Installing a door peephole


Installing a door peephole

Each one of us deserves to be safe in our home. You can do many things and precautions to prevent unwanted people or intruders from entering your home. For example, installing locks or putting extra lights. Even the simplest household items can help to protect you in a situation where an intruder enters your home.

It is important to take the needed security measures to make us feel safe in our own homes. One very simple but important security feature is your main door\’s peephole. It\’s very important to have the doors lock at home at all times. It is as much important to really know who\’s knocking before opening the doors to check ourselves. A peephole will help to protect us as we will know first who\’s knocking without having to open the door. A peephole is considered the safest option too as unlike peeping out a window the person knocking won\’t know we are checking him out.

If you want to add security to your home with a wood door outside, installing a peephole is the simplest way. The peephole will allow the household to see someone outside without the person knowing. Installing it is not a hard work as long you have the right tools and steps. Make sure to purchase a peephole kit in your local home improvement store that is suitable to your door\’s type and finishes. Here are the steps that you can follow.

You will need:

  1. Peephole kit
  2. 1/8 inch drill bit
  3. Safety goggles
  4. Tape measure
  5. Power drill or basic drill
  6. Spade bit with the right size according to your peephole kit instructions and sand pencil

Steps:

  1. First, wear your safety goggles. Drill a narrow hole through the door using a 1/8 drill bit. The drilled hole is the pilot hole for your guide to make a bigger hole in the next step. Make sure to keep the drill level so the hole will be as close to the horizontal position as possible.
  2. Then, use a spade bit to replace the 1/8 bit in your drill. Use the size of the spade bit which is recommended by the peephole kit\’s instructions. Start on the inside of the door and the center of the point of the spade bit in the pilot hole making it level all the time.
  3. Drill halfway through the door. Repeat this step from the opposite side of the door by using the pilot hole as your spade bit guidance. A smooth circular hole all the way through the door will be produced when you are done drilling. The idea of drilling half way from each side is to prevent the door from splintering.
  4. Next, you can follow the instructions in the peephole kit to install the two halves of the peephole. The two peephole pieces will meet in the middle and should be screwed together. Make sure not to install the peephole backwards.

By now, you must have managed to install your peephole properly. For security measures, when someone knocks at the door it is better to peep through the peephole to check who it is than opening the locks and door.

Additional Reading:
http://www.ehow.com/how_2304256_install-door-peep-hole-.html

Image Credit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/randomurl/472640728/