How to Pin Your Door Hinges for Extra Home Security

It took having my front door broken during a home invasion crime to remind me how important it is to pin door hinges in place. I've always done this in apartments, and now realize it is important for homeowners as well. Here's how I do it...

Pinning your door hinges is one of the easiest and yet most frustrating things that you can do to thwart a potential burglar. Open your front door and look at the metal hinge. One plate is against your door and the other against the door jam. There will be a number of screws holding each plate in place. There usually anywhere from three to seven screws on each side.

Choose one of those screws and remove the screw on the hinge and the matching screw across from it on the door. I suggest you pick one towards the middle of each hinge. Remove the screws and discard them.

Next you will use a drill bit, (the same size the screws you took out), to ream out the holes on both the door and the door frame. Then you will need a piece of what's called 'all-thread'. All-thread is a metal cylinder with screw-like threads all the way down it from one end to the another. There is no point on either end and no screw head on either end. It's just the shaft part of a screw.

You will need a piece of all-thread that's as long as the distance you reamed into your door, plus about an inch more. You can buy all-thread at your local hardware or home improvement store. The clerk will usually cut it to the length you ask for, so you don't have deal with cutting it at home.

After coating it with a bit of glue, push or screw your all-thread into the hole you reamed on your door. It should fit snugly, and the glue will help hold it in place as the weather changes heat and cool the door, so that it doesn't loosen up.

Once you have that piece of all-thread in place, about an inch of it will still be sticking out. When you close the door, that inch will go into the hole that you reamed out on the door jam. If it doesn't slide in and out smoothly when you close the door, you may need to ream out that hole a little bit more. (Consider using the next larger size drill bit.) The door should close smoothly, with the exposed section of the all-thread going into the door jam, each time you close the door.

Pinning your door hinges in this fashion makes it impossible to push the door straight in. Instead, it has to be opened from one side in order to release the pin. You can do this to any exterior or interior door that has at least an inch or two of solid wood along the edges. Some doors may be hollow in the center. But if you check carefully you'll discover the first few inches all around the door is made of solid wood.

You can pin hinges on both inward and outward swinging doors. This is a quick and inexpensive way to make your home less attractive to potential break-ins.

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