Barrie is a safe city. Its Crime Severity Index sits well below the national average, and police reported community-reported harm down 33 per cent across the first five months of this year.

What Barrie does have, like most Ontario cities its size, is property crime. And Panorama Windows and Doors says the average homeowner has spent money on the wrong part of the door.

"People buy a good deadbolt and figure they're done," said Alex Soroka, Founder at Panorama Windows and Doors. "But a deadbolt is only as strong as what it's throwing into. On a lot of houses that's a thin strike plate held by short screws, sunk into soft pine. The lock never fails. The frame does."

The company sees the same thing in Barrie's older neighbourhoods and in newer subdivisions alike: a solid door, a decent lock, and a jamb that was never built to take a shove.

What actually holds a door shut

A standard single-point lock concentrates everything at one spot, roughly waist height. Force applied anywhere near that point goes into a few square inches of trim.

A multipoint locking system works differently. Turning the handle throws bolts at the top, middle and bottom of the door, so pressure spreads across the full height of the frame rather than landing in one place. The systems are standard on European doors and have become common on Canadian fibreglass and steel entry doors.

The other half is the frame itself. Longer screws that reach the structural stud behind the jamb, rather than stopping at the trim, cost almost nothing and change the result completely.

"The screws are a twenty-minute job and any homeowner can do it themselves," said [SPOKESPERSON NAME]. "We tell people that before we quote them anything. Sometimes that's the whole fix and they don't need us at all."

Free door checks this fall

Panorama Windows and Doors is offering free in-home door security assessments across Barrie, Simcoe County, Durham Region and the company's other Ontario service areas through November.

An installer looks at the frame condition, strike plate and screw depth, hinge fastening, the state of the weather seal, and whether the door has settled out of square. Homeowners get a written summary. There's no obligation to buy anything.

"Half the doors we look at need a screw upgrade and a new seal," said Alex Soroka. "The other half are twenty-five years old, sagging, and letting the heat out as fast as they're letting the cold in. We'll tell you which one you've got."

Homeowners can book at panoramawindows.ca/contact or by calling (705) 999-4888.

Crime prevention resources

Barrie Police Service runs community crime prevention programs, including CAMSafe, a registry of private security cameras that police can draw on during investigations. Homeowners can find details at barriepolice.ca.

About Panorama Windows and Doors

Panorama Windows and Doors has served Barrie and surrounding areas for more than 20 years. The company began in Alberta and expanded into Ontario, and now operates showrooms and offices in Barrie, Oshawa, Hamilton, Kitchener, Oakville, Brampton, Markham and London, serving Simcoe County, Durham Region, Sudbury and the Greater Toronto Area.

Its product range covers steel entry doors, fibreglass entry doors, French doors, patio doors, garden doors, storm doors, screen doors and multipoint lock system doors, along with awning, casement, fixed casement, single and double slider, end-vent slider, single and double hung, picture, triple-pane, vinyl and Low-E windows. Installation specialists are certified and licensed, and the company is CSA Group approved, ENERGY STAR Most Efficient qualified, and Window Wise certified.

Panorama holds a 4.9 star rating on Google, and has been recognized by ThreeBestRated, the Consumer Choice Award, HomeStars and CommunityVotes Barrie.