UPVC door panels

50Twuncle

Last night - a neighbour had a break-in - the perpetrator simply kicked in a UPVC blanking panel on their back door and rather stupidly set off the alarm - They scarpered without nicking anything (as far as we know) - but this has caused us to worry - since we too have a UPVC blanking panel on our conservatory to allow the fitting of a cat flap - and a similar panel into the kitchen from the conservatory...
I was wondering what options we have to secure our house better ?
We do have a PIR floodlight covering the area.
We don't have an alarm by the way - but are considering getting one.........

SplanK

An alarm maybe a good start. You can get wireless ones fairly cheap these days and are quite easy to setup. Clearly worked as a deterrent for your neighbour but they wont stop those determined enough to get in and out quickly (especially those that have already scoped the place out and know what they want....).


We have a sensor fitted in our conservatory, and a door magnetic sensor fitted to the door between conservatory and lounge.


The other thing is, how easy is it to get around the back of your house? Make it difficult such as putting a slide bolt on gates and using it.... if you don't have a gate, consider getting one!

tony6403

I don't know how good they are but you can buy reinforced door panels.

Furts

My back door does not have a blanking panel beneath the window. Instead it has a laminated glass sealed unit. Similarly the main sealed unit is laminated glass. This gives better security, as both are unbreakable - within reason!

The answer for the neighbour may be the same.

CrazyRed

When this happened to me a good few years ago (same scenario, but in my case no alarm and the scumbags wandered off with £7k's worth of stuff), I put up a cheap baby gate across the bottom of the UPVC back door.

stator

Composite doors are supposedly stronger.

greenface

did the panel shatter or did the beads burst off . (is the panel still intact ) you can get stronger panels and stronger glass mentioned above. scumbags will always find away. lighting and noise might help .