Door security!!

As things get worse,we are going to see more home invasions,burglaries. Your first line of defense is your entry doors.I've been a maintenance person for over 20 yrs now,and can tell ya from first hand experience,the average door and jamb are crap,any 12yr old girl can kick em open!

Most jambs are made from one bys which are actually three quarters of an inch thick,most are made of soft woods , and now days they are not even one solid board,instead many are made from fingerjointed pieces of shorter boards glued together. Most doors are hollow with a frame inside.Most exterior doors are weak however 9 times out of 10 it's the jamb that fails!

To beef up yours you might look into better hardware,your strike plates, the piece that your deadbolt and latches slide into.Are usually just a flat piece of steel,attached by three quarter inch screws.

Basically those two little screws are all thats between you and the boogieman.On the kick ins I've seen,the jamb splits at the screws,and the door comes open!

To beef up jamb.They make replacment security strike plates, that are longer than nomal so you can use more screws, and it has a pocket for bolt to go in.

You must drill a hole for pocket to recess in,then two screws go through pocket into stud behind jamb,then depending on brand,4 to 6 screws in flat part of strike.These come with longer screws,however they still often dont reach into studs,discard these screws,use 3inch drywall or other heavy duty screws to secure strike.

Now on hinge side,again hinges are attched with little three quarter inch screws,replace with two and half inch drywall screws or comparable screws.They make door protectors,that you put on door with lg carriage bolts,so door cant be pryed open,they are not attractive,but depending on your area maybe something to look into.

Heavy duty deadbolts are available,they are expensive,but again something you might check on. In my experience most apartments, that I've worked in have used the stanard medium duty kwikset brand deadbolts,and so far I've not seen one fail,its always been the jamb, hope this is helpfull, China.