My carpet cleaner, who breaks into a lot of houses in his line of work, has just told me that the best way to card a door is to use one of those “credit cards” that they send with the pre-paid credit card offers. They are lighter weight than a real credit card and flexible enough to not break.
I’ve been shredding those, but now I think I’ll save a couple of them and carry them in my wallet.
tatertot,
Interesting tip, thanks. But where are your keys? Are those vacant houses you are looking at that you need to get into?
Furnishedowner
Metal paint scrapers / putty tools work very good too, and they never break. But that’s only for traditional door knobs, forget it when it comes to dead bolts.
We finally had to call a locksmith. He has this really nice little thin piece of spring steel to card the door with. It’s probably one of those things that it is illegal to have.
He couldn’t get the door open, but could get a window open, took about 20 minutes with specialized tools.
Then the door knob was taken apart from the inside, and still couldn’t get the door open. Had to take the door off the hinges.
All this with everybody (5 of us) standing in the snow. I sure hope I never have to go through this again. I’m seriously considering installing an access hatch with a hasp and padlock that I could get open with a bolt cutter.
I was doing a major rehab of a rental a while back, and I was spending a Saturday doing some work myself, and I @#%#R#R’ing locked myself out of the property - with the keys inside. I never, ever do stuff like that. But I did it. LOL.
So…I was in the ghetto, with my cell phone, car keys and rental property keys inside. No one was around.
Solution? I kicked the door in. It was real easy to repair the doorframe, and remarkably (and amazingly) easy to knock the door in. I had previously heard it was easy from an old friend who locked himself out of his new house - when his 3 year old was inside alone - so he kicked his own door in to get to his kid. He couldn’t wait for a locksmith!
I have since began reinforcing ALL my low income rental property doors with Strikemaster II’s, burglar bar doors / windows or the like, depending on exactly where the property is located and how rough (or not rough) that neighborhood is.
I can see why burglars like kicking doors in - it is easy.