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abick2

door from garage to the house-lock or no lock?

abick2
8 years ago

Are you putting a lock in the fireproof door from the garage into the house? Thanks.

Comments (37)

  • User
    8 years ago

    Yes. Oddly, our builder claims to have never heard of such a thing.


  • sheloveslayouts
    8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    Put a lock on it. A keycode style. My friends mom's car was stolen while she was at work, drove to her home address (on the registration in the glove box), got in through the garage door opener and burglarized her house. Unless there's some technology I'm not aware of that would otherwise prevent that, I'd put a lock on that door.

  • User
    8 years ago

    In our old suburban neighborhood it was not uncommon for thieves to wait for you to go out to work in the yard, then they go in through the garage and take wallets, keys, purses, electronics - whatever they can grab quick.

  • Rachel (Zone 7A + wind)
    8 years ago

    We did a deadbolt from our garage into our house. The guy kind-of looked at me like I was nuts but yeah... put a lock on it.

    Also, I can pop a standard thumb-turn lock with a common tool found in post garages... a spackle knife. 2 seconds, no damage.

  • User
    8 years ago

    Yes. Without hesitation, yes. Not so much that someone in a garage couldn't at that point be undiscovered and bang their way through if the house was unoccupied, but at least those inside might hear the noise and have time to react.

  • kirkhall
    8 years ago

    Yes. We've had a rash of burglaries where someone breaks into a car (at a movie theater), steals the garage door opener (and looks at the address on the registration card) and burgles the house via the unlocked garage door...

  • mushcreek
    8 years ago

    We always lock the deadbolt on our garage to house door. I keyed it the same as the rest of the house. When we go away on vacation, I un-plug the garage door opener and padlock the door latch. Paranoid, I guess.

  • autumn.4
    8 years ago

    I have never ever heard of NOT having a lock. We have a deadbolt on the service door from outside to the garage and then the door from the garage to the house a regular handle lock. Put it on and if you don't want to lock it then you have that choice.

  • PamS
    8 years ago

    Definitely. In both our houses we have had both a deadbolt and a knob lock. About a week after we moved into our new house last year, I pulled the garage door shut old me that behind me with the knob locked, but I had forgotten my keys. We didn't have a key hidden in the garage yet and my husband was out of town, so I had to call a locksmith. He told me that our type of lock is normally hard to get into, but he'd try. He slid this bladder device into the small gap between the door and the frame, and he was in just a few seconds. So it is important to have a deadbolt there.

  • lucy132
    8 years ago

    Yes, like others have said, easy for thieves to open the garage door and get in the house if you don't have a deadbolt on that door. In my old neighborhood a lot of people left that door unlocked (so their kids could get in the house from the garage keypad) and were burglarized.

  • bossyvossy
    8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    Yes

  • abick2
    Original Author
    8 years ago

    Is there a way to get a deadbolt lock with the same key as from the front door?

  • Ronda Swaney
    8 years ago

    abick2, yes, you can have all your locks keyed the same.

    abick2 thanked Ronda Swaney
  • mushcreek
    8 years ago

    If you get the same brand, there should be. We ordered all of our exterior locks with matching keys- We have 5 in all. Even existing ones can usually be re-keyed if they are the same brand. We didn't use locking handle sets because of the risk of accidentally locking oneself out. Slightly less secure, I suppose, but if a crook can get by a deadbolt, the handle set isn't going to give him any trouble.

    I bought high quality deadbolts, and secured them to the frame with LONG screws, but it seems to me that a burglar could gain access to most homes with the simplest of tools- a rock through a window.

    abick2 thanked mushcreek
  • bpath
    8 years ago

    Yes, they can be keyed the same. Lock on garage door? Yes! You don't have to use it, but you should. Of course, it depends on where you live. I know people who leave for a few days without locking any doors, but it completely depends on where you live. Personally, I think they are taking a chance. Around me, most "break-ins" are actually "walked in through an unlocked door".

    abick2 thanked bpath
  • bossyvossy
    8 years ago

    Yes locksmith can do that and pretty sure must be same brand but diff models. What we did @ our home

  • millworkman
    8 years ago

    Same brand is not necessary, it is the keyway in the lock that needs to be the same. Most common lesser expensive lock brands have either a KW1 (Kwiskset type) or and SC1 (Schlage type) keyway.

  • bossyvossy
    8 years ago

    Yes codes r definitive factor but much easier to shop/stick with same brand that hunt down codes and get blank stares from lowest guy on totem pole who is usually in charge of Keys. But ig you have time.....

  • chisue
    8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    This is such a minor investment. Yes, install a handle lock and a deadbolt lock, keyed the same. (And don't put a key on top of the door frame in the garage! LOL) Our door has a flip latch on the INSIDE for the deadbolt -- easy to get out in case of fire. All our exterior doors have deadbolts. The French doors lock in three places.

