Sliding Glass Door Safety

Things that I’m OK saying now that Pete moved out of his apartment?

It’s really easy to break-in to homes through cheap sliding glass doors.

This is a little post about keeping it safe. Because I broke into his apartment at least twice this past year and thankfully I’m (maybe) the only one to have done so. I’m not going to tell you how, because I’m not condoning it, just take it from me and get your respective girlfriend and boyfriend house keys earlier, even if the landlord says you aren’t allowed to duplicate. There’s someone shady over at the local hardware store who doesn’t care about their “do not dupe” stamp. Of course, after some time, Pete did construct something to prohibit the cheap door from being openable from the outside. Openable is a word, right? I digress.

This is a message from the inside, which I realize sounds a little Criminal Minds-y. Don’t rely on your sliding glass door as it came from the store; do a little something to keep yourself safe with a few easy tricks to keep that door tamper-proof.

The sliding glass door in my house is pretty good. A respectable brand with a reliable lock. And I have spot lights, a public backyard, observant neighbors, and a bark-happy dog who likes flesh (ok, not really), so don’t even think about testing a break-in out on me. The previous owners had a hook and eye latch at the top of the door (high enough to keep little kids from escaping, I suppose) but I wasn’t convinced that it was enough to make the door safe from the outside in.

To add to the security, we cut a dowel to fit in the deep track that the door slides on, and attached an eyelet screw with a string to the end of it. The string extended up to a point on the door and was attached with another eyelet screw. This is a nice-to-have from the inside, because you can swing the dowel out of the track by pulling on the string (we used a sturdy rope) but beware, if you go out the door with the dowel still in the track and close it behind you, you’re stuck.

The thing about this is that it’s secure from the outside (our track is really deep, and that dowel is perfectly sized to fit with no wiggle room).

String attachment or not, I strongly encourage you to add this little hack to your sliding glass door. A little fix for a lot of security, regardless of how awesomely expensive your door is, and how blood-thirsty your dog is.