Blank Door Hanger

Introducing a door alarm into your home is an uncomplicated and inexpensive way to achieve top notch home and business security, maintain impeccable customer service, or protect your children from injury. Before purchasing and installing a door alarm, you need to be acquainted with the benefits of these devices. (1) Where a door alarm ought to be placed (2) How a door alarm works (3) The best use for a door alarm.

With this information in hand, you will have the ability to choose the type of door alarm that will best fit your needs. The Placement of a Door Alarm The key achieving top security is to place a door alarm on every exterior door. Burglars often use back doors, garage doors, and basement doors to gain entry into homes or businesses. Knowing when someone is entering or exiting is most thorough if each door is fitted with a door alarm. How a Door Alarm Works.

In layman's terms, magnetic strips are placed on the door and on the door frame, and when the contact is broken the door alarm sounds. The sound emitted is dependant upon the type of door alarm you choose. The sound options are numerous: short, fairly quiet beeps or chimes, loud, piercing sirens and some even sound like a barking German Shepard. A loud alarm is used for security reasons, while a softer-sounding door alarm is for notifying you when someone enters or exits.

The Many Uses for a Door Alarm

A door alarm is most frequently used as a security device. There is no better way to secure your home than to be notified each and every time someone opens or closes a door, but there are several other reasons to utilize a door alarm in your home or business. Often a business will place a door alarm on the front door to notify employees when customers enter, thereby allowing employees to stay productive by not having to keep a constant eye on the door. Emergency exits are often equipped with a door alarm so that if or when they are opened, the entire building will be aware of a possible emergency situation. To keep small children from gaining access to a swimming pool, a door alarm can be placed on the gate surrounding the swimming pool area. This type of placement, with the door alarm access button or key pad out of reach, ensures small children will not be at risk of drowning.

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 57 percent of burglaries in the United States, in 2003, took place without forced entry. Installing a door alarm is an inexpensive way to ensure your home won't be part of this statistic.

Home Security Patio Sliding Glass Doors

As promised at the end of part 4 of this series, in this section I will deal with Patio Sliding Glass Doors. Quite often homeowners install sturdy locks on their front doors but leave their patio doors and sliding glass windows "wide open" to illegal entry.

Burglars love these because they are so easy to open. Usually, sliding doors and windows are at the side or rear of the home so they are more secluded than the front door, this makes a perfect place for burglars to hide and enter.

There are two main risks that need to be protected against.

1. Forcing the lock.
The standard lock that is fitted to most sliding doors and windows is very easy to pry open, an additional stronger lock should be fitted to give more security. Something as simple as lying a broomstick in the runner can offer some protection provided it is a good fit.

However Dead Locks are much better, they will prevent the burglar from using the door or window to remove stolen property unless they smash the glass and that is a very noisy and risky thing for them to do.

2. Lifting Out.
Many sliding doors and windows can be lifted out of their tracks from the outside. You can prevent this by putting two metal screws through the track above the sliding part of the door or window, the screw will need to be adjusted to allow the door to operate correctly.

Double Hung Windows
To lock a double hung window, you will have to drill a downward sloping hole into the top of the bottom window, and through that into the bottom of the top window being careful to avoid the glass unit, if you have any doubt about your DIY abilities get a professional tradesman to do it. Once the hole is drilled a pin can be inserted, locking the window shut.

To use the window for ventilation, you should partly open it (less that 4 inches) and making a second set of holes, the window can then be used for ventilation.

Remember, open windows and doors, even if secured, should never be left unattended while you are gone or asleep.

This section is quite short but I thought the information was important enough to deserve a section of it's own. In part six we will be dealing with Burglar Alarms.