Door Reinforcement

Commercial hollow metal doors and frames are a lot cheaper than Home Depot's price, check your authorized dealer. He has them in stock and sells them daily. Installation isn't that hard.

It is very much a case that if you armor up the door, then all you are doing is having an ingress point moved to the next most easy point. Since residential stick construction is lame from a hurricane/tornado point of view, it's easier to get thru a window or even the wall quicker. Sheet metal buildings put together with exposed screws even easier.

All it takes is a little knowledge of the construction trade and you'll be able to see how easy. Don't put all your eggs in the basket of a strongly reinforced door frame - simply because a battery powered reciprocating saw can take it out. Literally. It's only attached at the sill and what few studs connect the header to the house wall.

If you reinforce the studs into the next ones, things can get a lot stronger and tougher to take out. Which goes to third world construction - which is predominantly masonry in those societies which have frequent wars.
 
The purpose of the door reinforcement is to slow someone down to give you time to develop a defense or an early warning system. Instead of one kick, I would prefer to see several kicks and lots of noise. Enough time to get defensive.
 
Having spent several years "breaking in" to homes professionally (legally), I would also suggest a couple basics.

1) as noted, steel doors are much more secure than wood.
2) almost anything is an improvement over the provided hardware in regards to the hinges and strike plate.
3) a basic Kwikset handset can be defeated entirely to easily. Easy to "bump", pick, or the guts yanked and can be drilled in less than 30 seconds in many instances. Even the "designer" and higher end Kwiksets are only marginally better. As someone who has defeated thousands of door locks, take my word that any Schlage is a vast improvement. So much so that many pros will look for an easier entry.
4) the best security door, locks, hardened jams etc. mean nothing if you don't secure them and the windows properly.

5) absolutely nothing will make your home impermeable. If someone wants in, they're going to. All you can really do is make an effort to ensure it won't be quick or quiet.
 
Unless you put bars on your windows all "armoring" your door does is make someone that wants to get in look for an easy window to force.

As a firefighter we would get called to "check welfare" or gramma is down inside the house and we don't have a key calls. Rarely did we enter by forcing a door. Look for an open window, remove the screen and voila, you're in. Even a locked double hung window is a piece of cake to force with the traditional latches. Put a pry bar under the center of the bottom sash and pry upward. You would be surprised how little force it takes to pop out the 1/2 inch screws, and you won't damage the window frame or break the glass.

Ever leave your second story windows open when you leave the house? Then don't leave your ladder lying around because that's an open invite to come on in.

Locks only keep honest people out.
 
That kit has been around a while but there have been others just as good for deckades. It was standard for us to install "kits" on every new door install. Each time someone sends a link I wonder how thin a gage that steel strip is because he is hanging steel to an opening that should be fairly tight but yet he does not mortise the plate in

For new construction we did not use them we hung the door using the standard screws and sometimes even used 16p finish nails as you can still pry the door back and forth and drive in the shingle shims with finish nails.

Once the door was hung correctly and the shims in tight we would pull out two jamb screws per hinge and install 4 inch hardened steel screws.

We did the same for both strikes. We also replaced two of the doorside screws with hardened screws that were long enough to go throgh most of the doors frame this varied from door to door some doors got 3 inch screws some got five inchers.

About 20 years ago door companies started downsizing the size of the wood blocks that are around the locksets of "solid core doors" so you reallly need to pay attention when you cut in a deadbolt so that you put the deadbolt in through the block instead of the filler.
 
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Someone sent me a note about the Buddy Bar Door Jammer. Basically a 75 dollar metal bar which goes under the door knob which will offer a little bit more security.
 
If the house has vinyl siding you can cut your way through an exterior wall with a utility knife.
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IDK what the building code is around your area, but most places require some sort of sheathing underneath the siding ...... 'round here, it's generally 5/8" OSB or plywood. You aren't getting through that with a utility knife, unless you are really patient and packed a lunch.

Locks, steel doors, security windows .... even gun safes: all they do is buy time and make getting past them noisy enough to deter an attempt. Determined thieves, given enough time, tools and privacy, can get into anything.

Most thieves are LAZY, that's why they steal: it's easier than working.

Make it hard, and increase the likelyhood that they think they'll get caught.
 
