Strangers at the door...

June 08, 2025, 10:52 AM

Door braces are fine, but I'm in a bilevel with four windows one foot above ground. Criminals take the path of least resistance. Why try to kick in a door when they can toss a brick through the window and climb in? Of course either one I might hear.

June 08, 2025, 12:07 PM

selogic

quote:
Originally posted by Schmelby:
Door braces are fine, but I'm in a bilevel with four windows one foot above ground. Criminals take the path of least resistance. Why try to kick in a door when they can toss a brick through the window and climb in? Of course either one I might hear.

That is why you have an alarm . And a noisy Dog .

June 08, 2025, 12:20 PM

wcb6092

quote:
Originally posted by selogic:
quote:
Originally posted by Schmelby:
Door braces are fine, but I'm in a bilevel with four windows one foot above ground. Criminals take the path of least resistance. Why try to kick in a door when they can toss a brick through the window and climb in? Of course either one I might hear.
That is why you have an alarm . And a noisy Dog .

And an AR15

June 08, 2025, 02:49 PM

MikeinNC

Schmelby, I plant roses in front of windows that are ground level, trimmed to waist height. A person can’t hide behind them. Or get thru them w/o a lot of trouble. You can’t make your home a fortress (or maybe you can) but making it less appealing to the thieves is better.

“You may beat me, but you will never win.” sigmonkey-2020

“ in my opinion, anything that we can do to trigger a potential aneurysm in a leftist is a good thing and worth doing” nhtagmember 2025

June 08, 2025, 03:26 PM

Schmelby

quote:
Originally posted by MikeinNC:
Schmelby, I plant roses in front of windows that are ground level, trimmed to waist height. A person can’t hide behind them. Or get thru them w/o a lot of trouble. You can’t make your home a fortress (or maybe you can) but making it less appealing to the thieves is better.

When I bought this house there were Boxwoods taller than the windows. Couldn't see a thing. Cut em out, low perennials now.
I want to be able to see, not just my property but bird feeders, sunlight etc.
I'm the last house on a dead end, any pedestrian traffic catches my eye.

June 08, 2025, 04:38 PM

c1steve

Replacing the doors with steel doors in a steel frame is not hard to do, and 100x more reliable than anything in wood. There are some good looking steel doors.

I would buy something that looked like wood, but was steel. No point in giving the perps any info on your defense system. Home Depot has low cost steel door assemblies, and there are other options that cost a few thousand.

June 08, 2025, 08:00 PM

vthoky

quote:
Originally posted by vthoky:
Surfing for a moment on that door bar, I found another gadget: the Prime-Line Door Reinforcement Lock.

For what it’s worth, this device is $20 and change at Lowe’s, rather than $30 and change at Home Depot.

June 08, 2025, 08:25 PM

V-Tail

quote:
Originally posted by vthoky:

For what it’s worth, this device is $20 and change at Lowe’s, rather than $30 and change at Home Depot.

Home Depot might price-match.

June 08, 2025, 08:35 PM

vthoky

That’s a good point, Mr. V-Tail.

I ordered one from Lowes to check out; might pick up a second one at HD (they have them in stock nearby).

June 09, 2025, 06:37 AM

SIGguy229

quote:
Originally posted by Cookster:
Always be vigilant and prepared.

This was posted on Citizen Free Press a day or two ago. . .

https://x.com/Mrgunsngear/status/1930652600212336966

[FLASH_VIDEO]<iframe id="twitter-widget-1" scrolling="no" src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=true&embedId=twitter-widget-0&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&lang=en&theme=&id=1930652600212336966" style="position: static; visibility: visible; width: 550px; height: 648px; display: block; border: medium; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-image: url('https://codejanitor.net/embeds/images/bgmessage.png'); background-position: center 85px; background-size: 200px auto; overflow: hidden;" title="Twitter Tweet"></iframe>[/FLASH_VIDEO]

"Door Dash:....Dasher was deactivated"

UH...if he's still breathing--he's still activated.

