Door locks on your garage

[Dodgepu360]

This is just a friendly reminder to put good locks on your garage and house

Last night I was messing with passenger side door panel on my truck and when I pulled it into my shop I intended to park back outside under the carport where I normally park so I left my keys in the ignition

I got called in for dinner and ended up watching TV and then later went out and closed up the shop

Well this morning I couldn't find my keys, yep you guessed still in the truck which is in the locked shop

So grab a butter knife to try and pop the lock open, I didn’t think it would work but I had nothing better to do, well it only took me about 30 seconds to open the door

It was just one of those door knob locks, I think it is time to get a good dead bolt

 

[...dave]

Even a deadbolt will only keep an honest man honest (unless you've got solid construction with no windows), but knob locks are worse than useless... our last house had a stupid design where you could open the door from inside with the lock on without disengaging it, then close the door behind you and discover you were locked out. When we replaced all the locks on our new place (previous owner had five different keys for six doors!), we got deadbolts and skipped the knob locks altogether.

 

[cc_rider]

What Dave said.

I replaced the door locks in my house; they were a mishmash of brands and keys. I got a couple of commercial-grade deadbolts made by Schlage; they're generally much higher quality than Kwikset or other 'contractor grade' stuff. When I had doors installed in the garage, it turned out the lock cylinders are the Schlage design; all I had to do was have the cylinders rekeyed to the house key.

When I replace the locks at the 'country manor' (okay, it's a single-wide in the boonies), I'm going to have them keyed to the same key; use one key for both places.

Knob locks are a waste of time; too flimsy. As long as the deadbolt is properly installed it'll work fine. Make sure the bolt throws the full inch into the jamb, and replace the short jamb screws with big long ones; you want the screws all the way into the framing, not just the door frame. Schlage uses two plates at the jamb; a 1/8" thick steel plate with 3" screws, then a brass cover plate. Much tougher to kick in; a crook is likely to break his ankle before he gets in.

c.

 

[the dude]

Even a deadbolt will only keep an honest man honest (unless you've got solid construction with no windows), but knob locks are worse than useless... our last house had a stupid design where you could open the door from inside with the lock on without disengaging it, then close the door behind you and discover you were locked out. When we replaced all the locks on our new place (previous owner had five different keys for six doors!), we got deadbolts and skipped the knob locks altogether.

Stupid design until your an 8 year old kid and your house is on fire, you're panicking, and can't get the twisty lock thing undone. Ask me how I know. It happened over 20 years ago and I still get shivers every time I fumble with a knob to unlock a door. My present house has commercial "safety open" knob locks and dead bolts on every door and the garage.

 

[drbill]

After the house next door got broken into I checked the dead bolt on the back door and found that the hole in the frame wasn't deep enough for it to lock. All it took was a small screwdriver and it popped open.
When I built my garage I had the door installed to swing outward, if you try to kick it in you have to deal with the whole door stop trim plus the deadbolt and knob. The hinges are riveted so it would take some doing to get them loose. This setup is kind of like any commercial building.

 

[Johnny Ringo]

Hello all! I'm a commercial door/hardware supplier. I get residential customers looking to add security to their shop/garage quite often. Schlage makes a light duty commercial deadbolt that is heavier than the beefiest residential deadbolt. Make sure the deadbolt you install has a hardened steel bolt that fully "locks" when thrown, believe it or not some residential deadbolts are made with mild steel!

One problem with installing an outswing door is that the hinges and latch are exposed to the intruder. With a cordless sawzall, the hinge pins can be cut-off in about 30 seconds. Using a heavier gauge commercial hinge will slow someone down though. The best hinge to use here is an interlocking (tab on 1 leaf, & recess on the other)with non-removable pins (set screw from inside). With this hinge the pin can be cut-off, but due to the interlocking tabs, the door has to be opened before the door can be removed from the frame. You should also install a latch guard, this will make it more difficult to access the door latch and/or deadbolt bolt.

