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Hiring a Locksmith to Help Protect Your Paperwork

Keeping a copy of all your important paperwork safe in one place is a great way to ensure that you have access to things like proofs of purchases, insurance policies, and even wills. But keeping paperwork in a desk drawer or under the bed is not the safest plan – what if a fire breaks out or someone infiltrates your home and steals all the important stuff? Consider hiring a locksmith to install a fireproof floor safe in a closet of your home or in the basement where all of your important paperwork and investments can be kept. You’ll have instant access to it all when you need it, and it will be safe from theft and destruction when you don’t. You might be surprised at how many ways a locksmith can help keep your property at home safe. Explore the pages here for more information!

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Hiring a Locksmith to Help Protect Your Paperwork

Stopping A House Burglar At The Door

by Manuel Carmona

Like everyone with a job, your typical home burglar looks for ways to do their job easily and with little effort. If your front and back doors look difficult to get through, they will likely leave your house and go for an easier target. Here is how to dissuade those thieves from breaking into your house by creating a good defense at those doors.

Start With the Lock

No exterior door should be without a deadbolt. But you have a variety of options so make sure you get the best lock you can afford to install. Locksmith services carry a number of grades of locks. Have them show you only their ANSI Grade 1 deadbolts. These are made with hardened steel so they can't be cut through or shattered by a blow with a hammer.

The standard deadbolt relies on a steel bolt that slides through the door and into the door frame to keep the door shut. If a burglar can pry the door away from the frame enough, they may try to saw through the bolt. A vertical deadbolt solves that problem. This lock uses a component that mounts on the door and another that mounts on the wall next to it. When the door is closed, that piece slips into two or three slots in the piece on the wall. When you lock the door, the steel bolt moves up into those slots so the bolt is completely covered and can't be accessed no matter how much the door is pried away from the frame.

Reinforce the Lock Hardware

The striker plate is the rectangular metal plate with the hole in it that mounts on the door frame. The deadbolt slides through the hole into the frame. With weak door frames, a thief may be able to force the bolt through the wood frame to open the door.

Have a locksmith, like Rahn's Best Lock Service, show you reinforced striker plates with a steel box. These plates are thicker and instead of a hole for the deadbolt, a steel box is built onto the plate into which the deadbolt sits. This prevents pushing the bolt through the wooden frame. Also pick up extra long wood screws to better secure the striker plate to the frame.

Reinforce the Door Itself

Kits are available to strengthen your door and prevent prying or kicking to break it. Steel strips attach to the edges of the door so a pry bar can't force the door away from the frame. Steel panels attach to the door surface to prevent kicking or blows with a sledge hammer from cracking the wood. These can provide a final layer of security.

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