Do you lock internal house doors at night?

Sulla Felix

Came up in conversation today. Co-worker is moving into a new house and was complaining about having to replace some of the locks because the old owner "never locked their kitchen and sitting room door at night". This sounded a bit odd, and asked for clarification. Turns out she locks the door from the kitchen and sitting room into the hallway at night as well as the external doors. This is in case anyone breaks in. Apparently someone being capable of picking the external locks or just kicking them in unrelated to ability to do the same to the internal ones...

Anyway, I've never heard of this before. I live in the country and half the time don't even lock the external doors at night. Maybe I'm the odd one out though?

GLaDOS

No I don't

We always lock the kitchen door. The one time we were broken into it kept them contained to the kitchen so they didn't get much.

xDramaxQueenx

I've an (atari) jaguar locked in my basement

Your friend obviously has too much time on their hands if they can go around before bed time locking doors.


The bang of josef fritzl off that. Ugh!

starfish90

No I don't

Yeah we'd lock a few alright-mostly because if a robber comes in and the alarm goes off they won't be able to go anywhere but out but also because it stops fires from spreading...not that we have many..

Milk & Honey

Locking internal doors at night is not recommended. In the event of fire locked internal doors would be a serious impediment to a successful evacuation.

starfish90

No I don't

Milk & Honey wrote: »

Locking internal doors at night is not recommended. In the event of fire locked internal doors would be a serious impediment to a successful evacuation.

Ah crap that was a good point. I do have a good tough patch of grass outside my bedroom window though for a softish landing if it does occur.

MagicMarker

I don't have locks on internal doors about from the bathroom door.

keelanj69

No I don't

Milk & Honey wrote: »

Locking internal doors at night is not recommended. In the event of fire locked internal doors would be a serious impediment to a successful evacuation.

As opposed to locked external doors? Surely the principal and process is the same?

Sulla Felix

I've an (atari) jaguar locked in my basement

Milk & Honey wrote: »

Locking internal doors at night is not recommended. In the event of fire locked internal doors would be a serious impediment to a successful evacuation.

Never thought of that. Who could have thought my laziness would manifest virtue?

BdaraB

Sounds overly excessive to me. The mother does lock all the windows in the house downstairs and upstairs never made sense to me either.

humbert

I've an (atari) jaguar locked in my basement

keelanj69 wrote: »

As opposed to locked external doors? Surely the principal and process is the same?

Well, obviously if you lock the internal doors there isn't much need to lock the external doors, thus saving valuable time.

Sky King

McCrack wrote: »

Yawn

Go to bed, and don't forget to lock the door.

Yea I lock the doors. Have to be doing that.

vicwatson

Anyway, I've never heard of this before. I live in the country and half the time don't even lock the external doors at night. Maybe I'm the odd one out though?

Yeh you are :rolleyes:

Triangular

My folks do it. And put on a sensored downstairs alarm at night also.

ShamoBuc

I never lock the internal doors. I put the alarm on and go to bed. If they can get in without setting it off they can unlock an internal door.

AnonoBoy

keelanj69 wrote: »

As opposed to locked external doors? Surely the principal and process is the same?

Well the external doors are the ones that keep people from walking into your house so they're kinda necessary.

But if you have to get through 3 or 4 other locked doors before you get to the final locked door it kinda slows you down and increases the chance of the smoke getting you.


Question for those who do lock internal doors - where do you put the key? Cause if you leave it in the door then it's only good 50% of the time for keeping people out.

squod

I have a system of cable tieing the keys in the doors.
It's just like having a latch on the two doors effected.

B.A._Baracus

I've an (atari) jaguar locked in my basement

Milk & Honey wrote: »

Locking internal doors at night is not recommended. In the event of fire locked internal doors would be a serious impediment to a successful evacuation.

Normally you would think that.... but thats why fire doors were invented. To stop the spread of fire.

Of course in order to do its job it has to be closed over But i can also see the advantages of locking it for security reasons. If someone did break into the kitchen for example. It would stop them, or at least slow them down, from moving onto other areas of the house.

I know someone who locks their internal doors. they simply keep the key in the doors on the hallway side Easy to open if need be. Kinda smart.

beertons

I lock all the doors downstairs.