    Mr. Burglar wants easy, unobserved entry. Getting into the garage gives him cover, but if he has to struggle with the door it will set off your alarm before he's 'in', eating into that three-minute time frame he plans to have before police arrive.

    I've never activated a car's internal garage door sensor, and I take the opener with me when I take the car in for service or park where there is an attendant.

    Aren't code locks dependent on electric power?

    Yet...you can't depend on *having* protection if you don't habitually *use* it. We have been burgled. My DH took the dog for a walk one evening, leaving the garage door up and the garage/house door unlocked. I was in the (noisy) jet tub when the burglar simply walked in. He stole $20K in mostly heirloom jewelry -- and violated my sense of security forever.

  • PRO
    Virgil Carter Fine Art
    8 years ago

    Lock? Of course. Unless one doesn't care about security.

  • sheloveslayouts
    8 years ago

    Batteries chisue. I think it might flash when the batteries are low, but we've had one for I think about ten years and don't recall replacing them. Maybe my husband did once.

  • abick2
    Original Author
    8 years ago

    Lock it is and I will get the same key so I won't loose it. Thanks!

  • sheloveslayouts
    8 years ago

    Abick- if you've never had a keypad entry on your deadbolt, I strongly recommend you check them out. Ours are keyed, of course, but we just enter using our keycodes. My daughter at 5 easily was able to memorize the code and open the door for us :-)

    abick2 thanked sheloveslayouts
  • scoutfinch72
    8 years ago

    I am stunned that anyone would NOT have a lock on an entry door to their home. Of course, I grew up in an urban area with a moderate amount of crime.

    We have 4 exterior doors to our house. ALL have deadbolts. I have a keypad waiting to be installed on the front door so the kids don't need to carry keys. There are only so many codes for garage door openers and it's VERY easy for thieves to open your garage door so if the door inside your garage that leads to the house isn't locked you are vulnerable.


  • mrspete
    8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    A lock? Of course!

    My in-laws bought a house that had only an interior, bedroom-type door between the kitchen and the garage -- we all thought it was a crazy choice on the part of the former homeowners. My in-laws didn't move a single item into the house or sleep in it until they'd installed a REAL DOOR in that spot.

    As for your locks matching, yes, that's easy: When you go to the hardware store, you can buy a two-pack of locks with the same key ... or you can read the packages to choose locks with the same key. You can have existing locks reconfigured so they'll use the same key, though that requires a locksmith, and it's probably just as cheap to get new locks.

    Life is just simpler when all your doors open to the same key.

  • artemis_ma
    8 years ago

    I'm using a locking door, just like the regular exterior doors.

  • User
    8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    We have a dead bolt from the garage to the house. We also don't keep a garage remote in the cars, nor do we have our cars' home link systems synced up to open.

    We keep our garage door remotes on our keychain or input the code manually.

  • Amy_Hale Pendleton
    8 years ago

    Lock for sure! If your car is parked outside the garage and has a garage door opener in it, all a thief has to do is gain access to your car and then they access to your whole house if there is not a lock on the garage to house door.

  • geoffrey_b
    8 years ago

    Our whole house has Medco 1" deadbolts, all keyed the same. Yes, garage service door has a deadbolt.

  • Jenn Hoffman Ambler,PA (7A)
    3 years ago

    Definitely a lock! We got a deadbolt in addition to our privacy knob when replacing downstairs knobs. I like that extra protection. Also, sometimes we leave the garage doors opened during the day, and where we live we‘ve had multiple long episodes without power. My husband can open and close doors manually but I cannot.

  • PRO
    Virgil Carter Fine Art
    3 years ago

    Lock? yes.

  • Andrea Morrell USDA Z5 / CAD 5B
    3 years ago

    I see this is an old thread... Yes to a lock and also check building codes as there may be a requirement for an automatic door closure from the garage into house. This will get flagged on a home inspection.

  • pricklypearcactus
    3 years ago

    Yes, definitely.

  • PRO
    Mark Bischak, Architect
    3 years ago

    No lock, but adopt a big German Shepherd and do not feed them each time before you leave the house. That way intruders can be identified by the pattern of German Shepherd teeth marks in their butt.

    (I love old posts)

  • bry911
    3 years ago
    last modified: 3 years ago

    As per Mark's suggestion, our dogs are conditioned to bark when the garage door opens. So I doubt anyone is that brave.

    I honestly believe that in most cases locks between garage and house are a waste of time. Locks don't prevent burglaries, they prevent crimes of convenience. Anyone who has stolen your car to drive it to your house to burglarize it, is not going to foiled by a lock on the door from the garage to the house.

  • Louise Smith
    3 years ago

    The door from the garage directly into the house is the most vulnerable access to your house. Once a thief is in the garage, he can work unobserved to access the locks on the entry door. On one house I owned, the garage was attached but didn't access the house directly. You had to exit the garage and then use another door to access the house. I received an insurance discount because there was no direct access to the house from the garage. And while locks cannot prevent all burglaries, you want to make it more difficult for the thief so that they will go someplace else.