the forefront. But what about some of the simpler things you can do to help protect your home. When it comes to sliding glass doors, we can sometimes forget that they typically don’t have as strong of a lock system as the ones on your front doors. Consider some of these tips to help secure your beautiful sliding doors.

One of the easiest things you can do is to have a solid bar made of wood, metal or strong plastic to simply lay down in your sliding door track while it is closed. By putting an obstruction in the way, when the door tries to slide open, it will get stopped by the bar laying on the track. You can easily obtain a bar for this, by cutting down an old broom handle or a wooden dowel that you can get at your local hardware store. First measure the space that is your track and cut the broom handle slightly shorter than that measurement. This allows you to have room to insert and remove the bar from the door track. You can also paint the bar to match your door for a more aesthetic appeal. Don’t forget to remove it when you try to open the door or you’ll meet a sudden stop and you don’t want to do any damage to your door. When you paint it to blend in with the color of the door, you can tend to forget about it when you go to open the door. They also sell pre-made security bars out of other materials as well. 

For dual sliding doors that have two handles that are next to each other, you can attach a chain or similar material around the door handles to tie them together, so they use each other to act as a resistance if someone tries to slide the doors open. Just make sure you use a material that can’t be easily cut. If an intruder happens to be able to slide the door open a little and can reach the binding mechanism, they may be able to cut it. There are some locking mechanisms on the market you can buy as well, if you don’t want to fashion one yourself out of other materials.  Make sure whatever item you get to help secure your door is easy to remove by you and your family, so if there is an emergency, you are not trapped inside.
You can also buy a clear safety window film to help reinforce the glass. Apply the safety film to your glass doors for added protection. These will allow you to still be able to look out and enjoy the sunshine, but will block those that are outside from looking in. It can also slow down intruders, with the reinforced glass it will take more to break it out of the door frame to allow access for someone to enter your home. There are several options for this product on the market. You can also add curtains to keep people from looking into your home.

Some other options are adding a more secure lock system to your sliding doors, or integrating it into a monitored home security system.
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If you’d like to discuss more security options for your home, please give us a call at Minnesota Locks. We can help you figure out the best options to suit your needs for a more secure home.

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