Whenever you have the locks replaced or re-keyed in home, it is imperative to make sure all the windows, sliding glass doors, and the main garage door are secured as well. It does no good to change all the locks if someone can simply slip thru an open or unlocked window or garage door. In most cases, it is sufficient to just make sure the windows are locked. However, sometimes the locks are broken and a window can just be slid open. One way to solve this problem is to cut a piece of ½ inch or ¾ inch PVC pipe to the proper length and lay it in the window or sliding glass door track. For garage doors, sometimes it is sufficient to unplug the garage door opener to keep someone with a remote control unit from entering the garage. For more security it's best to lock the garage door as well. Sometimes we are in luck if the garage door comes with a bolt lock that slides into the track. This makes it simple to secure the door. If there is no built-in lock, one can use a heavy-duty tie wrap to keep the door from being opened. This assumes there is a garage door opener with tracks and with rollers on the door itself. Run the tie wrap through a hole in the track and through the roller bracket on the door. Make sure the roller is above the hole you choose so that when someone tries to lift the garage door from the outside, it pulls against the strap and prevents the door from moving. Older doors can often be secured with a padlock and slide bolt on the outside of the door.
Jon Adamson, Locksmith
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