Front Door Quality / General Security

[Lupus]

Hello

We're having a porch built and it have front door with sidelights. There will be a floor to ceiling window on the side (in red). The options from the builder for the composite front door is DoorStop or Palladio. The porch is north facing and is under a canopy, so not in direct sunlight.


DoorStop I feel is very standard, mid-market, value product.

Palladio seems marketed as more premium and in-line with Solidor or Rockdoor. With triple glazing, thicker, more secure, but about £1000 more.

We love the idea of increased security, but in reality does it make that much difference? My thoughts are:

1. I don't know how long a door will take to force, but is the difference likely to be something like 6 minutes second vs 4 minutes? Or 15 minutes vs 4 minutes?
2. The floor to ceiling window on the side would probably be quite easy to smash and strikes me as the key security weakness.
3. The back of the house has upc French windows, again I assume these aren't overly secure and will be pretty easy to force or smash.

The existing front door doorway will lead from the house to the porch. From a security point of view, do you think it's worth replacing this will with another external door or just an internal one?

If someone got into the porch, they'd be hidden from view so wouldn't necessarily need to rush - but it could delay them somewhat and would be forced to contend with the external (house to porch) door rather than smash the side window like with the porch.

Sorry, I feel this is rambling a bit but I couldn't find a way to make it more concise.

Thanks.

 

[Fred Blogs]

The way I see house security is that if they want to get into your house they will no matter how secure you think it is. Don't get me wrong I have a house alarm and new "high security" doors and windows because my house insurance says I should have these, but I could get into my house from outside if I had to and so could anyone else.

 

[endecotp]

my house insurance says I should have these

Yes, check what insurance requires. Same for locks, window locks etc.

 

[opps]

The floor to ceiling window on the side would probably be quite easy to smash and strikes me as the key security weakness.

Laminated glass might be an option as the outer panel.

@crank39 or @ronniecabers might be able to advise you.

 

[crank39]

Since 2015 new build extensions and 'porches' should comply with Approved Doc Q and should meet PAS24.......IF the porch exceeds 30sqm i think, PAS24 is basically laminated glass in all the downstairs doors and windows, outer pane only, low level glazing is already covered under Approved Doc K for protection from impact but usually toughened glass is used and not laminated and as you say if a burglar is just going to break the glass and walk in then a £100k vault door wouldn't make the house any more secure so laminated glass stops them from just walking in. From my time in the trade, 35 years in total, 16 of those doing 24hr callout work after burglaries, never have i been to a job where a burglar attacked the front door, NEVER! Also never even seen a burglar attempt to drill or snap a euro cylinder to gain entry either

Ask if the door has been tested to meet PAS24, also ask if the glass in the side panel will be PAS24 compliant rather than just meeting doc K