How safe are UPVC front doors?

[Chris S]

A couple of nights ago somebody broke into my neighbour's house and stole is car keys and mobile phone.
He said they prised his front door open with a couple of screwdrivers. Is this possible? It's a UPVC front door with multi-locking points, just like my backdoor.

 

[Globalti]

Take a close look at any plastic front door and you'll see that the panels are held into the frame with rubber strips. The strips can be peeled out and the panels removed.

So not safe at all.

 

[slowwww]

...and effing ugly too!

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Whatever you do, don't install Windows 10.

 

[fossyant]

The panels tend to be popped. Neighbor lost a new car and laptops. Thieves just kicked the bottom panel on his door (in the right place) and it popped straight out. Oh, and make sure the cylinder lock isn't a cheap one.

Our front UPVC is on the porch, with a solid wood one behind.

 

[snorri]

I don't know about doors, but I had a couple of glaziers along to replace a fairly big window. After they had introduced themselves I went through my house to clear any furniture away from the work area and was more than a little surprised to find they had already removed the old double glazed unit from the outside.

 

[gavroche]

I don't know about doors, but I had a couple of glaziers along to replace a fairly big window. After they had introduced themselves I went through my house to clear any furniture away from the work area and was more than a little surprised to find they had already removed the old double glazed unit from the outside.

It must have been a very old window. The plastic strip all round is on the inside of the window now so can't be removed from outside.

 

[MichaelW2]

My Zenith door and windows did not have the rubber seal weak point. They seemed pretty tough.

 

[ColinJ]

The doors and most of the locks are extremely insecure. The plastic strips holding the door panels in are VERY easy to overcome. This is the 'quick and dirty' method!

Obviously, it could be done in a more subtle fashion by levering the panel out with a big screwdriver or crowbar.

Most of the locks are crap as well - they can easily be 'bumped', snapped or picked. I saw a video where a small child was taught how to bump a lock in a couple of minutes, and was able to actually do it in about 10 seconds.

For best security fit a solid door and make sure that your locks are designed to be bump/snap/pick resistant.

 

[stephec]

YouTube is such a wonderful thing, in the good old days you'd have to spend a bit of time inside at HM University of Villainy to learn a trick like that.

 

[ColinJ]

YouTube is such a wonderful thing, in the good old days you'd have to spend a bit of time inside at HM University of Villainy to learn a trick like that.

I didn't post any of the lock bumping/snapping/picking videos but I'm sure that the crooks have watched them hundreds of times anyway!

 

[Levo-Lon]

Good init

 

[I like Skol]

Yeah, plastic isn't fantastic.

I have retained old school wooden doors but upgraded some pitiful old locks to more modern BS items, but at the end of the day, short of metal prison cell type doors, there isn't much you can do to stop entry if they are determined and undisturbed during their efforts.

It is much like the bike locking situation, you can't prevent a determined skilled bike thief from taking your bike, but you can try to have better security than the other bikes in the area so they move on to target something easier

 

[ColinJ]

What people don't realise is that most of these doors have cheapo locks that cost about £10 and are a cinch to overcome. If you pay about £35-40 for a better lock you stand a much better chance of the would-be burglar moving on to the house down the road with a cheap lock.

I have heard that there can be problems with claiming on home insurance if someone (for example) gets in by 'bumping' a lock. There is no sign whatsoever that they have done it, other than the fact that some of your property has disappeared!

 

[lane]

YouTube is such a wonderful thing, in the good old days you'd have to spend a bit of time inside at HM University of Villainy to learn a trick like that.

Good job too I expect sentances are either community or too short to be of much use to the aspiring villian and of course chance of getting caught in the first place minimal. So YouTube it is.