From a motion light that finally makes the back door feel less dark to the honest question of whether a monitored alarm is worth $40 a month, home security is mostly calm, boring decisions made in advance — not fear. These tools compare the real costs, rank the door-and-window fixes that matter, sanity-check the actual break-in numbers for your neighbourhood, and walk you through trips, rentals, packages and pets step by step. Most break-ins are opportunistic: lock the opportunity, keep the receipts, sleep properly. The full detailed report costs less than a coffee: $2.95.
17 toolsFree instant local answers≈ one coffee ($2.95) for the full reportNo sign-up · No fear-mongering · Educational
Lock & Hardening Upgrade Priority: Doors and Windows First
Burglars take the path of least resistance, and entry is usually forced: a kicked door frame, a pried window, a sliding door lifted off its track. This priority tool turns that reality into a plan. Rate four areas honestly — your front-door lock, the door frame and strike plate, your window locks and your sliding doors — enter a budget, and it returns your single weakest point, a priced list of the fixes that matter ($15 for a reinforced strike plate with long screws, $25 for window pin locks, $30 for a sliding-door bar, $120 for a fitted deadbolt), and whether the budget covers them. The order follows how burglars actually test a house: doors and frames first, then windows, then sliders.
⚡ Free instant check
Rank your door and window hardening honestly — front lock, frame and strike plate, window locks, sliding doors — and get a priced priority list that fits your budget, starting with the weakest point a burglar would test.
❓ Lock & Hardening Upgrade Priority: Doors and Windows First — FAQ
What is the single best lock upgrade?
A modern deadbolt on a reinforced frame: a solid door with a deadbolt and long screws into the frame studs turns a 10-second kick into a noisy multi-minute job. The $15 reinforced strike plate with 75mm screws is the part everyone forgets — standard short screws pull straight out of soft timber.
Are window locks worth fitting?
Yes — ground-floor windows are the most common forced entry point after doors, and a pin lock or keyed window lock costs a few dollars per window and stops a window being slid or jimmied open. This tool includes them in the priority list when your rating is low.
Do sliding doors really need a security bar?
Most sliding doors have a basic latch a screwdriver can pop, and many can be lifted off their track. A $30 security bar or a track pin turns a 30-second entry into a non-entry, which is exactly what the priority list is about.
Every tool answers instantly from our own knowledge and calculators — no AI wait, no account.
Honest maths and plain-language guidance, always educational and never a guarantee: crime risk is
neighbourhood-specific and most break-ins are opportunistic, so each answer tells you what is generally
true, what to check about your own home and street, and what the next step should be — never hype, never
fear-mongering. Results are estimates and planning aids, not professional security assessments, and
nothing you type is stored. Want the deeper, personalised version? Each has a $2.95 full report.