On my garage door I have a lockset, deadbolt and one of those child proof plate locks that is mounted at the top of the door (this will help to keep the door from flexing if kicked). I've installed the reinforcing plate behind the strike on the deadbolt using screws that reach all the way into the studs. I've also used a similar reinforcing plate on the lockset strike that is screwed into the studs. This summer I am going to change out the wood frame to a commercial grade hollow metal steel frame.

Remember the opening is only as strong as the weakest item. Sorry to ramble on, but I hear about break ins quite a bit when I'm at work!

 

[wantedabiggergarage]

What Dave said.

Knob locks are a waste of time; too flimsy. As long as the deadbolt is properly installed it'll work fine. Make sure the bolt throws the full inch into the jamb, and replace the short jamb screws with big long ones; you want the screws all the way into the framing, not just the door frame. Schlage uses two plates at the jamb; a 1/8" thick steel plate with 3" screws, then a brass cover plate. Much tougher to kick in; a crook is likely to break his ankle before he gets in.

c.

Instead of breaking thier ankles, they tend to grab the concrete bird bath (battering ram) and break in.

Anyone else here, get ANNOYED at those "locking" screen door locks, that have the quick release so you don't get locked out? Never understood why they sell them.

 

[KingPerformance]

Then there is that nice window over there ... don't get me started on automatic garage door openers.

 

[healing]

How about those keyless combination door locks. Does anyone have them that can recommend them? It would be nice to just have to remember a number and not have to carry keys around.

 

[hotrod66paul]

Have had a keyless combination push button door lock for about 20yrs and have taken it apart for lubrication two or three times and still works great. Wife gets mad because I'm always leaving the door unlocked but with a german shepard and a golden retriver it dosen't seem to matter. Just remember that locks are for honest people and if a crook makes up his mind to get in there isn't a whole lot that can be done but getting out might be a little difficult.

 

[cc_rider]

Wanted.. and hotrod are pretty much right; if they want in bad enough they'll get in. But remember, crooks are crooks because they're LAZY. Or stupid. Usually both. Just slowing them down a little, or causing them to make noise, can dissuade them from your place.

Speaking of stupid criminals:
One of my cars is a Miata, which has a huge online community. Many owners do not lock their cars, because a new top is at least $1100. Many don't even bother putting the top up except for rain, so they keep the cockpit bare. Still, many have had their tops slashed through with the DOORS UNLOCKED. And since the owner knew the doors were unlocked, they didn't leave anything worth having in the car. The crook(s) incurred $1100 of damage for NOTHING.

c.

 

[russlaferrera]

Check this . It's called lock bumping. http://youtube.com/watch?v=5uctoa4xl In search type in lock bumping I tried and tried, I can not set the link up...russ

 

[Kent in KC]

I put deadbolts on my doors, but without cutting the hole through the door for the lockset. Result: you can deadbolt it from the inside and there's no way to pick the lock from the outside. Also, used 4" deck screws to secure the striker plate to the studs.

 

[Willy Victor]

Some burglars have been known to use a hydraulic ram. A few pumps and the door jamb is spread enough to open the door. I heard of one case where some kids stole a car and drove it through the garage door. What ever you do, don't rig up any booby traps or the perp. will turn around and sue you for his injuries.

Willy

 

[cc_rider]

Yeah, if they're going to that much effort you're gonna have trouble keeping them out.

Just like the tool trailer we had stolen. It had a big lock on the hitch, but the baddies cut the lock off WITH A PLASMA CUTTER. There ain't much that'll stop a plasma cutter.

The insurance company tried to run us around about it too; they had NO IDEA what a plasma cutter is and tried to act like we'd left it in a bad part of town. The house the guys were working on was one of the smaller ones in the neighborhood, and it was over $500,000. We finally explained you could pretty much cut through a bank vault door with one. Probably not technically accurate, but it got the point across.

c.

 

[mpraddict]

As flimsy as new garage doors are, why would someone bother with all that....