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How to Secure a Door After a Forcible Entry

by William Robinson

Overview

If you can salvage your door after a forced entry, then you must remember that your security and well-being are top priority. Replacing locks, doorknobs and other materials is part of rebuilding that security. You can contact a lock expert who will come to your home and give you an idea of what you need to repair or replace. He may even provide you with the equipment needed to do the work yourself.

Step 1

Look at the door itself and determine if the door is still capable of functioning as a secure door. Once you have made that determination, then begin looking at the equipment you currently have on the door to keep it secure. Are the locks still working, and will they continue to hold the door locked and secured without force? Then look at the door frame. In most cases where the door was forced open, the door frame is always the subject of damage. You may need to replace parts of the door frame in order for the door to be secured correctly.
Step 2

Replace the damaged doorknobs with functioning doorknobs. Doorknobs can take a lot of damage and still work accurately, so practice opening and closing the door to ensure the knob still works correctly. They other good thing about doorknobs and their parts is that you can purchase these pieces separately and replace the broken ones. For example, you can keep the doorknob itself and replace the mechanism that makes the doorknob function.
Step 3

Inspect any dead bolts or chain locks for damage. The dead bolt is a lock that is placed on the inside of the door and secures itself to a latch that is secured to the door frame. This piece is almost always damaged in cases of forced entry. But very much like the doorknob, you can purchase individual pieces at your local hardware store to make it operate accurately. Once again, inspect the door frame and make sure the latch or place where the deadbolt rests fits correctly and securely.
Step 4

Fitting the door with an additional door security bar is an inexpensive and effective way to keep your door from being forced open again. These bars can be purchased at any major retailer, hardware store or home security store. The bar is firmly secured under the doorknob or to the door itself. Then the other end is secured in the floor. The bar does not allow the door to be opened until it is released from the position. In many cases, the door can be left unlocked, but the door will never budge with a secure bar in place no matter how hard or how forceful the individual wanting entrance tries. These bars are a great investment.