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Letter to the editor

Katy bar the door

Doors often are overlooked in hurricane preparation. Simply adding extra dead bolts or slide bolts can provide significant reinforcement.

By Clarence Jones, Special to the Times
Published July 14, 2007

In preparing their houses for a hurricane, most people forget to strengthen their front doors, as well as the doors that lead from the house into the garage.

These doors usually swing in. On the hinge side, the three hinges standard hardware on most doors can take a lot of wind velocity. But on the opposite side, a dead bolt is the only thing keeping the door shut and the storm out.

The dead bolt sometimes has very little backing. The thin barrier of wood on the interior side of the door frame may splinter in a storm. Hurricane-force winds have much more power than a burglar banging his shoulder against the door.

I strengthened my front door at both top and bottom, using a standard, 5-inch sliding bolt, available at most hardware/home improvement stores for about $5. When you install it, make sure the receiver is screwed solidly into a stud, not just into the trim or a furring strip.

My stud was so far from the door edge, I had to let the bolt housing extend about an inch beyond the door. I chiseled the trim to inset the receiver and the portion of the bolt housing that extends beyond the door.

The door into my garage was much simpler to deal with. You may be less concerned about appearances here than you are at the front door.

I built brackets on each side of the door from 2 by 4 stock. Long screws fasten the brackets to the wall studs. A length of 2 by 4 drops into the brackets to make the door very strong. Because a wind-battered door will vibrate constantly, I also put a screw into the cross-bar to eliminate any possibility that it might be shaken out of the brackets.

Neither of these door reinforcements has been tested in a wind tunnel. But they'll now stand up to a lot more wind pressure than they would have before I strengthened them.

Clarence Jones is a former newspaper reporter and an award-winning broadcast journalist. He calls himself "an inventor wanna-be" who has created many devices for his sailboat and built his former home in Marathon. He is a freelance writer who specializes in photography, boating and home improvement stories; author of "Winning with the News Media - A Self-Defense Manual When You're the News," and an e-book, "Build Your Next PC." His day job is running a media consulting company that specializes in on-camera training. E-mail him at cjones@winning-newsmedia.com.

Consider these alternatives

- Install dead-bolt locks at the top and bottom of your door. Select the kind that turns with a thumb latch rather than one that requires a key. That will enable you to open the door immediately if you need to leave quickly. These locks also provide additional security the rest of the year.

- Or add vertical slide-bolt locks at top and bottom of the door. These push a metal bolt or rod into the floor and the top of the door frame. You often see these on the non-working side of double doors.

[Last modified July 13, 2007, 10:41:04]