3 Panel Patio DoorsYou may have a 3 panel patio door in your home. These doors were used by some builders. In a 3 panel door, there is one fixed panel with thermal glass and two sliding glass panels with regular single pane glass. One on the outside, one on the inside. The screen door is mounted on a track on the outside. These doors get around the problems of a heavy sliding door by using 2 lighter panels. The lighter door each has their own separate weatherstripping so these doors seal out the drafts quite well. Patio Door SecurityPatio doors are often blamed for being easy to break into. There are a few steps you can take to make your door so secure that the only way in is to break the glass down. Most thieves do not want to make that much noise. Check with your patio door supplier to see if a commercial quality lock is available for your new door. Most patio doors use die cast metal locks and keepers that can easily be forced open with a long screwdriver or crowbar. A proper steel lock anchored with a steel keeper thats anchored in the door jamb with long screws wont be so easy to jimmy. If the manufacturer does not offer a better lock, get a patio door window bar to stop the sliding panel from being opened while you are away. Many manufacturers offer anti-lift blocks so the sliding panels cant be lifted out without first removing the blocks. These are dirt cheap security. Also make sure the fixed panels are installed with many screws holding them in place from the inside. Quite often new patio doors are installed with one plastic fix clip and screw holding the fixed panel closed. The fix clip is like a flag that says to the burglar, "Put Crowbar Here". I've even seen fix clips installed on the outside! Do not ask for trouble, put many screws directly into the frame along the height of the fixed panel on the inside. |