How to Secure Your Sliding Glass Door

Sliding doors are a beautiful addition to any home. They let in light in the morning, showcase the sunset and shine on the best parts of the rooms you’re proud of. While you’re admiring the aesthetic value of your doors, the view of the outside from indoors and the ease of traveling from your kitchen to your backyard, however, you might not be thinking about how they can make your home more vulnerable to break-ins.

Burglars target sliding doors because they showcase what’s inside the house, they’re easy to break and their locks and pressure resistance can be weak. To enjoy the appeal of your doors while ensuring you’re protected against outside threats, try these tips.

Tips for Increasing Your Sliding Glass Door Security

• Add a bar to block the tracks. Sliding doors operate by moving along a set of tracks. Often, one panel is stationary while the other slides behind it when you open the door, and sometimes the doors open in the middle and slide away from each other. The latches on these doors aren’t very strong, so try reinforcing your security by placing a wood or metal bar behind the door that slides. This extra layer of resistance makes it much harder to break in.
• Use chains around the handles. Especially with doors that meet in the middle, tampering with the handle or parting the doors to break in can be a possible threat. To protect against this risk, try chain-linking your handles together or to an attachment in the wall with strong chain material.
• Reinforce the glass. You don’t want it to be easy for burglars to shatter the glass of your doors, so purchase a layer of glass film to protect your door or replace the material with impact-resistant glass.
• Add an extra plate. Similar to blocking your tracks with a sliding glass door security bar, you can purchase an anti-jimmy door plate that fits into the space on the tracks above the door to prevent it from being lifting off its tracks.

Better Glass Door Security With Ernie’s Lock and Key

To make sure your home entries are as sturdy as possible with sliding glass door security locks and reinforcements, consult Ernie’s Lock and Key. Providing key and locksmith services in the Maryland and Metro D.C. areas since 1960, we specialize in your safety. Contact us today.