AnonoBoy

B.A._Baracus wrote: »

Normally you would think that.... but thats why fire doors were invented. To stop the spread of fire.

Fire doors only have to be closed though, not locked.

Contrary to popular belief fire can't work door handles.

B.A._Baracus

I've an (atari) jaguar locked in my basement

AnonoBoy wrote: »

Fire doors only have to be closed though, not locked.

Contrary to popular belief fire can't work door handles.

I said that you know :pac:

SimonTemplar

No I don't

I always lock my bedroom door both when I'm out of the house and at night. If we're ever broken into, I'd want to keep them out of my room, especially at night (can you imagine waking up at 3:00 to find some stranger in your room *shutters*). Locking it just gives me a little extra piece of mind, but I always leave the key hanging on the door in case of a fire.

I'm not sure if such a thing exists for domestic homes, but it would be great to have an alarm system that would automatically lock all internal doors in the event an external door is opened / window broken, or an incorrect alarm code is entered.

I've never been too paranoid about security, but the rise in the number of breakins is scary.

ProudDUB

My mother used to do this after the neighbours got broken into at night. Our kitchen had the door leading out to the garden, so her theory was if someone broke in via the back door, they could go no further up the house if the kitchen door was locked. We lived in a bungalow, and the last person to use the kitchen at night had to lock the door and put the key in the table in the hall. The key was removed coz she saw a video on Garda Patrol that if you leave it in, all the thief has to do is put some newspaper under the door. Poke a screw driver into the key hole. Knock the key out. It falls in the newspaper then you then carefully pull back to the side of the door that you are on. So anyway, that went on for years. You got a right, royal bollocking from her if you went to bed without locking the door... classic Irish mammy speeches about being murdered in our beds etc etc :rolleyes:

Then that went all out the window when she saw another Garda Patrol video about people dying in their homes from house fires because they couldn't find the keys to their back doors. Smoke inhalation can make it hard to think, so it makes sense I suppose. So she relented. She still wanted the door locked at night, but she and left the key in the door. I am happy to report that none of us were ever murdered in our beds !

who_me

keelanj69 wrote: »

As opposed to locked external doors? Surely the principal and process is the same?

Better having to open 1 door, than 2 or 3 (perhaps a lot more, if you have kids to fetch before getting out of the building). Plus, lots of front doors aren't deadlocked, whereas interior doors almost always are.

AnonoBoy

B.A._Baracus wrote: »

I said that you know :pac:

Oh so I'm supposed to read ALL of people's posts now?

F*ck that for a game of soliders. :mad:

I'm off to bed.

Mickey H

I've an (atari) jaguar locked in my basement

No.

Senna

We have a door that partitions off the back of the house (kitchen, hallway, back door) from the front hallway, i lock that at night. It wouldn't imped escape in the event of a fire.

B.A._Baracus

I've an (atari) jaguar locked in my basement

Actually, just remembered what me and my da were talking about last week. He was listening to a radio show and the general opinion was that PVC doors are very unsafe. Only takes an experienced criminal or locksmith seconds to gain entry.

It was said that the doors of previous years (them being deadbolts) are more safer than todays PVC doors.... So ... you are probably better off locking your internal doors these days.

B.A._Baracus

I've an (atari) jaguar locked in my basement

:eek::eek::eek:
Just searched on youtube after posting my comment above... and well, just watch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jl5moO4u98

IM0

Milk & Honey wrote: »

Locking internal doors at night is not recommended. In the event of fire locked internal doors would be a serious impediment to a successful evacuation.

haha finally have something to come back at my parents with after all the years of living there in their paranoid 'but what if someone breaks in' excuses for locking the kitchen door

but I dont live there for years so, grrrr where was this explanation years ago

phasers

PVC doors are flimsy shyte generally, You'd get most of them open with a credit card or a good shove.

Locking your downstairs doors is stupid. My Sister does it and I can't understand why. If criminals can get in your front door they can definitely get in your internal doors.

Zab

I've an (atari) jaguar locked in my basement

I had no idea that people did this. It'll be interesting to see if the yesses are still at 20% tomorrow. That's a lot of strange households out there.

