This article is written to help you see the entry points to your home and how to protect them. When we say entry points, this means any opening through which someone could enter your home without your permission or knowledge.

Hope most people protect their front and rear doors. But what about your garage door, your French door, or your windows? So I will discuss this one by one, again, this is for you to think about your own individual protection.

All exterior doors must be solid core, that is, solid wood or fiberglass. This also includes the door that goes from your garage to your house and the solid part of the French doors. All of these doors should have entry locks and deadbolt locks. Locks must be Grade 2 type.

Your garage door should be solid and if you have an opener it should be the new style that turns the codes and matches your remote. When the garage door is down, the opener holds the door down in the locked position. If you are going on vacation, you must unplug the opener and manually close your garage door.

Sliding glass doors have come a long way when it comes to safety. Make sure any of these doors have some type of locking pin or bar. A locking pin is better because it prevents the door from lifting.

All windows should have good locks and should lock securely when closed. If you have to replace any of your windows, that would be the time to upgrade your security and also buy windows that increase the “R” value of your home.

If you have glass doors, such as French doors, or glass on both sides of the front door, you must have glass break sensors that are connected to your alarm system. I am not a fan of double key deadbolt locks. If there is a fire, you may not be able to find the key in time.

Your alarm system must protect all points of entry into your home. Make sure to wear it at night and make sure you have it monitored 24 hours a day. It would be nice if I didn’t have to write this article, but we live in an age where we must take the time to protect ourselves.