Entry point
The Garage Side Door
Anybody with an attached or detached garage that has a pedestrian door as well as the main vehicle opening. It applies equally to a shed or outbuilding door that leads somewhere worth reaching.
What constrains the work
- A garage side door on an attached garage is an interior door of the house in every way that matters except how it was specified.
- Garages are damp and unheated, which ages timber doors and frames faster than anywhere else on the property.
- A garage full of tools is a garage full of things that make the next door easier.
Start with what costs nothing
These come before any purchase on this page, and on most doors they do more.
- Close the vehicle door when you are not using it.
- Clear the side passage of stored items that give cover or a step up.
- Start locking the door between the garage and the house, which most households never do.
- Put the ladder inside the garage rather than along the outside wall of it.
Deter
Change what the place looks like to somebody deciding whether to bother.
Garage side doors are usually down the side of a house, out of sight, which is the definition of an attractive approach. What changes it is light and a clear line of sight, and both are cheap.
Do first
- Walk down the side of the house after dark. If you cannot see the door, neither can anybody else, and that is the point.
- Clear the side passage of anything stored against the wall that provides cover or a step.
- Put a light on the side passage rather than over the door.
- Close the vehicle door. A garage standing open for the afternoon is the most common version of this problem.
Jobs that add this layer
- Place an Outdoor Camera — Drilling required, 1 to 2 hours per camera
Where hardware is genuinely needed
- Security Cameras — seeing what happened, and knowing where the footage lives
Detect
Know that something is happening while it is still happening.
Nobody has a legitimate reason to be at a garage side door, which makes it one of the few places where a motion alert is genuinely informative rather than noise.
Do first
- Set an alert on the side passage rather than on the garage interior, so you hear about the approach.
- Check whether an existing camera already nearly covers it. Side passages are narrow and one angle usually does.
- Keep the zone tight to the passage so passing traffic does not trigger it.
Jobs that add this layer
- Place an Outdoor Camera — Drilling required, 1 to 2 hours per camera
Where hardware is genuinely needed
- Security Cameras — seeing what happened, and knowing where the footage lives
Delay
Make the opening take longer and louder to get through than it looks.
The same job as the front door, on a door that has usually never been touched. Expect a latch and no deadbolt, packet screws in the strike, and a frame that has been rained on for twenty years.
Do first
- Check whether there is a deadbolt at all. On most garage side doors there is not.
- Press the frame at the base for soft or rotten timber, which is common and makes any fixing meaningless.
- Look at the door between the garage and the house. On an attached garage that is the door that actually matters, and it is usually an interior door with an interior lock.
Jobs that add this layer
- Measure Your Door First — Basic tools, 10 minutes per door, renter safe
- Reinforce the Strike Plate — Basic tools, 15 minutes, renter safe
- Fit a Deadbolt Properly — Drilling required, 1 hour for a straight swap, longer for a new bore
Where hardware is genuinely needed
- Deadbolts & Keypad Locks — controlling who has a key, and what happens when the battery dies
Document
Keep a record that still exists when somebody asks for it.
A narrow side passage is one of the easiest camera placements on a property, because anybody using it has to walk a straight line at a known distance from the lens.
Do first
- Mount along the passage rather than across it, so the approach is several seconds long in frame.
- Watch for the passage light washing out the picture at night.
- Decide storage before buying, as everywhere else.
Jobs that add this layer
- Choose Local or Cloud Storage — No tools, 30 minutes of thinking, before you buy anything, renter safe
- Place an Outdoor Camera — Drilling required, 1 to 2 hours per camera
Where hardware is genuinely needed
- Security Cameras — seeing what happened, and knowing where the footage lives