upvc door,shutting/locking if opened to rougue

B

biscuitbouy

Guest
Hi people,we are thinking of joining the sheeple and getting the windows and doors replaced with upvc,But there's a few worrying questions that i can't find answers to,googling actually brings up nothing on the subject.

Mainly the doors and how secure are they really!

They have these 5 point locking mechanisms,something which a normal timber door(usually) doesn't have,(but isn't that down to the fact/flaw of what the door is made of and having just a lock placed at the centre would allow the door to be bent or pushed inward at the top or bottom(like what you see with some garage doors ?). which seem like fantastic things to keep someone from outside actually getting in. But ,once the door is opened,say in error to the gas man who isn't,how do you then shut and lock this type of door,as with the doors i have now,i fitted my restrictors ,so we (mature type ;) )can open the door just enough to ask, check and verify their id via a phone call.

And when i shut this door,this door is shut ,it automatically locks and can't be opened from the outside by the intruder,it also doesn't have any handles on either side of the timber door.

Now with a upvc door,it's my understanding that you can't easily (or at all) fit things like chains/restrictors ,peep holes ,latch type locks ? also the handles play a major role in opening and locking the door ,key in, unlock, then push the handle down to open the locking system and open the door yes?,now, to close and lock the door,the handle has to be pulled up for the locking mech to go into(hook) the frame and then keyed to properly double lock the door ?

Now ,as in my example above with the bogus gasman ,say he tries to keep the door open by pushing,whatever ,but i manage to push the door shut,i have to pull up the handle and then lock it with the key and that's it?

But if i have to pull up the handle,all the scumbag has to do is hold the handle with both his hands, put his weight on the handle and push down,then there is no way anyone could push or pull this handle up against what he's doing (even Mariusz Pudzianowski would struggle),and then i have to release one hand to turn the key aswell ,(maybe if the handle had to be pushed down to lock that would make sense)!?

Also, reading the many quotes bandied around of how Indestructible these doors are to get into,compared with timber doors,how wood :) the emergency services get in,as i had watched a very saddening news story where nieghbours tried their best to get into a house with these doors,but just couldn't ,resulting in such an awful ending with the occupants .

This raises another concern,with us,at the moment if we could get to either of our doors in an emergency situation,all we really have to do is lift the latch and we're out,even in total darkness we could do that, what would happen if we have to search for keys to get out for both windows and doors?something i never thought about until five minutes ago

So that's really my main concerns,serious ones albeit(bumping and snapping, i know how to solve)

no biscuits and no empty calories
 
Yes, unfortunately you are right. You can get a multipoint locking door with a pad on the outside instead of a lever handle and you should look for a cylinder with a thumb turn cylinder, which means that once you pull out the door from outside it is locked and to double lock it you have to turn the key. To get in from outside whether it is double locked or not you have to use the key. With the tumbturn cylinder on the inside you have a knob to turn instead of a key, it is something simular to the lever on the nightlatch as you mentioned in your post.

These are things that every householder should think about and at one stage it was in the building regulations that at least one exit door in a house had a keyless exit, but I don't ever hear of anyone mentioning that.

If I was selling a door to someone it is something that I would always mention and if they had a traditional door (timber) and had a nightlatch on top and wanted to have a deadlock on the bottom for extra security when leaving the house I always ask them to hang a spare key for the deadlock somewhere near the door where every member of the family know where it is in case it was needed to be opened in a emergency.
 
NHG said:
Yes, unfortunately you are right. You can get a multipoint locking door with a pad on the outside instead of a lever handle and you should look for a cylinder with a thumb turn cylinder, which means that once you pull out the door from outside it is locked and to double lock it you have to turn the key. To get in from outside whether it is double locked or not you have to use the key. With the tumbturn cylinder on the inside you have a knob to turn instead of a key, it is something simular to the lever on the nightlatch as you mentioned in your post.

These are things that every householder should think about and at one stage it was in the building regulations that at least one exit door in a house had a keyless exit, but I don't ever hear of anyone mentioning that.

If I was selling a door to someone it is something that I would always mention and if they had a traditional door (timber) and had a nightlatch on top and wanted to have a deadlock on the bottom for extra security when leaving the house I always ask them to hang a spare key for the deadlock somewhere near the door where every member of the family know where it is in case it was needed to be opened in a emergency.
Click to expand...

The other thing not mentioned is that a timber door can be repaired and will last a lot longer than uPVC (provided the wooden door is made from the correct materials) and can be painted to whatever colour you choose.
 
A decent harwood door with good locks is more secure than PVC. Doesn't matter, many locking points in these doors, it's still a "french" type barrel lock. It takes less than a minute to break in.
1. "brutal" - drill out thru the pinns with any key in it.
2. "neat" - spray acid into the lock. It'll melt bronze pins and any key will open your door.

Safest are reinforced safe type doors with safe type lock.

Any lock, any alarm system can be bypassed, difference is how long it will take.
 
My pvc 5-locking door was opened very easily by a burglar just using a crowbar.
 
aulita said:
A decent harwood door with good locks is more secure than PVC. Doesn't matter, many locking points in these doors, it's still a "french" type barrel lock. It takes less than a minute to break in.
1. "brutal" - drill out thru the pinns with any key in it.
2. "neat" - spray acid into the lock. It'll melt bronze pins and any key will open your door.

Safest are reinforced safe type doors with safe type lock.

Any lock, any alarm system can be bypassed, difference is how long it will take.
Click to expand...

We'll all sleep much better in our beds knowing that:D

Not sure if it is possible or not but can you put a restrictor chain onto a uPVC door (don't see any reason why not), I know you definitely can with a wooden door.

To be honest I would rather have a door that can be broken into (by the emergency services) than to burn to death because people can't get to you.
 
To be honest I would rather have a door that can be broken into (by the emergency services) than to burn to death because people can't get to you.

Smoke alarms sometimes helps in that case. :)
 
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