The latest overview of burglary and other household theft from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reveals that 650,000 domestic burglary incidents occurred in the year ending March 2017. The survey also found that 2 in every 100 households in England and Wales were victims of domestic burglary during the same period.
Burglaries with entry or attempted entry were the most common types of burglary in dwellings. In addition to your windows, your front and back doors are prime entry points for criminals looking to take advantage of lacking security on your property.
Luckily, there are several ways in which you can improve security and even make your doors burglar proof to prevent these unfortunate incidents happening at your home.
Don’t delay that upgrade
Upgrading your front and back doors makes your property more aesthetically pleasing and bolsters your home security credentials. There are a number of modern day door security features available, courtesy of the latest door designs. Alongside the use of laminated glass, your door lock choice plays a vital part in keeping unwanted intruders at bay.
At Unicorn Windows, we use multi-point locking systems to ensure our doors are the most secure around. Our high-security door cylinders are another security feature we fit to ensure an anti-bump, anti-drill, anti-pick, and anti-snap solution.
Reinforce your frame
It’s not just your door that benefits from a security conscious upgrade. A common technique used by burglars is to gain entry by forcing the door frame. Strengthening the door frame is therefore an important step in enhancing the wider security of your property’s doors. The vertical part of the door frame, known as the door jamb, can benefit from extra reinforcement as detailed by Safewise.com:
“Reinforcing the way the door jamb connects to the door serves to improve the connection and make it harder to separate the two. A good way of doing this is by adding additional connecting material to the door jamb. This could be a strip of metal or wood that is screwed deeply into the frame of the door. This acts as an additional layer of resistance and minimizes the chances of the door being compromised with methods that employ blunt and direct force.”
Accessorise with lighting
Internally, the placement of light fixtures can create a fitting and comfortable ambience. Outside your property, lighting plays a very different role.
Lights that have been carefully positioned above both the inner and outer front door are excellent investments for those looking to improve security after dark. Lights with motion detectors are even better. With the latest motion sensor lights using less energy than ever, there’s no excuse not to add to or upgrade your home’s security lighting.
Remember privacy matters
Increasing privacy with appropriate treatments such as blinds, shutters, and drapes is recommended. For more tips on increasing the privacy of your windows and doors, please read this blog post.