June 09, 2025, 06:38 AM

SIGguy229

quote:
Originally posted by wcb6092:
quote:
Originally posted by selogic:
quote:
Originally posted by Schmelby:
Door braces are fine, but I'm in a bilevel with four windows one foot above ground. Criminals take the path of least resistance. Why try to kick in a door when they can toss a brick through the window and climb in? Of course either one I might hear.
That is why you have an alarm . And a noisy Dog .

And an AR15

And several magazines of ball and soft tip

June 18, 2025, 11:57 AM

vthoky

quote:
Originally posted by vthoky:
I found another gadget: the Prime-Line Door Reinforcement Lock.

Project update: I received and installed the Prime Line gadget yesterday. Installation is a 5-minute job, really. I like it, though one of the three 3" mounting screws managed to find a hollow spot... not sure how that happened. I figure someone trying to get through it will make a bit more noise, though, so it's not like it's a complete loss.

I'll probably get more for the other doors. And one of the bars that Normin suggested, too, for a door that opens near stairs. Good bracing there!

June 18, 2025, 07:48 PM

StorminNormin

quote:
Originally posted by vthoky:
quote:
Originally posted by vthoky:
I found another gadget: the Prime-Line Door Reinforcement Lock.

Project update: I received and installed the Prime Line gadget yesterday. Installation is a 5-minute job, really. I like it, though one of the three 3" mounting screws managed to find a hollow spot... not sure how that happened. I figure someone trying to get through it will make a bit more noise, though, so it's not like it's a complete loss.

I'll probably get more for the other doors. And one of the bars that Normin suggested, too, for a door that opens near stairs. Good bracing there!

THIS is the bars I ended up getting from Amazon and I really like them. They are Masterlock brand and $21 each.

June 18, 2025, 07:52 PM

vthoky

^^^^
In stock at my local Lowes. I’m on it!

June 19, 2025, 09:51 AM

V-Tail

quote:
Originally posted by StorminNormin:

I ended up getting from Amazon and I really like them. They are Masterlock brand and $21 each.

Amazon pricing for this item is interesting. $21 for one of them, $61 for a two-pack.

June 19, 2025, 10:47 AM

220-9er

A good alarm system, cameras in key places with signage to warn bad guys and a barking dog will make 99% or more go somewhere else.

June 19, 2025, 12:36 PM

bcereuss

quote:
Originally posted by V-Tail:
quote:
Originally posted by StorminNormin:

I ended up getting from Amazon and I really like them. They are Masterlock brand and $21 each.
Amazon pricing for this item is interesting. $21 for one of them, $61 for a two-pack.

Sounds like some of my sales I offer occasionally: one for the price of two!

June 19, 2025, 12:51 PM

ryan81986

quote:
Originally posted by V-Tail:
quote:
Originally posted by StorminNormin:

I ended up getting from Amazon and I really like them. They are Masterlock brand and $21 each.
Amazon pricing for this item is interesting. $21 for one of them, $61 for a two-pack.

A lot of stuff on Amazon has weird pricing like that.

June 19, 2025, 01:02 PM

V-Tail

quote:
Originally posted by bcereuss:
quote:
Originally posted by V-Tail:
Amazon pricing for this item is interesting. $21 for one of them, $61 for a two-pack.
Sounds like some of my sales I offer occasionally: one for the price of two!

Special, this week only: two for a nickel, three for a dime.

June 19, 2025, 05:09 PM

MikeinNC

quote:
Originally posted by vthoky:
Surfing for a moment on that door bar, I found another gadget: the Prime-Line Door Reinforcement Lock.

Hey guys, those are easy to defeat. You just need a thin flexible piece of plastic to shove in between the door and frame and bump the device from inside and it opens right up. Some lock picking guy(McNally iirc) showed it a few years ago and the easy way to prevent it is to wrap a rubber band round the part that pivots (from top to bottom) and the rubber band prevents the shim from working.

If you know a firefighter, they get all kinds of training to defeat locks, chains bars so they can be a good reference for seeing how tough things are in real life. If the fire dept has to do damage to defeat the lock it’s a better item.