Door Reinforcement
Due to current construction standards, most residential doors are vulnerable to forced entry. This is why Unlockit’s residential security solutions start with your doors and making sure that they protect your home the way they’re supposed to.
We can reinforce your doors' hinges, hardware, frames, and door jambs to make your doors stronger and more resistant to forced entry.
Unlockit offers a Door Reinforcement Kit that can be purchased as individual pieces or as a set. The kit includes a Door Frame Protector, Door Edge Protector, and set of (2) Door Hinge Protectors.
- The Door Frame Protector is a 59-inch steel plate that is surface mounted onto the frame of your door using 3-inch screws (or 2-inch screws if you have sidelights next to the door). This piece helps protect the strike (the catch for the door latch) if an attempt were made to kick the door open.
- The Door Edge Protector is a 48-inch steel channel that is installed on the edge of your door using long screws. This piece helps close the gap between the door and the door frame and will help prevent the door from splitting open if someone tries to kick in or pry open the door with a crowbar.
- The Door Hinge Protectors are 8-inch steel channels that are typically installed around the top and bottom hinges of a door. These pieces help protect the hinges if the door were to split in an attempted kick in.
Hardware Installation
For doors that need additional security, Unlockit supplies surface bolts from Deltana, Door Guardians, floor locks, and sliding glass door deadbolts. These products can be used as supplements to locks that are already on a door. Each ensures doors are held shut.
Door Guardians are generally installed to prevent forced entry, but they can also serve as a precaution in homes with small children or seniors prone to wander. Door Guardians are installed high on the interior jamb of inward swinging doors to be out of reach of those who may open the door by accident.
While they are typically used for French doors, floor locks and surface bolts can be installed on single doors as well. Floor locks are a two-piece door barricade device. One piece is secured into the floor and the other piece slides into it and up against the door when the device is in use. Surface bolts are manually operated door bolts that are mounted on the interior face of a door. Both of these devices are used to prevent a door from being opened.
As the name implies, sliding glass door deadbolts can be installed to act as the primary locking mechanism on a sliding glass door. This device helps impede any effort to remove the sliding door from its track.
Break-In Repair
A break-in is a jarring experience, and the unfortunate fact is they occur more often than you might think. According to the FBI, a burglary happens every 30 seconds, and forcible entry offenses (commonly referred to as break-ins) can comprise more than half of all reported burglaries. And contrary to popular belief, break-ins are usually committed during daylight hours when intruders assume that the occupants aren’t around. It’s a terrifying reality that any home can fall victim.
Our goal is prevention, but in the event that your home is broken into, we can use our Door Reinforcement Kit to repair damaged sections of your door. Even if there are no obvious signs of damage, call us and we will have a technician assess your doors to ensure your home's security.
If your home is broken into, here are the steps you should follow:
- Call the police - You need to inform the authorities about what happened. If you weren't home at the time of the incident, don't go inside, because you risk destroying important evidence.
- Take notes - If you were home at the time of the incident, write down all of the details about the intruder, such as age, gender, race, physical appearance, what clothes they were wearing, how they entered your home, and where they went inside your home. This may help the police.
- File a police report - The police will instruct you on how to do it once they get to your home. It's important to do it as soon as possible since you'll need the report to file an insurance claim.
- Call your insurance company - You should contact your insurance company within 24 hours of the incident, but only after you've filed a police report. The insurance company will request a lot of the information contained in the police report.
- Improve your home security - With the Door Reinforcement Kit that Unlockit provides, we can repair points of forced entry and reinforce vulnerable areas of doors and frames.
Door Adjustments
Issues with the functionality of a lock may be completely unrelated to the hardware itself. Doors can become misaligned due to improper installation, the home settling, normal wear-and-tear, or changing weather conditions. Because of small shifts in the positioning of the door, a lock may begin to malfunction.
Fortunately, the resolution for such a problem is usually a door adjustment and often doesn’t require any new hardware to be installed.
If you suspect your locks aren't working well because of misaligned doors, give us a call and we'll take care of it for you.