I did a great deal of research on door security last year and without exception the best security for the least cost is Medeco security locks. They have been tested by a number of organizations and found to be resistant to bumping, drilling, sawing....virtually all the forced entry methods used by burglars. All the other locks lack in one or more of the protections mentioned and only 2 have the highest UL ratings. Be careful and read manufacturers literature carefully....they love to play with words that make their locks sound as though they have the highest rating but do not. Only Medeco and Schlage have the ratings (as of last year).

http://www.medeco.com/en/site/medeco/
 
Some guys broke into my neighbors house, but they paid no attention to the door locks. What they did is kicked the bottom hinge on the opposite side of lock(s). After max 2-3 kicks the door flew into the the foyer. The 3/4" screws did not hold anything in the casing.
 
The 3/4" screws did not hold anything in the casing.
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Those screws were about 3" too short.

The strike plates (for door knob latch and deadbolt), the metal jamb reinforcement, and the hinges all need tho be attached with screws long enough to tie them insolidly to the framing. 3" long minimum.
 
Door Reenforcement

A bury guy can knock a door in often with just one body slam and with a lot less most times.
The new as in 20 years old International Building Code is a joke. Look at any of the McMansions being built.
The wall are really weak and the whole wall can flex with opening or closing a door, in some.
Assuming you have some real sheathing I would replace the entire door jam and framing with 6x6 using screws and sections of 6x6 or at least more x4s in the framing up to four feet away from the door.
Lot of trouble and expense but a steel door won't do much good on a flimsy door jamb and wall.
Steel door and jam or at least solid core thick oak doors for entry and some real locks. The common door hinges are weak too.
I haven't tried but you can custom order doors for different hing locations, which we did, and maybe they can upgrade hinges and even another hinge beside the standard two. that on a steel door and frame, assuming they are as sturdy as the one we had on our old home, no one is gettign in without dynamite.
The locks, including dead bolts on our home are a joke. Hopefully I can get that rectified this summer.
 
My home is all brick, but as you sad there are "other-ways". For the other ways, like windows, no dynamite is needed.
 
A (burly?) guy can knock a door in often with just one body slam and with a lot less most times.
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If the door is solid ( or steel), the framing is solid, and the hinges and jamb plate are solidly connected to the framing with good screws, the harder that burly guy slams his body into the door, the more he's gonna hurt himself.

If someone lives in poorly constructed house, that's a choice. They can choose to live with it, or work on hardening it, or move.

Swapping the 1/2" screws that hold the strike plates and hinges for 3 1/2" screws takes 20 minutes and might cost $2 ...... adding a plate beind the jamb under the casing might cost 2-3 times that and take twice as long ..... but it will make kicking a solid door in nigh impossible ...... simple stuff, really.

Worth your time? Dunno...... I'm not you ...... you have to decide to do or do not ......
 
For the other ways, like windows, no dynamite is needed.
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FWIW, it's a darn sight easier to walk through a door than crawl through a window, particularly it there is glass involved ..... remember, the idea is to make the thought of getting in more difficult, time consuming and dangerous to the perp.
 
Talking about wall flexing....An X girlfriend had a house for sale so he hired dad and I to get it ready as it had been a rental that she and her then husband had rented for twenty some years. If you closed any of the upstairs doors you could hear the walls squeeking. The place had been built in 1955 with green lumber and the builder did not let the walls dry out before dry wall so years later when you closed the door the difference in air pressure cause the drywall to flex on the nails.
 
My house was built in 1956 too, all brick. The good thing about it is that at that time they used Douglas fir, much better than today's soft pine.
 
I used an oak 2x6 stud behind the jamb, oak 1x6 jamb glued and screwed to the stud, 1/8"x2"x4Ft steel strip recessed and screwed to the jamb face, then oak 1x5 screwed and glued to the jamb. The lock bolt also passes through a steel plate which is screwed into the jamb and stud with 4" screws.

With a 2" thick solid mahogany door, it is pretty sturdy. It is burglar proof? Probably not, but it will take several attempts to loosen it all up.

Someone mentioned the 14 lb Rat Terrier setting off the warning commotion...That is a fact. My 26 lb Rat (Fat Terrier) is very irritable when it comes to things being outside that aren't supposed to be there.

The 125 lb German Shepherd that lives in the back yard however, did allow some suspects to remove about $10,000.00 worth of tools from my shop without telling anyone, or even being a good witness.

I think he may be upset and was expressing his resentment of the relative life of ease and comfort that the Fat Terrier is enjoying.
 

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