What To Look For In A Lock For Your Home
Safeguarding your home can be tricky, especially if you are living areas prone to thieves or burglars. When choosing a door lock, many homeowners consider price rather than the quality of the lock. This is because most contractors or homeowners are not lock experts. However, you can make the right choice if you understand what to look for in a lock for your home and what options are available. In order to choose the most secure locks, you have to look at it from the thief’s point of view. It is worth noting that burglars prefer breaking into a home through the door since it is both faster and easier. The good news is that with a high quality lock, you can deter intruders as well as thieves.
In most cases, thieves can access your home through a door using a wide range of ways, including unlocked door, spreading the door frames apart with a spread bar, or even obtaining a copy of the house key from a relative and use it to unlock the door. This explain why it is important to install strong door locks as well as locking your doors and windows whether you are within the house or outside.
Resources:
Fountain Hills Locksmith Pros
homedepot.com
ansi.org
Here are what you should look for in a lock for your home:
The Door Lock Type
There are different locks on the market today, but not all of them are secure and safe. For this reason, it is wise to choose a lock that can provide maximum security regardless of the prevailing situations. The most common and secure door lock used by many homeowners is a door lock with a deadbolt type bolt.
The type of the bolt has a huge impact on the lock’s strength. There are two types of bolts: deadbolts and latch bolts. However, there are a locks that combine the two locks into one for maximum protection.
Key control
This refers to the act of controlling or regulating who has copies of keys to your home. In most situations, door keys can be copied at a retail store or local hardware. However, several lock makers now provide locks with keys that cannot be copied at local hardwares except by the designated locksmiths or manufacturers themselves.
When you buy locks with key control, you can deter anyone from copying keys apart from you or the person you designate. For key control to be effective, you should visit a lock manufacturer for rekeying services. This way to will be able to ensure that the key to your home is safe.
ANSI Standards
Select door locks that meet the standards set by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). This grading system is used to evaluate the durability and and security of the door locks. All the locks with grade 1 are considered the best in terms of safety and durability.
Different models of locks are assessed differently under the American National Standards Institute requirements. Locks tested under these standards include mortise locks, interconnected locks, auxiliary locks, and other types of locks. These standards can be used to compare one lock to another so as to make the right choice at th end of theday.
Security Strike Plate
Security strike plate features in most of the door locks if not all, and are made of thin gauge metal. These strike plates can provide security as play a crucial role in enhancing your home exterior design. They come with 2 one inch screws to fix it securely to the doorframe.
Today, high security strike plates can be found on the market. These plates has a heavy metal gauge metal strengthening the plate as well as 3” long screws to secure the strike to the wall rather than to the doorframe jamb.
Captured Key Deadbolt
Thieves can break into your home through a locked door by breaking the glass in the door sidelight to unlock the door. To solve this problem, you can install a deadbolt locked with a remarkable feature known as capture key. This type of the lock has a thumb turn on the interior side of the door which can be removed from the lock to create a double cylinder deadbolt condition. To remove the thumb turn, you should have the key to the lock. It is advisable to leave the thumb turn in the lock whenever you are in the house.