How secure are your doors?

How secure is your home? Can your door locks withstand a bump key? Which way should your hinges face?  Most burglars get in through your doors, so any home security plan should begin with making sure they’re up to par. If you’re not sure where to start, try these 10 tried and true tips to burglarproof your exterior doors.

1. Choose solid (wood, fiberglass, metal) doors for all your exterior doors. Hollow doors and doors with glass inserts, pet doors, or mail slots are more vulnerable to burglars.
2. Upgrade your existing lock. If the only lock on your door is a traditional spring lock, your lock is at risk for being picked or bumped. In fact, a majority of American door locks can be bumped open in seconds. Fortunately, professionally installed bump proof locks and high security locks provide good protection against bump keys and lock picks. With some locks, an experienced locksmith can perform a special type of house rekey that makes your existing lock more bump proof.
3. Install a deadbolt. Deadbolts are much harder to pick than spring locks, and just having one above your regular spring lock sends a message to thieves that you may not be the easiest target. Be sure to actually use it!
4. Upgrade your strike plate. The strike plate is the metal plate on your door frame that the tongue of the lock fits into. It’s usually attached to your door frame with two short ½” screws. However good your lock is, one strong kick can yank out the strike plate and open the door. There’s an easy, cheap fix: replace the short screws with long 3” ones.
5. Reinforce your door frame. Sometimes, when a door is kicked open, the entire door frame rips out. The truth is that most door frames are made out of soft woods that can’t withstand direct force. You can strengthen your door frame by choosing longer screws to attach it to the building or by installing a special metal strike plate that extends along the whole side of your door frame.
6. Check your hinges. If you can see the door hinges from the outside of a closed door, you need to re-hang the door so the hinges are hidden. Having the hinges on the outside means that thieves can take out the pins and open your door without fiddling with the lock at all.
7. Add some lighting. Motion sensitive lighting can startle would-be thieves, make them more visible to your neighbors, and otherwise act as a deterrent.
8. Keep your keys safe. Thieves will check under your door mat and funny looking rocks close to the door. They know all the hiding places, and they are looking. A better place for your spare key is with a trusted neighbor or nearby friend. If you lose a key, call a locksmith to perform a quick and affordable house rekey.
9. Don’t neglect your other doors. Even if your front door is fully fortified, your home security is not in the clear unless all your other doors (sliding doors, garage doors, side doors, etc.) are equally well protected.
10. Lock your doors. It may be obvious, but remembering to lock your doors every time you leave is always the first step in protecting your home.

So, how do your doors measure up? Pop-A-Lock Las Vegas installs bump proof locks and deadbolts, repairs strike plates,  and can provide more information on how to beef up your home security. Call 702-454-5625 today for a free quote!

See the Pop-A-Lock page about our Las Vegas Locksmith Service.  While you’re there, you can go look at our latest reviews in the Las Vegas Locksmith Reviews section.

We think this is a great place for you to find out information about us fast.  If you forget our number or want to refer us to a friend, you can just have them find us here to find out more about our services and to get our contact information.

We are quite proud of the reviews people have given us.  We have a Las Vegas Police Officer, a day school administrator, the #2 ranked realtor in the world from Remax, a leading property manager, and many others who talk about our great service.

If you have had a positive experience with us, please let others know by writing a review about at your favorite review site.  You can find links to some of the more popular review sites on our Pop-A-Lock Locksmith Las Vegas home page.

As I was reading their website, it reminded me of another wonderful organization called Kids and Cars that also focuses on child safety.  Their mission is to help prevent injuries and death to children in or around motor vehicles.  They help prevent these sudden tragic events through data collection, education and public awareness, policy change, regulations and survivor advocacy.  Their website is located here www.kidsandcars.org.  In looking through their site, I was amazed at the astounding amount of data they have collected.   I also noticed an old press release they issued in Las Vegas along with Pop-A-Lock highlighting the importance of advocacy “Public Awareness Campaign Launched to Warn Parents About the Dangers of Leaving Children Unattended in Cars”.  It reminded me that as we consider the Purple Ribbon Month promotion that there are still lots of other ways for us to continue to champion the important cause of saving children’s lives as they are exposed to motor vehicles.

If you have a passion for this same issue and would like to help us, please call our office at 702-454-5625 and get on our list of people we will be including in our effort.

We confirmed with the City of Las Vegas business license department  that locksmiths DO indeed still require work cards and that it was a misprint.  We learned that all Las Vegas jurisdictions are required by Nevada state law to make locksmiths priveleged licenses and to have employees get work cards.

As all of you know, we here at Pop-A-Lock Las Vegas pride ourselves on the quality of our people and the fact that each of us has a work card and that the company is properly licensed in all Las Vegas Valley jurisdictions — unlike most of the other locksmiths in town unfortunately.

You can see our licenses on the front page of our website under Las Vegas Locksmith Licenses section.  You can also find our North Las Vegas Locksmith License and our Henderson Locksmith license here too.

We are laser focused on this licensing issue because of all of the abuse in our industry here in Las Vegas.  We always charge the price we quote and are up-front about potential additional costs.

If you have any feedback about making sure Las Vegas keeps its locksmith work card requirement, please post it here!

Hats off to the team at Rooftop Digital Imaging for their talented team and incredible patience to come up with this design.

Below is the vehicle design that won — Ben’s Van…

Ben's Locksmith Van -- Winner of the 2010 ALOA Best Designed Van Contest

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pop-A-Lock-Locksmith-Las-Vegas/140954019269010

We will post fun updates and other relevant material on the page.  As always, please feel free to write on our fan page about anything Pop-A-Lock Las Vegas.  We know there are some good stories out there about reasons you’ve had to use us!

Also, as always, if you have any requests for blog posts or Facebook posts, please let us know!

We’ve also added links to all the large review sites and social media outlets so we can be better in touch with our community.  Please join us on Facebook at the Pop-A-Lock Las Vegas Facebook Page.

We’ll have more social media links and ways to reach us in future posts.

And despite the Las Vegas locksmith business being a serious one, we plan to have a little fun on this blog as we update you on the latest items you need to know for your home security, car locksmith, and commercial needs.

Please give us your feedback!