securing outward opening door ideas

[steve1978]

Hoping some of you good folks might be able to give me some good ideas on this 1.

I have an outward opening door on the rear of my building and have been broken into via it for the second time this week. What i am looking for are some good ideas of how to secure it.

The door is outward opening solid timber door and also a fire escape, unfortunatley it is in a very isolated and quiet spot so burgalars can work with very little chance of being discovered even though i have the door alarmed and flood lit so other than putting a big dog inside i need to make the door bomb proof somehow.

 

[HERTS P&D]

Make sure the door has hinge bolts and 2 mortice thumb key turn locks on the inside at knee height and shoulder height.

Also have a heavy duty strip of metal on the outside edge of the door so that there is no visible door edge.

What locks does it have at the moment?

Andy

 

[steve1978]

it has 3 heavy duty ball race door hinges with locked hinge bolts sothe hinge side is brill.

We now have 3 locked cranked bolts on the door but pre 2nd robbers visit we had 2 bolts up and down so to speak

 

[JohnD]

what method did they use to attack it?

is there something enticing inside that makes it worth the trouble?

what is the wall made of that the door is set in?

Is it being attacked while the building is occupied?

My commercial premises have outward-opening fire doors, with panic bars operating 3-point bolts, but when the public and staff have left and the building is locked up, mortice bolts are set in addition. The keys are left in place when locked in case anyone should need to escape in the short time betwen arrival and unlocking. There are emergency lamps above each fire door, inside and out, and also illuminating the exit routes.

When re-occupied, the mortice bolts are unshot and keys removed to prevent them being locked again while occupied. We have a designated fire officer each day that we are open to the public, who is responsible (among other things) for integrity of fire exits.

I have seen in other buildings steel grilles that are locked open during occupation but locked shut when empty.

The doors have alarm contacts.

In your case I would be thinking about a steel or steel-clad door with angle iron on the frame bolted to the brickwork.

 

[OwainDIYer]

unfortunatley it is in a very isolated and quiet spot so burgalars can work with very little chance of being discovered

CCTV with movement detection set up to alert you immediately (SMS message etc) and you can hopefully get the police out so they're caught in the act. If it's a quiet spot then no-one has a lawful reason to be there.

 

[steve1978]

We are having CCTV installed next week and yes it has something very enticing inside that unfortunately due to nature of the company everyone knows about. the method of attack this time was via crowbars and by the look of the door it took them a good couple of hours to get in and thats whats so worrying is that time spent accessing the building (they could see anyone coming long before anyone would even see them and could be well gone before anyone got close enough to realise what was going on) The door frame is fixed in solid stone and it now has 3 locked bolts on it. I am thinking the steel plate to the door and also the steel overgate might be a good way forward as money spent doing all that rather than paying to restock as i cant claim on my insurance this time as it went through the roof after the first time.

Thanks folks for your ideas and any further ones would be much appreciated

 

[JohnD]

It might be worth having an additional gate or door inside the first one, so that the alarm will be triggered (I hope it is a telecommunicating one?) when they attack the first door, but once inside, they will be delayed by the second before thay can carry away the goodies.

This also means that you can have an alarm sensor on the first door, and another one inside, so you will get a "confirmed alarm" before they have done much.

A warehouse I go to has great steel doors with lever-operated multiple locking like you might find on a nuclear shelter (though not as thick) with a padlock on the lever which is only on the inside. I presume there must be a final-exit door somewhere that they can open from the outside.

You might be able to obstruct vehicular access to make it difficult for their van to get in and out

Your CCTV may help police catch the miscreants, if it can see their faces and vehicle.

 

[HERTS P&D]

Before they try and break in again, it might be worth you hiring a guard to stay inside the building. This way you won't have to worry about the time it takes to have the cctv installed and more locks/steel door/metal gate fitted.

Andy

 

[steve1978]

Thought i would let you folks know that we took onboard your comments and acted on some of them and so far all has been ok. We have also installed barriers so that vans cant get to the rear of the building so with a bit of luck it will make robbing the place less attractive in future