Sliding glass doors can serve as a beautiful addition to your space while allowing light in. They can also provide you with an enjoyable view of the world outside but this means that they also provide a view into your home. This, for obvious reasons, can be dangerous. Because of this, you should consider securing them to enjoy them safely!
So, what are the best ways to secure sliding glass doors? Well, there are actually a few, such as different locking mechanisms and even electronic systems to alert intruders. Let’s dive into some specific ways to secure your sliding doors.
Options for Securing Sliding Doors:
Install a Sliding Glass Door Lock
The first and simplest strategy for securing your home’s privacy is covering the glass doors. If you can see out of your doors, others can see into them. Consequently, if you have any valuables in sight of the doors (from the outside), it makes your home a potential target for nefarious actors such as burglars and other criminals.
There are ways to continue enjoying your sliding glass doors while retaining that feeling of safety inside your own home, safety for your valuables, and safety for your family.
- The first such method for covering glass doors is long blinds. Long, vertical blinds can be easily installed and are adjustable to cover up the glass doors whenever you see fit.
- If you don’t like blinds for whatever reason, you could opt for long curtains of a darker tone that will help block out any vision from the outside into your home. If you do choose to go the route of curtains, also be sure they’re thick and not semi-transparent when in the light. Whether you choose blinds or curtains, you will have a small installation task ahead of you, and may potentially have to do some light drilling.
- Another way to cover up the sliding glass doors is to use sliding panels. Sliding panels are exactly what they sound like, and similar to blinds, they’re easily installed. These panels can be in sets of two, three, four, or even more. The panels sit atop one another in sequence from front to back. These panels are simple to pull over the doors when you’re looking for some privacy and retract just as easily when you want some light and views outside of your home.
- There are also security shutters for sliding doors if the panels aren’t to your taste. Shutters would be just as easy to retract and close as panels and provide the same freedom to choose when you do and do not need to cover up the doors.
- For those on a budget, there are window films that you could cover your glass doors with. They’re both effective and affordable. They also allow for a solution without taking up any additional space around your doors.
Install a Sliding Glass Door Lock
The next best method for getting some extra security for sliding glass doors is installing a door lock. Sliding glass door locks come in various shapes, sizes, and designs. The most common is a lock that adheres to the top of the door or door frame and holds the mobile door (or both doors) in place until unlocked.
The use of a glass door lock is one of the most guaranteed ways to secure your doors. These locks prevent the doors from moving until the lock is unlocked from the inside. These locks are a bit more involved than blinds or curtains when it comes to installation.
Some folks may need professional help to install these as the installation involves marking and drilling into the doors or door frames. However, if you’re any bit handy, we’re betting you can get the job done yourself!
Any method such as a sliding glass door lock, or a physical restriction on the doors’ mobility, will be your safest bet for ensuring those doors cannot be slid open if their locks were broken.
This is because even if the door locks are broken, the doors cannot be moved without removing these physical restrictions from the inside. This leads us to another physical restriction tool that is similarly effective and allows for higher security.
Get a Security Bar for Sliding Glass Doors
This third, strong option for ensuring high security sliding glass doors is using a security bar. Security bars are very straightforward and don’t require any installation.
It’s a fantastic option for folks looking to avoid adding any additional bulk or installation to their doors. Security bars operate simply: they typically go into the track of the door and they wedge the doors closed.
These security bars are usually adjustable and are equipped with pads of some sort on the ends to protect the door. The way the security bars work is very similar to a shower curtain rod where it’s mounted via the pressure created by the bar pressing against the door (in the way that the shower rod presses against the wall).
In addition to the security bars, there are Charlie bars. These are similar to security bars except they’re often installed in the middle of the door. It reads “installed” because these Charlie bars are typically installed to one of the doors by drilling into the door and screwing the bar on.
These bars are different because they can be swung up or out to unlock and allow the door to open, rather than removing the bar entirely. This makes them quick and simple to operate for people of all ages.
Get a Security Door Brace for French Doors
Perhaps we have some French Doors owners reading along with us. For this group, security door braces are a surefire way to protect your home and secure your doors. These braces are quite simple.
They are screwed into the ground and the French doors in the middle where they meet. This brace simply prevents the doors from being opened at all by pinning the doors in a closed position to the ground.
The brace can always be unscrewed when you want the doors to open and screwed back in when you need to re-secure your doors.
IMPORTANT!
If you have stone, tile, or any other such hard material floors, you may need to have a professional come out to drill the holes for the brace as specific drill bits are necessary for drilling and subsequently screwing into tough surfaces such as stone.
If you try to do this without the proper tools, expect to end up with some broken equipment. Drilling into stone is no joke, don’t screw around (pun intended)!
Let’s take a look at a method that is less involved and invasive than the security methods discussed thus far.
Consider Electronic Options
Another route you could take to secure your home’s glass doors is electronic options. These are tools such as security alarms, integrated home security systems, independent monitors, or glass break detectors, among others. These tools are typically smaller devices that are rather simple to attach or adhere to your doors for near-instant security.
While these alarms and other signaling devices won’t prevent your door from being opened or easily broken into, they will signal alarms and alerts, depending on the specific device you choose, that will likely deter any criminal and alert you to the danger being posed.
These tools work best in conjunction with other, physical sliding door security measures such as a door lock or security bar. When using electronic signaling devices with physical locks, your doors are about as secure as you can get them without heavy security apparatuses.
Sliding Door Security Gate
Sliding glass door security can also be obtained via a sliding door security gate. These gates serve as a barrier to entry on the outside of your home, covering the sliding glass doors.
They’re very common for protecting your vulnerable glass doors from burglars or other criminals, and may actually be the most effective method.
These gates are so effective because they lock just like normal doors and most of the time cannot be unlocked without a key.
It would also be a near-impossible task to break through these gates without being noticed.
That means you can rest assured that your home and family are protected while still allowing light in through your doors. They’re not always the most attractive option as you’ll have an extra set of bulky doors over your sliding or glass doors, but they do guarantee the security of your doors.
Sliding Glass Door Security Screen
Security Screens are the final method we’ll touch on for securing your sliding doors. Similar to the security gates, the security screens are lockable.
The screens protect your doors in the same fashion as the gates but allow a little less room for manipulation from the outside due to the lack of openings in the screen.
Of course screens (mesh screens) can be easily ripped through. This is not ideal for security but ultimately this alone serves as a deterrent to any criminal activity. Just having another layer of the door to break through is enough to make a criminal think twice.
Security screens also allow the light to come into your home more fully than the security gates ever could. Often, folks don’t want to give up any of that precious light or those views they glean from having glass doors.
Screens are perfect for this group of folks as they allow clear visibility to the outside while adding a layer of door framing in front of your sliding doors for light protection from criminals.
Screens also work fantastically in conjunction with electronic alarm devices and interior blinds or curtains so that you can cover up the doors whenever you need to fully block and view from the outside in.
Summary
In conclusion, you have many options at your disposal when it comes to keeping your home and family safe in lieu of having sliding glass, or glass doors. In this article, we’ve discussed exactly how to secure a sliding glass door and the various methods one has to choose from depending on each specific situation.
The methods vary in their level of security and ease of installation. Some options, like electronic devices, are much easier to install than others. There are also options less space invasive than others.
Whichever method you choose for securing your sliding glass doors, it never hurts to double up and use multiple methods simultaneously. So now that you know your options, let’s get the glass doors and your home secured!
