Deadbolt Lock System Offered for Garages

Regular readers of this column know my opinion of the typical Southern California garage door--the one-piece door that flips up--if the springs aren’t broken, that is.

I prefer sectional doors with overhead tracks or roll-down garage doors like the Porvene unit mentioned several years ago in this column.

I realize that this idiosyncrasy of mine won’t make one-piece doors go away, so this column is an attempt to make these all-too-common doors more resistant to break-ins.

Since one-piece doors don’t run in steel tracks, a burglar can easily pry up one end, as shown in the accompanying photo, until the hinge buckles and the door opener drive rail bends. This photo is not meant to instruct burglars; according to Mike McGee of Armor Products Inc., 2554 Lincoln Blvd., Suite 405, Marina del Rey 90291, burglars all know about the weak points of your home.

Armor markets a device that’s the best I’ve seen so far for protecting your garage and its contents. The Protector Deadbolt Lock System is just that: A deadbolt lock for the garage door. The device is designed for doors with openers and clicks open when you operate the controller from your car. It automatically clicks shut when the door closes. The cost is $295 for a typical installation. Discounts are available for multiple-unit projects, McGee said.

But, you ask, if there is a deadbolt at one side, why can’t the burglar spring open the other side? The reason is that two devices are supplied, one for each side of the door, McGee explained. You’ve got to be clever to foil burglars these days!

Hanley-Wood Inc., publisher of the respected Builder and Architecture magazines for the National Assn. of Home Builders and the American Institute of Architects, respectively, has purchased Remodeling World magazine from the Webb Co. of Minneapolis. Effective with the May issue, Hanley-Wood will publish the magazine from its Washington, D.C. headquarters. The 45,000-circulation publication is currently published in Wheeling, Ill., a suburb of Chicago.