I have a wooden barn door type garage door. It currently has a Yale type lock on it. I think a good push would get you in it at the moment.

We leave the house through the garage as we cycle to work. So need to find a system that will lock on the front or lock behind us. Any advice to what to use??

Ta,
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A nice big electric roller door!

According to the guy who sorted my garage door, roller doors are far from secure.

Beef the doors with ply if you can, I take it by yale latch you mean a night latch which are ok but yes a decent kick or two could open it depending how it's been fitted, so you could fit a mortice lock which would lock from a key (not just pull shut like night latch) but remember to keep one leaf of the doors shut and bolted at all times with shoot bolts top and bottom….reckon that should do it?

I'm with pp and kt on this one. I've got a powered sectional door. I only went powered as with no handle to attack it makes it harder to get in. Also, I was told, the motor can sense the door being forced up and drives back to match the applied force! I've tested that idea though.

roller doors are far from secure.

Unless you buy a decent one with insurance approved locking mechanism that physically prevents the door being rolled back or being bent inwards. I believe there's only a couple on the market that are insurance approved.

I really wasnt wanting to change the door as its new and we are in a conservation area. Just thinking of new types of locks and things. The plywood on the back sounds a good idea.

I dont think there is enough thickness to the door to get a dead bolt on it.

If I put some sort of lock on the front, are there any ones less easy to pry off?

I got burgled recently through a stable type door in the side of my garage.

They unscrewed the door handle, chiselled across the timber frame of the door (not the door frame, they tried to prize that out of the building portal but failed), levered the timber covering the sash lock body away and then levered the sash lock out so the keeper etc snapped. All at 4 am with us in the house only a few metres away.

Once they had the top half of the door open (there was a deadlock in the bottom section of the stable door as well) they hopped over and in. 48" bolt croppers used to cut both sides of a link of 11mm Pragmasis security chain (didn't touch the shielded hasp Squire padlock).

IMO, get rid of the stable door, they're shite 😉 There was a diddy bolt between the two halves on mine but with the inherent flex once one half was open it just popped / bent.

Otherwise, screw the whole thing together with ply or steel / mesh. Even if you get a solid door board / mesh it so it is harder to simply kick / pry through. At least put in some big, lockable bolts to keep the two halves together.

Fit a steel outer door with a good padlock and well set fixings that they have to get through before they can work on the timber door.

Make sure the frame is secure (star bolt fixings) into the building portal. You want enough to be secure but not too many (lots of screws / locks etc can just make things weaker, sometimes).

If there's a window or view into the garage block it (old sheets are good) it adds uncertainty to the speculative burglar.

I would have at least a sash lock and deadlock in the door mounted at thirds of the height / into the main door sections.

Fit a metal plate over the door surface where the locks are and round out the screw heads. That way they have to get through something harder than softwood timber to get to the lock body. If you need you could always drill out the screws (as could burglar) but it's more time and effort.

Chain the bikes up inside the garage, yet more things for them to get through. Always keep the chain up as high as possible. Common trick to use longhandled croppers is to put one arm on ground and jump / throw body weight onto the upper arm to give enough force to cut even the strongest chains. It's on youtube somewhere.

Make the lock as inaccessible as possible.

Use a ground anchor (properly fitted) or like I did chain them all together. In hindsight I wish I'd had a couple of heavier duty chains than the single but long one that locked all mine together. Once a link was cut they had access to them all.

Install an alarm. Once they're in a garage they're out of sight and have more time and opportunity to crack whatever secondary security (chains etc) you have. If an alarm is blaring it's more likely they won't try in the first place or won't have time (and probably don't need long) to get through chains etc.

If you've got an alarm use it. You always get hit when you don't expect it (been Tuesday and Thursday early am in rainy weather for me). Get the alarm rigged so you can have it on in the garage almost all the time.

I know a shop that was robbed of several bikes with the scrotes in and out in less than a minute.

Get outside lights so there's less cover for them whilst they're forcing the door.

