When it comes to securing your home, locks provide the first line of defense against intruders. Good locks can make it much more difficult to breach your property. Additionally, many thieves will abandon a break-in attempt before they would do something as conspicuous as breaking in through a window. Unfortunately, homeowners do not always maintain the best lock security. For starters, residential lock manufacturers often cut corners when creating locks for homes. These locks often prioritize price over quality, leaving your home’s doors vulnerable to the simplest of attacks from any burglar. Additionally, many homeowners also practice poor key security. Of course, even the best locks fail when the wrong people get a key! In this post, we share some valuable residential lock security tips to help you address these issues.
First, we’ll explain how to choose the high-quality locks that provide your desired security. Then, we’ll review the various lock options you have for installation in your home. Choosing the right type of lock goes a long way towards creating effective door security. Finally, we’ll look at a key-free lock option for your home in the form of keypad locks. These locks can help you control the amount of spare keys you create to allow access to your house. Now, let’s dive in with a look at how to choose high-quality locks for your doors.
Pay Attention to Quality Over Price
All of us have heard the old adage that “you get what you pay for.” This sentiment rings especially true in the security industry. Many customers express surprise at how much the quality of lock hardware varies. In fact, lock hardware quality varies so much that the industry uses a three-point grading system designed by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and Builders Hardware Manufacturers Association (BHMA) to measure a lock’s quality!
Choosing locks based on quality, rather than price, can greatly increase the overally door security at your home.
Lock manufacturers often seek out ANSI/BHMA certification for their product lines. This certification involves putting locks through tests meant to gauge factors such as bolt strength, security, the ability to withstand impact and force, and quality of finish, among others. The lowest-quality hardware receives a “Grade 3” designation, with the best scoring in at Grade 1. As you can probably guess, Grade 2 falls right in the middle. Grade 2 locks represent a step up from Grade 3, without having quite the quality of a Grade 1 lock.
Unfortunately, most reseidential locks fall under “Grade 3” quality standards. Burglars can easily pick these locks, or drill them to gain access to your property. Before purchasing locks, look at the packaging to see if you can determine what grade of lock you are buying. If you cannot find this information, assume that you are holding a Grade 3 lock. We recommend installing a lock that will last longer while providing more security. In particular, our preferred lock manufacturer, Medeco, creates grade 1 locks that provide uniquely effective security against any type of attack from thieves! Now, let’s turn our attention to the importance of choosing the right locking hardware for your doors.
Choose the Right Type of Deadbolt
It should come as no surprise that one of our top residential lock security tips is choosing the deadbolt that best fits your application. We prioritize deadbolts over knob and lever locks because they truly provide the door’s security. Deadbolts contain a sturdy bolt that always provides more security than the small latch at the end of a knob or lever. Furthermore, this bolt extends much further into your door’s door jam then a latch, which only overlaps the edge of the door by a small margin. Finally, deadbolts are constructed more sturdily and must be installed more securely than their non-deadbolt counterparts. Therefore, we will focus solely on these locks in this section. After all, if a deadbolt gets defeated, the remaining doorknob or lever will provide no match for any thief. Now, let’s review some deadbolt options for your home!
Deadbolts Options for Your Home
Because deadbolts provide the bulk of your door security, we recommend installing them on all exterior doors. Furthermore, interior garage doors also make good spots for deadbolts. Homeowners often leave their garage doors open while working around the yard. This can lead to lowered security if someone sees this as an opportunity to break in. Therefore, these doors often deserve the security a deadbolt provides.
Most deadbolts have a keyhole on the outside, with a thumb turn on the inside. We call this style of lock a “single-sided” deadbolt. This will allow you to leave the house without using your key. During a fire, this proves especially useful. Unfortunately, burglars can break through the glass on doors and easily unlock single-sided deadbolts. For this reason, you may want to consider installing a double-sided deadbolt on doors with windows. Double-sided deadbolts have keyholes on both sides of the lock, keeping thieves out even if they break the glass. However, we do not recommend installing double-sided deadbolts on doors that you may use to escape a fire. The ability to escape a burning home without a key should remain paramount at all times.
Deadbolts with a captive thumb turn can provide the security of a double-sided deadbolt without reducing fire safety.
In the case that you have a door with a window that you may need to use as a fire escape, we also have a solution for you. As we mentioned, we prefer locks by Mededo when working with customers to design home security. Medeco makes a lock that can alternate between single-sided and double-sided based on whether or not you are home. This unique deadbolt, which you can see pictured, has a removable thumbturn that let’s you experience the security of a double-sided deabolt while way, and the fire security of a single-sided deabolt when you need it. Now, let’s check out one more option for residential lock security.
Consider Keypad Locks to Experience Greater Key Control
Keypad locks have steadily risen in popularity over the past several years. We recommend these locks for a couple reasons. For one, keypad locks can add convenience by allowing you to grant access to your home without the need to stop at home yourself. Simply provide a “user” code to the friend or worker who needs access to your home, and you can even choose to delete the code afterwards if you want to make sure that nobody comes back and uses that code to enter the home down the road! Furthermore, keypad locks can solve the problem of people making unwanted key copies. If you use codes, rather than keys, to grant access to your home, you can add and delete codes as needed without worrying about someone creating a key copy to use down the line.
As an additional keypad lock option, we also install smart keypad locks. These locks have all of the features of regular keypad locks, with some additional technology-related features added on! For example, you can lock and unlock a smart lock using an app on your phone. This allows you to grant one-time access to your home without providing a key or a code. Additionally, smart keypad locks can send alerts to your phone. This lets you know who uses a code to unlock your door, and when. The extra security and convenience provided by this technology has made smart keypad locks one of the most popular residential locks we provide.
Putting Our Residential Lock Security Tips to Work for You
We hope that this post helps you understand your residential lock security options for your own home. Of course, we encourage you to contact us with any questions that the material here may raise for you. We will happily answer any and all of your security-related inquiries. If you may want to put of the tips that we’ve shared today into action, we also encourage you to take advantage of our free site survey program. We offer complimentary security audits and equipment quotes to help you create any security you desire. While on site, we can address your existing concerns and share our own security advice after evaluating your home’s security. Together, we can create a complete plan to keep your home, your most prized possessions, and your family as safe and secure as possible!