My house has a sliding glass door as the main entrance and I need a solution to have it secure from tiny hands. My problem is it needs to be able to unlock and lock on both sides of the door so a pin drop or cross bar won’t work.
What about a bolt that passes through the door and can be secured and released on both sides eg
Might take some fiddling to get the bolt back… hmmm
I like this idea and it could work well. I was considering a latch system but the issue is it would need to go at the top of the door and would be problematic on the outside with the stairs and there can be leverage at the bottom popping the door out of the tracks
Change the stairs. If you can’t stand in front of the door the entryway is poorly designed.
Not being able to exit your home in an emergency without a key is a serious safety problem. In most places it is not permitted.
International Residential Code R311.4.4 “All egress doors shall be readily openable from the side from which egress is to be made without the use of a key or special knowledge or effort”. Most local codes are derived from this.
Yes this is why I need it to be accessible on both sides of the door. 1 for emergency access and 2 so I and my partner can unlock it coming home from work if the other is sleeping edit added missing word
I guess I didn’t understand what you were describing. When we moved in to our house, the previous owners had a deadbolt that locked with a key on the inside instead of a thumb turn, and it was the only way to lock the door. This is a pretty bad idea since it creates a potential situation where you’re stuck inside your house, or have to find another exit. In some emergencies, seconds count. Even if you know how to open the door, you might have someone over who doesn’t, which is why fire codes are the way they are. Someone unfamiliar with the setup, panicking, in the dark, in a room full of smoke, needs to be able to escape without solving a puzzle.
Because I already had experience with having to replace that lock with an appropriate one for an exit door, I jumped straight to the assumption that when you said “lock on both sides”, you were talking about a key, and not just a childproof latch of some kind. I have the privilege of not living with anyone who is a flight risk, so it’s easy for me to just dismiss it as unsafe. I looked at some of the solutions out there and they seem to be designed to stop toddlers with no dexterity, not an autistic person determined to turn all the things. Sorry if my answer was unhelpful; people are injured or killed every day because they created a situation they didn’t realize was hazardous until it was too late. My intention was only to prevent the downsides of locking the door this way from being overlooked.
To be completely honest my only solution might be to rip out the door and put in a regular door so normal child locks will work. With home and safety checks we will be subjected to, having the door requiring a key on both sides won’t work and will be flagged as a danger. Thank you for your response all input has been extremely helpful including your insight
they asked for advice on a door to protect a child, not a lesson on municipal code. go out there and fix it yourself.
While they did, they cannot simply ignore municipal code with their solution.
Au contrere. one can simply ignore municipal code. happens often and everywhere, not to mention evrerwhere it doesn’t exist. unless it’s enforced, and that’s the key. also, i’m not against building to code. just realistic.
Right, better to let them burn alive in a fire instead of pointing that out, right?
I could use more information.
Is the door keyed? Key hole on outside and a lever on the inside?
Can you put a baby gate between the stationary pane and the frame?
Also, consider crossposting to !dadsplain@lemmy.ca. Not sure if you are a dad, but they’re not too picky. !homeimprovement@lemmy.world and !diy@lemmy.ml are good choices, too.
Sorry if this is an obvious question but since it’s the main entrance, you already have a key, right? You already have the means to lock and unlock this door in a childproof way from both sides. Usually childproof locks are for pantry doors and such.
How come you need an extra layer of locking for the main door?
The current lock is a simple toggle. My autistic child loves to play with switches/nobs/wheels ect so he will be able to easily open the lock and pull open the door. There is nothing I can find to stop him from access to the toggle without blocking access from unlocking from the other side of the door
sounds like a door on the side of a trailer or some such. people live and raise kids in a wide variety of environments.
Yes I’m in a trailer and it’s a stupid door that the Manufacturer put in to “add more natural light” if I have to stay in this trailer for more than a year I’ll take it out and put in an actual door
Hm…I don’t think I’ve heard of trailers having sliding glass doors for the entrance. But I’m really curious as to what this looks like. I’ve never heard of anyone having a sliding glass door for their main entrance, trailer or not. I’m trying to picture how that locks and unlocks.
