Industrial security doors are key components to any of your buildings that contain sensitive products or information. Find security door distributors online to supply you with the means to keep your home or business safe. Security doors are built to withstand a variety of external forces and keep you safe not just from human intruders, but also from fire or high winds.

Look for security door suppliers that fulfill all of your needs. Find security doors with multiple locks made of any type of reinforced metal you choose. Go online to find the security door you need, and know your options, including:

1. Find security doors for businesses that emphasize the safety of your goods and information.
2. If you're doing residential installations, purchase security doors for homes that maintain a personal look and feel while offering greater protection.
3. If you can't find a standard product to fit your needs, contact a manufacturer to create a custom security door.
   

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Buy industrial security doors for your business needs

If you work in a building with a high risk of theft or attack, contact security door suppliers that specialize in manufacturing security doors for businesses. If you're installing a full system of security doors, look for a manufacturer that offers remote control via a software program so personnel can receive updates and alerts from sensitive entrances.

I recommend: Won-Door offers the SteelCurtain security door, a product that is made of fire-resistant steel. Their doors come with a software program that allows security personnel to remotely control every door installed within a single system. For a range of standard security doors and door frames, see the selection Grainger offers in their online catalog.

Find security doors for a home

Homes, like businesses, contain valuable assets, the most important of which are you and your family. Doors appropriate for the business setting won't work in the home. Find security door manufacturers that create doors made to fit with home architecture and give a residential feel.

I recommend: Master Security Doors creates heavy duty security doors designed for home use. Use their website to select a look and feel that fit the home, then pick the security features you want. For exterior security doors that add protection to the entrances to the house, see the selection offered by Reed Brothers Security.

If you can't find the product you need, contact custom security door manufacturers

Your ideal security door may not be available for sale on the Internet, but that doesn't mean you can't have it. Look for a custom security door manufacturer and have your door built to your exact specifications.

I recommend: AAA Custom Windows & Custom Security Doors will work with you to create a security door that fits your specifications. For custom security doors designed to protect internal goods, check out RhinoVault. They specialize in security doors designed to protect gun rooms, safe rooms, vaults, server rooms, or any other room that needs protecting.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Many security door manufacturers will install the doors for you. If you're looking for an alarm system as well as security doors, check if your supplier offers other home or business security services. If not, they may have a deal with a security system provider.

Ah, security guards. They watch the cameras. They patrol with flashlights. They’ve got the cars with the flashing amber lights. They do a lot more than sit in guardhouses and take naps.

Hiring security guards can be useful for many businesses. They’ve been used to dissuade thieves at jewelry stores and to man front desks at corporate facilities. They monitor cameras at security-conscious businesses and patrol mall parking lots to keep away the hoodlums. Which brings us to what guards can do for your business. It might be easier to list what they can’t do, since the guard often becomes a jack-of-all-trades. However, there are a few basic tasks that guards often perform:

1. Serve as visual deterrent to potential robbers. The sight of a guard, perhaps an off-duty police officer, means your business is aware of its risks and ready to respond.
2. Deal with trespassing and vandalism. Whether it’s handling the vagrant sleeping one off on private property or the local skateboard crew who’s decided your facility’s steps are a skate park, patrols by security officers enable protection across the facility.
3. Fulfill business-mandated security policies. Security officers often monitor surveillance cameras, as well as staff entrance gates and lobbies, and can check basic security issues like making sure all facility doors are locked after hours.
4. Perform customer service duties. Security guards see a lot of downtime, and many employers have been able to utilize the presence of officers as ambassadors to both their employees and customers. The guard can help direct the lost delivery driver, sign in visitors to corporate offices, and escort employees to their cars after dark. Some have been called upon to handle maintenance or janitorial duties when the appropriate staff member is unavailable. Many guards are also trained for health response essentials, such as CPR and the use of auto defibrillators.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Outsource the position

As a business entrepreneur, it’s a pretty safe bet you didn’t get into your chosen business in order to add such duties as “managing a guard force” to your “To Do” list. There are scores of companies that handle security officer placement for you.

I recommend: A buyer’s guide for security guard services is a great place to start and can help you find local companies; you may also consult your local police department to ask which private security companies they recommend. In fact, many police officers moonlight as security officers to supplement their incomes. For businesses, that means you can have the benefit of a guard with full arrest powers.

Look to national companies

Despite the fact that many states license guard companies, the truth on the industry is that there is a wide gap between competent well-trained security officers and fly-by-night operations… and the price doesn’t always make it evident which is which. National companies tend to operate a bit more like a military, where specific training and values are instilled, and where background checks are usually performed to make sure the wolf isn’t being let into the henhouse.

I recommend: Securitas, AlliedBarton, U.S. Security Associates, Wackenhut, Brink’s (for security transport of assets) and SecurAmerica are just a few of the guard services companies with a national presence and with comprehensive training programs.

Ensure that your security service provider is licensed

In many states, to operate a guard services business, a company must be licensed. Those registries are usually available on state government Web sites, since there currently aren’t any national standards. You’d be well advised to make sure that your guard services provider is licensed. It could mean a business liability issue.

I recommend: Because the Web links vary state by state, the easiest way to check on licensing requirements is to Google your state’s requirements using the terms “security guard license” and the name of your state. You should also request the license number from the company. Sometimes the license may have to be held by the guard him or herself. For instance, search for licensed security guards in California via the State Department of Consumer Affairs' License Lookup.

Set up checks for your security officers

You need a way of making sure your security guard is completing their patrol, if that’s the kind of duty you need them to perform. If they were supposed to check all entry points every hour, how can you ensure they did? One way has been to use guard tour technology that electronically registers their presence.

