Ask Lemmy

Lesson from South Africa: by the time they are at your door it's too late. Perimeter fencing, preferably a 2m high wall with razor wire AND electric fence on top (including on gate). Garden: floodlights, motion sensing alarms, beams, AI cameras. All doors and windows: bars and security gates. Inside: separate living and sleeping area with lockable gate in the hall between. Panic buttons..

None of that is going to stop a legal intrusion, each just buys you time before the paid security company arrive with guns to chase away intruders. Given time, any determined attacker will get in eventually..

As a locksmith, I can tell you what I tell my paranoid customers. Buying the greatest lock in the world doesn't do shit if you still have first floor windows.

Build a moat.

It's not impenetrable, but let's be honest, who's crazy enough to break into the house with a moat?

Who is your enemy?

If it is just some random burglar, create some fear with triple locks and cameras and you are good.

If it is a government operation, you better leave the country before they even start looking for you.

Not really much, tbh.

Decent quality door locks
Clear line of sight from the street to likely entry points
Loud alarms so if they do break in they're not likely to stay long

If someone wants to get into a house, there isn't much you can do to stop them unless you're rich and can afford exotic shit like bullet proof glass windows and thick metal reinforced doors.
All to can really do is discourage crimes of opportunity by making them seem like bad opportunities.

If you asking how you secure your residence against ICE…good luck with that. They have legal access to an expansion of the Patriot Act for warrants, and they have toys they’d love to use against any home security. All that physical security is going to do is give them probable cause.

Have you seen the film Home Alone 2?

Layers.

Plant something with thorns or pointy leaves to block easy access to windows. Even better as a hedge around the whole property. Anti break film on windows. Heavy duty exterior doors. Motion sensing lights. Cameras, +1 for cameras with built in lights that can recognize people and automatically turn on.

Every layer should either strengthen, increase risk of being caught, or make access painful. They will go towards easier targets.

Home Alone has some solid ideas

The ONLY way to stop someone who really really really wants into your house from entering your house. Is to not have a house.

Alligators.

Having two locks including a proper deadbolt with a decent type of key. You want a deadbolt that goes deep into the door frame, not a cheap one that barely hits the strike plate. That and locking windows with window film will keep most people out.

Nothing will keep someone out who really wants to get in. You just need to make the hassle greater than their desire to get in.

The critical question is “who?”.

Most break-ins are targets of opportunity. Given that you can’t change to a less risky neighborhood, you could have no outward signs of profitability, no easy/quiet entrance, signs of people around, lights, cameras. And remember, they’re not coming in the front door: they’re looking for an Inconspicuous, weak point. You just need to be less of a target of opportunity than your neighbors.

Someone specifically targetting you will be much harder. Someone with skills will be much harder. At the extreme, no consumer lock is safe against lock picking and no consumer door is safe against police battering ram.

I have a side door with a broken jamb, and speculate that someone kicked it in at some point (before I moved here). One of the first things I did upon moving in, was add long screws to the latch and hinges so it’s anchored in the nearest joist rather than simply the jamb. Supposedly that makes it much more difficult to kick in - someone might give up when it is taking too much time and they are creating noise that could attract attention. I also have a light and a doorbell cam, so they would be visible and on camera doing it. And a dog

At one point I came across an article recommending steel supports behind the jamb, and would really like to do that when I replace the door. It looks like a normal door but the jam is no longer a weak point. Unfortunately no one seems to know what I’m talking about though

Oh right. Can you get some pet geese for the outside? Nothing louder than geese

Were I in a less secure neighborhood: Deadbolt, second deadbolt, dog.

3" door screws and a good lock.

Also AR15, if you legally/mentally can. Last line of defense, but without it the last line is the door/windows.

Lights, cameras, door armor kit, decent locks, and detergents near windows (bars work, but so does planting a rose bush under the windows. Lastly dogs that bark when one near your doors.

This will.help a lot. Statistically the best impact is a dog or two.

You can go hardest by adding electronic security shutters and a serious storm door over every exterior door..

Very general feedback. I've been slowly doing all of the above for years. Have it all except shutters (no need, windows too high) and storm doors.

But if they get through the door armor, security camera alarms and pitbulls ill have plenty of time to grab my shotgun.

God help them if they hurt my pitbulls.

It depends on whether your adversary is motivated and equipped, your resources, and what visibility you would like to permit. 

Let's suppose you have a poorly equipped adversary, a couple thousand to spend, and you want it to be invisible.

When a door is bashed, the wooden jamb breaks at the lock. So you could go bash resistant device, I believe there are inserts that make bashing significantly harder. Or you can go with a steel door and steel jamb.

For windows, a sheet of polycarbonate glued to the outside should make them resistant to rocks and small arms fire. You should be able to break the glass and kick out the polycarbonate in the event of a house fire.

Check your slider door that it can't be levereged upward and removed while shut.

Better door, better lock, better strike plate, longer and stronger screws. The rest can be visual deterrents like cameras, window sensors, and proximity lights that make them visible to neighbors and drivers.