If you can put in a gate to your drive / access / whatever with a lock. If they come calling they've got to get over / through / round it to get in and out (with bikes). Use padlocks with shields to the hasp so it can't easily be cropped.

Look at everything you've done. Think that, if you didn't care what state it was left in, how easy it might be to break in. Then just accept that there's a good chance you'll never have enough to beat a determined and vaguely able burglar. Unless it's a steel door with some massive security a sledge hammer will get you in through most things. Failing that it's usually possible to lift a few roof tiles to get inside the garage.

Don't under-estimate the cheer cheek and brazen-ness of the scum. Also, what are you going to do if you know they're breaking in and there's three of them? Go down and confront them (whilst they've got chisels and screwdrivers). Up to you but bear it in mind.

Consider the cost of all this, the insurance etc and decide what you can afford / is worth paying for.

Only my ideas / stuff I've done / plan to do. Others opinions and experience may vary.

I believe there's only a couple on the market that are insurance approved

how can that be the case when loads of new houses, mine included, come with them as standard ? No problem getting insurance on such houses.. ?

I did get an additional PIR installed, but not required by insurers

how can that be the case when loads of new houses, mine included, come with them as standard ? No problem getting insurance on such houses.. ?

You can get insurance on anything, even thin wooden doors as above, it's just they give a good discount if you have an approved one that will withstand a battering. A bit like car alarms. Many of the roller shutter doors on new houses (one I visited proved this) can be simply lifted up and forced against the gearing. They are noisy though, which is a help.

I've got all metal doors on my garage fortunately, however I just make sure I'm alarmed, CCTV'd and insured to the hilt as you could just walk up with a screwdriver and unbolt the roof panels.

Give your local crime prevention officer a call they will have seen how doors like your have been broken in to and suggest what you could do. Also will show the insurance company you have taken security seriously should the worst happen

Any solutions for metal garage doors that you cant screw into, thinking of drilling a hole in the bottom of the door (vertically) with some kind of deadbolt/steel rod through the bottom and into the floor.

Any solutions for metal garage doors that you cant screw into, thinking of drilling a hole in the bottom of the door (vertically) with some kind of deadbolt/steel rod through the bottom and into the floor.

Drill the door and use coach bolts to secure a block of wood with the bolt on top. The bolt slides into either a latch or into a hole in the frame.

PACRI garage door bolts?

For metal 'up and over' doors, my dad has kind of ground anchor/bollard-type contraption that fits on the outside, right in front of the door, so when it is in place the door can't be opened.
(I have no idea what the proper name for this is so I hope the description is useful?)

One of these: clicky

those garage defenders look good, but they kind of advertise the fact that you don't want anyone getting in there, wouldn't that make them curious?

copied from my post in other thread

I have inside my garage a ground anchor in floor, as close to a wall as possibly allows the chain/cabel to get through, with u-shape running 90 degrees to wall well under bikes so makes it difficult to bolt crop and another bolted/concreted into wall with a seperate chain/cable so they have to cut at least 2. using the best chain/cable and locks you can afford.

I then use as many crappy locks as I have to lock up everything just to make it more hassle for the bandito's.

To combat roof break ins I have at great pain cut in concrete mesh into the roof space so nowt can get in or out.

Doors the rear person door is steel faced, no window and has 2 5 bolt losks then inside 3 throw bolt type lock/hasp, top, middle and bottom then an old fashioned massive 6" by 3" lump of wood that drops into L shaped clamps that lock at the top to prevent the door being shoulder barged open.

The front up and over door which will be changed to a roller when funds allow I have over the standard 4 way lock, 2 clasp locks in the bottm corners, a garage defender in the middle to prevent it being lifted up. I then screwed a lump of wood the width of the door to prevent the top of the door being pulled forward/folded over.

There are security light and I reverse the wifes car tight to the door and then mine up tight against hers.

So hopefully my little beauties are safe – but you never can be too carefull