So you put a nice thick deadbolt on your door and you think your house is secure. Did you consider whether or not the hinges are on the outside of one of your doors? If they are, somebody could knock the hinge bolts out of your door and pull the entire door out of the frame, negating the entire installation of your lock!
If you want to keep this from happening, you have a lot of choices ranging from replacing the door so that the hinges are on the inside of the house to changing the hinges so that the bolt can only be removed when the door is open. A cheap fix is to replace the hinges on your door with a type that does not have removable hinge pins. The least expensive fix requires only one or two wood screws and a drill bit the same size as the screw’s head.
If you put a screw into the hinge side of a door so that when the door is closed the screw goes into the door frame, even without the hinge bolts on the door cannot be removed. The screw connects the door to the frame when the door is shut, like a miniature deadbolt.
To install the screw, either select a screw of a smaller diameter than the holes in your hinges and put them in the center holes of your hinges so that they stick out 3/8″ and go in the hinge holes on the other side of the hinge, or: drill a pilot hole halfway down the door but a little higher than the hinge. Install the screw so that about half an inch of the screw sticks out of the door. Carefully close the door until the screw’s head touches the door frame, and mark that spot with something. Drill another hole there, but with a different drill bit which is of slightly greater thickness than the head of the screw you put in your door. That is so when you shut the door the screw goes into the hole you made. Then if somebody takes the bolts out of your hinges and pulls on the door the screw will keep the door attached firmly to the frame, and all with twenty minutes and less than a dollar’s worth of materials.