I recommend: Morse Watchman is one company selling devices that can verify your guard’s tour. It’s a simple technological way of making sure you’re getting what you’re paying your guard for.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  There is some debate over whether security officers should only have “observe and report” duties, or if they should be active participants in policy enforcement. For instance, upon confronting someone like a shoplifter, should the guard 1) simply take a description and call the police, and prepare their security report, or 2) detain the subject?
• •  The matter is sometimes just one of personal preference. Some stores will have their guards pursue thieves into parking lots, while others are required to let them go for safety’s sake. This also can be affected by state regulations (does your state give them arrest power?) and how you spell out the security guard’s duties. Clear this up with your guard or the company you contract with.
• •  Another debate is whether guards should be armed or unarmed. At locations with a high risk of armed robbery (i.e., a bank, jewelry store or high-cash-flow business), guards tend to be armed. However, that usually adds greater expense, and depending on the case, a business can be liable for how that gun was used in a security situation or other type of altercation. Consult a lawyer to be sure. Unless you absolutely need an armed response, your best course of action may be going “unarmed.”

Security doors are found in small and large businesses alike, and more businesses are installing metal security doors to keep their business and employees safe. To work for security door distributors, you should know the basics of door installation from framing to hanging the door itself. You will also need to know how to install doors with special features, like keypads or other types of security features.

In order to work with security door suppliers, you must be familiar with the different security door models offered. Information on particular models can be found within product manuals as well as information you can find through sources such as:

1. Through the supplier, who should have detailed information about the specific models they carry.

2. On the Internet, where you can look at the manufacturer's website.

3. Trade magazines for the security industry where different models of residential and industrial security doors are featured.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Find installation training programs from security door manufacturers or organizations

Security door installation training is usually handled by the manufacturer hired to install the door. Most manufacturers have their own training courses tailored to the specific models it makes, but you can also find organizations that offer voluntary training sessions for best practices that exceed industry standards. Training through sources other than the manufacturer will be geared toward basic installation education.

I recommend: Best Access Systems provides local training for those who want to learn how to install its security doors and locks. Sargent provides its own program for those who want to learn to install its security doors.

Research information on custom security door installation for different manufacturers

Once a business chooses a particular door model, the next step is is choosing extra safety features. Many security doors have add-ons for theft prevention and fire safety, so learning about specific features is also necessary to install the door correctly.

I recommend: Reed Brothers Security offers instructions on how to measure for any type of security door that you may want to install. Larson Doors provides instructions on measuring, installing and troubleshooting problems with its line of security doors.

Explore detailed instructions of commercial hollow metal doors online

If you are looking for specific manufacturer instructions, there are resources online where you can get detailed installation guides for security doors of many makes and models.

I recommend: If you order a door from Bug Blocker, you can also access detailed instructions on installing its line of security doors. Cal-Royal Products is another company that provides instructions and templates for self-installation.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Security doors for businesses can be enhanced for maximum security with entry keypads, industrial strength locks and other security features. Some manufacturers can provide additional training for these features.

Possessing knowledge of security doors can help you make more informed decisions about buying the right types of security doors for your business or for adding hardware to increase the level of security in the doors you already have. Understanding the terminology associated with security doors will help you focus in on what you need and find it quicker.

This guide includes six terms commonly associated with security doors: lock bumping, anti-passback, classroom function, electric strike, ANSI/BHMA grading system and ALOA.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Lock bumping

Lock bumping refers to the practice by criminals of using a specially tooled key called a bump key to force open a door lock and gain entrance to a building. Bump keys are used on lower-grade locks, so either keyless or high security locks of good quality that can't be bumped should be used on any security door.

I recommend: Get more facts about lock bumping at Lock Bumping.org.

Anti-passback

Anti-passback is a feature available for security doors that prevents someone from using an access card or code to enter a room or building and then passing the card back to another to permit access. An anti-passback code or card allows a person to use the card to gain entrance, but then the code or card can't be used for entrance to the same room or building again until it's first used to exit the same room or building. Security doors that incorporate anti-passback require separate hardware devices for entry and exit.

I recommend: Learn more about anti-passback features that come with the Security Management System from AMAG Technology.

Classroom function

With regard to doors, classroom function is a door handle or knob that can only be locked or unlocked from the outside using a key; a classroom function door can't be locked from the inside. Classroom function locksets got their name from the original concept - protecting children in classrooms by not permitting them to be in a room from which they couldn't escape in the event of fire or some other emergency.

I recommend: Learn more about the features and specifications of school locking hardware at Goliath.

Electric strike or striker

An electric strike is a door locking device typically operated by solenoid power, that unlocks a door whenever electrical power is applied.

I recommend: Nokey has information on electric strikes. Learn how to select electric strikes for your company's doors at the Pro Security Warehouse website.

ANSI/BHMA grading system

The Builders Hardware Manufacturers Association/American National Standards Institute grading system is a method for rating the level of security provided by door hardware based on voluntary performance standards developed and maintained by BHMA, an ANSI-accredited organization. The ANSI/BHMA standards establish door hardware product grades that demonstrate progressive performance benchmark levels. The purpose of each grade is to help identify lockset quality and durability through several security and operational tests. There are three basic lock grades: 1-3. 1 represents the highest level of security and 3 represents basic residential security.

I recommend: For more information on the ANSI/BHMA grading system and examples of each grade's performance standards, read the article "The role of BHMA door standards" at FacilitiesNet.

ALOA

ALOA is the acronym for the Associated Locksmiths of America. ALOA is an international trade association for those employed in the locksmith/access control industry.

I recommend: Go to the ALOA website and click on any of the links to learn about the benefits of joining this trade association. Click on the "locksmith search" link at the top of the page to find a locksmith in your area.