How to Upgrade Home Security Without an Actual Alarm System
A good alarm can often be the best way to upgrade your home's overall security, and especially if you opt for security cameras that you can monitor remotely, to ensure your home is safe even when you're away. However, some people are very uncomfortable with alarm systems, worrying that they'll accidentally set off the alarm, or worrying that a child might find it frightening to use when they're home alone. Whatever your reason for not wanting an alarm system, note a few ways to upgrade your home's security without the use of cameras, alerts, keypads, and other such high-tech solutions.
Strengthen doorjambs
When someone kicks in an entryway door, they don't actually splinter the door itself. Instead, they are usually breaking the frame of the door, or the doorjamb, and separating it from the home's framework. This causes the entire door to simply fall away from the doorway, so that they can gain access to the home.
An upgraded doorjamb can ensure that no one can simply kick the doorframe away from the home's framework and structure; this might mean a metal frame for the doorjamb, along with deep bolts that connect the door's frame to the home's frame. As with trying to kick a door's deadbolt open, this makes it virtually impossible to kick the door's frame open.
Security doors
A security door will usually have its own strengthened frame with added bolts to connect it to the home's framework, so it can't be easily kicked in, as mentioned above. However, a security door will also typically have sunken or hidden hinges, so that no one can slide a tool through the gap between the door and the frame and then lift the hinges out of their sockets. The deadbolt of a security door may also be thicker and larger than standard deadbolts, and may even have multiple pins for added security.
Add a deadbolt to a sliding door
If you check the sliding door to your home's patio, you may note that the lock is very flimsy and thin, and may be made of lightweight plastic. This type of lock is very easy for someone to just force open. To secure a sliding door, install a deadbolt at the top. This bolt installs to the outer side of the slider door, and has a matching slot that you drill into the top of the door's frame. You can then slide the deadbolt shut of your sliding glass door, just as you would the deadbolt of your home's entryway door.
