this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2023
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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.

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[–] fulcrummed@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

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

[–] Andrew1030@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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

[–] intensely_human@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

Change the stairs. If you can’t stand in front of the door the entryway is poorly designed.

[–] Mothra@mander.xyz 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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?

[–] sorebuttfromsitting@sopuli.xyz 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

sounds like a door on the side of a trailer or some such. people live and raise kids in a wide variety of environments.

[–] Andrew1030@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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

I'm on your side friend. Your goals are true. Sorry I still don't know the answer.

[–] dingus@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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.

[–] sorebuttfromsitting@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I'm not endorsing it, but it definitely happens. It's like this: measure twice. cut once, or more than once. Put door in hole. Fill gaps with whatever caulk gun or whatever. ...

Collect rent.

[–] Mothra@mander.xyz 1 points 1 year ago

Lol. I haven't seen sliding glass doors on trailers either, but I have seen a house with a main sliding glass door. That house also had a regular door on the side, but it was far easier to use the sliding one especially when accessing the property from the street.

[–] Andrew1030@lemmy.ca -1 points 1 year ago

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

[–] masto@lemmy.masto.community 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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.

[–] Andrew1030@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

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

[–] masto@lemmy.masto.community 0 points 1 year ago

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.

[–] MNByChoice@midwest.social 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I could use more information.

Is the door keyed? Key hole on outside and a lever on the inside?

[–] Andrew1030@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yes the current lock is a simple toggle that grabs an edge of the door on the inside. There is a keyhole on the outside which pushes the lever up unlatching the clasp from the edge of the door edited spelling errors

[–] KittenBiscuits@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You can get a lockset with a numerical keypad on both the inside and outside hardware. i.e. no inside knob on the lock for little fingers to let themselves out. It might technically be a fire hazard, though, unless you have an alternate means of quick escape. Keep a safety glass breaker tool by the door but up high or something.

[–] Andrew1030@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Most keypad sets use a deadbolt system, because it’s a sliding door a deadbolt won’t work because it slides open. I have seen other locks that use clasps but none of them have keypads on both sides of the door.

[–] KittenBiscuits@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

edit: Last night when i looked on Amazon, it appeared that there were several for a sliding patio door. There are thin ones for sure, you could ask in the questions if they will work for mortise locks. I know you dont specifically need the solution to be "smart home" capable but maybe one of these solutions would align with your needs.

[–] PP_BOY_@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Probably not what you want to hear, but when I was growing up my dad used a few tubes of silicone to seal up some of the windows and sliding door at my house. When we got older he just took a utility knife and cut it off

[–] CrimeDad@lemmy.crimedad.work 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] Andrew1030@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

I’ll look at cross posting thanks for the advice!

[–] intensely_human@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] Andrew1030@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

If I’m able to build a landing/porch on the outside this is the easiest solution. But at the moment my stairs make it 1.5 feet lower than the inside floor which means it’ll to high on the outside but to low on the inside.

[–] cabbagee@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What does the lock look like? Does unlocking on one side mean the lock portion on the other side moves too?

If it's like the sliding doors I know with the flat lock, you could use something like this and keep it flat to lock.

[–] Andrew1030@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

The current lock just latches onto a small metal bar… if someone pulled hard enough it would just bend open.

[–] Today@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

How about a traditional deadbolt at the top or bottom?

[–] Andrew1030@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

Deadbolt at the top can cause the door to shift out of its tracks when pulled on and if it’s at the bottom it’s easily accessible to tiny hands playing with it. If I place it more in the top centre it’ll be Duffy to reach with a key unless it’s electronic.. and that comes with many other issues

[–] Dangy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've only ever seen deadbolts on swinging doors but this has gotta be a thing for sliding doors also

[–] Today@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

Just rotate 90°. I don't know the easiest way to drill through it, but a decent handyman could probably do it.