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Home safety and security is a high priority for many people. If you are among them, consider taking steps to enhance your safety. The first place to look just may be your front door. Home security door locks protect you and your property against intruders when you are at home and secure your property against burglars when you are away. If you want to increase your safety, be aware that both the lock type and proper placement count.

Front door locks are the first place people think about for security, although all exterior doors and windows must also be as secure as possible. Some locales have special building code statutes that deal with front doors, such as requiring deadbolts for rental properties or forbidding the kind of double dead bolt that requires a key to get out as well as to get in.

Double dead bolt home security locks do a good job of keeping intruders from being able to break through window panes, reach in, and unlock doors from the inside. However they can present a problem in emergency situations for the occupants of the house. For instance, if there's a fire and they can't get to the key, or have lost the key, they wouldn't be able to safely escape through the door. A "captured key" however has a mechanism that provides the same security from intruders, but still allows the people of the house to escape safely.

Quality home security door locks mostly use a deadbolt style of lock that keeps the door locked, even when the lock is picked. The key factor in a good lock is the strike plate of the lock. A good study plate can keep the thieves out and give you some piece of mind. The experts suggest a lock that is a minimum of an inch long. This will keep your lock more secure.

An important factor in the sturdiness of home security door locks is the placement of the bolt. A strike box is much more secure than a strike plate for any brand of lock. And a good strike box costs just around ten dollars, so you can significantly improve the security of your doors at a minimal price, without even having to change the locks themselves. For maximum security with either a strike plate or a strike box, you should anchor them with three-inch-long nails or screws.

High quality home security door locks are more expensive than regular locks but are worth the price. This is true even for the budget shopper. High security steel locks are built to resist thousands of pounds of pressure and are well worth their extra cost.