Front doors get the attention and the hardware. Windows, patio doors, side gates, garage side doors and cellar hatches get neither — and in burglary statistics they matter considerably more than their share of attention suggests.
This is a short article about the openings people forget, and what is worth doing to each.
Where entry actually happens
Police statistics across Europe are reasonably consistent: most entry is through a door, and among the remainder, ground-floor windows and rear patio doors dominate. Openings at the back and side of a property are preferred because they are less overlooked, which is the variable that matters most to an opportunist.
Two patterns worth knowing. A substantial share of entries involve no force at all — an unlocked window, a patio door left on a vent setting, a door from a conservatory. And where force is used, it is applied to the weakest opening, not the nearest, so the least overlooked window is the one being assessed.
That gives a simple prioritisation: work from the back of the property forwards, and secure the things that are currently not secured at all before upgrading the things that already are.
Windows
Locking handles are the basic requirement. Many older uPVC windows have handles with no key and no lock, which means the window can be opened from outside if the glass is broken or the handle reached. Key-locking handles are inexpensive and fitted in minutes.
Do not leave keys in window locks, which defeats them entirely and is extremely common.
Restrictors allow a window to be locked partly open, which resolves the tension between ventilation and security. This is the single most useful window fitting for anyone who wants to purge heat overnight in summer.
Laminated glass in a vulnerable window resists breaking through in a way toughened glass does not — toughened glass shatters completely, laminated holds together on its interlayer. Worth considering for a ground-floor rear window or a door sidelight.
Contact sensors on every accessible window, which give you both intrusion detection and the leaving check.
Glass-break or vibration sensors where a window might be smashed rather than opened, since a contact sensor cannot detect that.
Rooflights and small openings are frequently forgotten and frequently accessible from a flat roof or an extension. Check what your own extension roof gives access to.
Patio and sliding doors
Large glazed doors at the back of a house combine every risk factor: big, out of sight, and often older than the rest of the security.
Old sliding doors can be lifted out of their track. Anti-lift blocks or a track screw prevent it, and this is a well-known and cheap fix for a well-known weakness.
Multipoint locking on newer bifold and sliding doors is good; the weak point becomes the cylinder, so check its snap rating.
Handles must be lifted to engage on many designs, and a door pulled shut without lifting the handle is latched but not locked. This is one of the commonest ways a house is left insecure, and it is a habit rather than a hardware problem — which makes a contact-and-lock-state sensor genuinely useful.
Vent and night positions that leave a door partly open are convenient and should be treated as open for security purposes. If your away-mode check does not detect a vented door, it is not doing its job.
Do not leave the key in the inside of a glazed door, for both security and fire escape reasons — visible from outside is the security problem, findable in the dark is the fire one, and a key hook nearby but out of sight resolves both.
The other openings
Side gates. The single most valuable thing to secure, because a locked side gate removes access to the entire back of the property — where all the vulnerable openings are. A decent bolt and a padlock on the inside, tall enough not to be reached over, is cheap and effective. A contact sensor on it is worth more than one on most windows.
The garage side door and the door from garage to house. Frequently a lightweight door with a weak lock, out of sight, giving access to tools that then get used on the house. Treat both as external doors.
Cellar hatches, coal chutes and light wells, which are old and often forgotten entirely.
Cat flaps, which in a door with a thumbturn or a key-in-lock can give access to the lock itself. Position matters.
Conservatory doors, which are often the weakest external door in the house and lead into the kitchen.
Loft hatches in shared roof spaces, in terraced and semi-detached properties where a roof void may run over the party wall. This is unusual and it happens.
The things in the garden that help someone in
Worth walking your own property for.
Ladders, wheelie bins, garden furniture and water butts that provide a step to a first-floor window or a flat roof. Store ladders inside and locked.
Tools. A shed containing a spade, a crowbar and a hammer, secured with a padlock a hand-tool can defeat, is a supply depot. Lock the shed properly and keep the heavy tools inside the house or in a locked chest.
Dense planting right against a vulnerable window, which provides cover to work behind. Keep it low near openings and thorny at the boundary, which is genuinely effective and looks like gardening.
A gravel path at the back, which is noisy to walk on and surprisingly off-putting.
Insurance, and what your policy probably says
Worth checking, because it affects both what you should fit and whether a claim would be paid.
Many household policies contain conditions about security that people have never read. Common ones: a specified lock standard on external doors, key-operated locks on accessible windows, a requirement that the property be secured whenever unoccupied, and definitions of “final exit door” that determine which lock matters.
Two practical implications. A window left on a vent setting may count as insecure, which is another reason restrictors that lock are worth having. And a claim following entry through an unlocked opening may be reduced or refused — which is the strongest possible argument for the leaving check automation below, since it costs nothing and addresses exactly that.
We are not insurance advisers, and the wording varies enough between insurers and countries that reading your own policy is the only reliable approach. If you are about to spend money on window and door security, spend five minutes reading the security conditions first so you buy the right thing once.
The automations that cover all of it
The leaving check. When the last person leaves, name any door or window still open. One notification, naming the specific opening, not a list.
The bedtime check, same rule at night, plus lock state where you have it.
Vented positions counted as open.
Perimeter plus interior confirmation for alarm purposes.
Side gate opening while away, treated as a security event rather than a curiosity.
Window open with heating on, which is the same sensor doing energy work.
A monthly reminder to check that the sensors are all still reporting, because a battery sensor that died in March is a hole in your perimeter you do not know about.
A weekend of work
- Walk the property from the back and list every opening in order of how overlooked it is.
- Secure the side gate properly. Highest value item on the list.
- Fit key-locking handles to any window without them, and remove the keys from the locks.
- Fit anti-lift blocks to old sliding doors.
- Treat the garage doors as external doors.
- Lock up ladders, bins and tools, and cut back cover near windows.
- Add contact sensors to the openings you identified, gate included.
- Build the leaving and bedtime checks, and a sensor health reminder.
Item two is the one we would do first. Securing one gate can remove access to every vulnerable opening in the house, and it costs less than a single sensor.