D1stant

SimonTemplar wrote: »

I always lock my bedroom door both when I'm out of the house and at night. If we're ever broken into, I'd want to keep them out of my room, especially at night (can you imagine waking up at 3:00 to find some stranger in your room *shutters*). Locking it just gives me a little extra piece of mind, but I always leave the key hanging on the door in case of a fire.
.

WTF? You lock them too?

B.A._Baracus

I've an (atari) jaguar locked in my basement

phasers wrote: »

PVC doors are flimsy shyte generally, You'd get most of them open with a credit card or a good shove.

Locking your downstairs doors is stupid. My Sister does it and I can't understand why. If criminals can get in your front door they can definitely get in your internal doors.

How can you use a credit card to open a pvc door when its deadbolted? :pac:
Kick yeah, credit card?! :pac:

seven_eleven

I set the downstairs alarm sensors on at night. So if anything like a door or window opens, or something moves downstairs then my alarms blasts and wakes everyone up.

It get set off about once a year anyway due to things like spiders or cobwebs near the sensors. I imagine its enough to deter most robbers. I know at day time when Im away its not really, but at night with somebody upstairs and alert of their presence then they would be.

darragh o meara

No I don't

I always lock the internal doors when I'm not there and especially at night. Have had one or two close ones in the past where the house was broken into at night which were thwarted by having the internal doors locked. In saying that in the event of a fire I have a quick and easy way out and if I need to go through one of the locked doors the key is very close to the lock and everyone in the house knows exactly where it is.

Cantona's Collars

phasers wrote: »

PVC doors are flimsy shyte generally, You'd get most of them open with a credit card or a good shove.

Locking your downstairs doors is stupid. My Sister does it and I can't understand why. If criminals can get in your front door they can definitely get in your internal doors.

Most people don't know how to lock external doors properly,the majority of PVC doors have deadlocks on them that when locked are very hard to open.Many don't lock the deadlocks & then the doors are easy to open.

Locking internal doors is stupid,imagine waking up at 4am & the house is full of smoke,then you have the nightmare of finding your way out with all the doors locked.

Inbox

No I don't

Oh yes definetly lock the downstairs internal doors when I'm a sleep but when out I leave them Unlocked as if they get in with no one here they will only wreck all the internal doors as well.

Cantona's Collars

Inbox wrote: »

Oh yes definetly lock the downstairs internal doors when I'm a sleep but when out I leave them Unlocked as if they get in with no one here they will only wreck all the internal doors as well.

How do you lock them when you're asleep? Do you sleepwalk & do it? :pac:

Shryke

I've an (atari) jaguar locked in my basement

No, I don't live in a paranoid nightmare.

J Mysterio

I've an (atari) jaguar locked in my basement

Weird how many people do that sh¡t.

Whippersnapper

I used to lock the bedroom door in my last house if I was there alone. Only after the shed had been broken into and another time had a guy break down the fence in the garden to escape the police.

Mars Bar

I've an (atari) jaguar locked in my basement

No we don't lock ours. I don't know if we even know where the keys are! Our front door is by the stairs and the bedrooms are all located within 2 -5 seconds of the front door so no issues with fire escape if we did lock them.

eth0

Internal doors? Feckit I don't even bother with the external ones half the time

Inbox

No I don't

What do the Gardai recommend we do?

eth0

Inbox wrote: »

What do the Gardai recommend we do?

They'll be wanting overtime before they'd actually go through the trouble of recommending something

PizzamanIRL

I've an (atari) jaguar locked in my basement

I don't have internal doors, i have flaps.

Turquoise Lagoon

No I don't

Ive always locked the internal doors, so if someone did break in they wouldn't have access to the entire house. I know everyone thinks it's dangerous in case there is a fire, but the key is extremely close by. It's safer to have the doors at least closed at night because closed doors will stop the smoke and fire from spreading as quick giving more time to escape, or so I've been told

gotthebug

I lock the bedroom door if my wife is in it so she dosent catch me cheating in the spare room

SusieBlue

Nope, we don't bother.

We don't have an alarm system either, and half the time I forget to lock the front door, so it'd probably be very easy to break into my house. :pac:

MickeyShtyles

Yep, my auld lad has done it for years so it's a bit of a habit.