Glass doesn't seem as difficult to break through as wood or metal. While this is true, there are many techniques to make glass doors more secure↗. Some of these include: Adding a series of deadbolts on the interior.
The danger of having glass in or near your door is that potential thieves can break the pane and reach through to let themselves in without having to pick or break a lock.
While they provide beautiful views, sliding glass doors are also notoriously susceptible to break-ins, presenting a substantial home security risk.
As a general rule, you should never pick up broken glass with bare hands. It's also best to not use a broom—small bits of glass can get caught in the bristles of broom and be spread elsewhere in the house. To dispose of broken glass, place it in a container or cardboard box before throwing it in the trash.
Single glazed glass is an easy access point for burglars, who can smash it into pieces and create a big enough hole in order to get inside.
A door installed with standard equipment by a builder is surprisingly easy to break down with just a few hard kicks. If you want your home to be a little more secure against break-ins, you'll want to strengthen your doors.
Knowing when most burglaries occur is powerful information. The most common times for break-ins occur between 10 am and 3 pm. Rather than being guarded by night, most burglars choose the daytime to attempt a break-in, targeting homes when they believe no one will be present.
While impact windows aren't indestructible, they are very hard to break. To get through, a burglar would create a ruckus and likely be caught. Breaking through impact windows typically proves to be considerable work and energy, forcing burglars to move on.
Riot Glass laminated security glass is 100x stiffer and 5x stronger than traditional interlayer safety glass and is proven to delay forced entry by at least 4 minutes or completely deny entry. This type of glass won't stop bullets, but it can withstand multiple ballistic impacts and help with bomb blast mitigation.
Building codes and federal safety regulations will require that the glass in your front door, and for that matter all doors, uses a safety glazing product, such as tempered or laminated glass.
Steel doors provide the most security, in addition to avoiding issues such as expansion, warping, and durability. Steel doors, with proper mechanisms, can't be kicked in and will keep out anyone you don't want coming inside.
Another common way for burglars to get in is by simply lifting or prying the sliding door completely off of its track using a crowbar or another tool. If all else fails, a bold crook could gain entrance to your home with the help of a brick. A simple smash-and-grab.
You can pry it open by inserting a pry bar or screwdriver between the exterior door and the frame, about 6” from the bottom corner of the slider and diagonal to the latch. Then pry it up. Once done, tilt the door to lower the latch. That way, the door will be released from the lock.
A poorly installed French door is simply easier to break into than one that was installed by a professional who has years of experience installing them. Homeowners who aren't experienced installing doors can often make mistakes that can leave the doors more accommodating to thieves.
Door Glass Replacement in 9 Steps
Measure the broken door pane for a new piece of glass. Use a stiff-blade putty knife to pry the wooden stops from around the broken pane. Carefully remove the broken pane from the door. Scrape away the old glazing compound from the windowpane opening.
Any flaw in the edge or glass surface can cause spontaneous breakage. Small cracks in glass grow over time. As the glass expands in the heat and contracts in the cold this crack will grow. Eventually, this change in temperature can cause the tempered glass to shatter.
Unlike regular glass, which shatters into sharp shards that can potentially cause injuries, tempered glass breaks into smaller pieces that interlock with neighboring pieces and therefore don't fall readily.