Sliding doors can make a beautiful addition to any home or business, allowing natural light to flow through and illuminate your space. However, if you have sliding doors, it’s imperative that you take extra security measures to make sure that burglars can’t enter your home through them. Deadbolts work great for regular doors and windows, but they don’t work great with sliding doors. Try these security measures instead, as prepared by the lock experts here at Sonic Lock and Key:

First try the included lock

Many sliding doors come with an included lock usually within it’s handle, which secures the door to it’s frame. Test this lock by locking it and stepping outside and trying to pull it open. If the door moves at all, the latch isn’t working or the frame is loose - fix these issues as soon as possible by contacting a professional door repair service like Sonic Locksmith.  

Slide Lock Bars

These essentially are thick metallic or wooden bars, which are cut at a specific measurement to fit into your door’s lower track. When leaving your home, place the slide lock bar into the track, preventing it from being able to open.  

Rollers and Tracks

The majority of sliding doors can move side to side on plastic rollers, but if these rollers suffer any sort of damage or warping, the door can be much more easily lifted up out of the track, providing somebody entrance into your home. If the door isn’t rolling the right way, lift it out of the track, and clean out any objects or dirt that may have gotten lodged inside the track. If the door still won’t roll the right way, try to adjust the size of the rollers by using a screwdriver on their included adjusting spaces to either contract or expand them.   

Alarm Systems

Wire your in house alarm systems to your sliding door. This way, if the door is opened once the alarm is armed, a loud alarm will sound - scaring away any potential burglar, as well as contacting the authorities. Another possibility is the installation of sensors that will sound in case the glass of these sliding doors get smashed.  

Additional Sliding Door Locks

Install an additional sliding door lock which works with a single or double bolt system, which attaches to the door’s closing area and latches into place with the bolts. The majority of these lock systems can be adjusted, and either replace or add an additional security layer to the existing lock on the sliding door. These locks are available in keyed varieties, as well as with built in battery powered loud alarms included.  

Last Resorts

If these measures don’t work, you may want to install a new, properly aligned sliding door. You may also want to replace the entire door’s frame with one that has strong metallic tracks that are properly installed throughout the entire length (many are only secured at the corners.) We highly recommend you hire the professional door repair experts at Sonic Locksmith, so you can ensure that all doors and door hardware is properly installed.

Sliding Doors

Sliding glass doors are often seen as an easy in by burglars, but they don’t have to make your home vulnerable. Make sure that your doors are made of either reinforced glass or plastic, rather than thin glass - and that they remain locked. Place a metallic or wooden dowel in the track to prevent the doors from being opened through force. Additionally install motion or vibration sensors on the glass to sound the alarm / notify law enforcement just in case the glass is broken. Also, install curtains on the inside of your window to prevent any passing burglars from being able to look inside your home.