Didsbury · M20
In Didsbury, nobody can see your back garden. That's the problem.
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- 20-30 min from Salford
- From £25
- No call-out fee
- £1m public liability
- DBS checked
Didsbury's front doors are on streets with people walking down them. Its back gardens are long, walled, full of mature trees, and back onto other long walled gardens full of mature trees. That is the nicest thing about living here and it is the entire security problem.
Cover is the thing that matters
Ask anyone who has attended a lot of break-ins what a burglar actually wants and it is not a weak lock. It is time and privacy. A weak lock on a front door in view of a bus stop is not much use to anyone. A decent lock on a patio door, at the end of a sixty-foot garden, behind a wall, under a sycamore, is a very different proposition.
Which means in M20 the money should go to the back of the house, and it almost never does.
The four things at the back
Patio and french doors
Big, glazed, and on a longer, heavier multipoint run than your front door. They drop sooner and bind harder. Stiff handle now, sheared in six months. £45-120.
The side gate
The thing that decides whether anyone gets to the back at all. Usually a bolt and a thought. A closed shackle padlock is £45-90 and it is the cheapest thing on this page.
The back door itself
Front upgraded years ago, back never touched. If it is a 2-lever mortice it is not BS3621 and your policy probably wants it to be. £85-140.
Ground floor windows
In a garden nobody overlooks, a window catch is a suggestion. Key-operated locks, £25-55 each.
The thumbturn trap on a glazed door
A lot of Didsbury patio and french doors have a thumbturn cylinder, because it is convenient and because you can always get out. On a door made largely of glass, that is a problem: break one pane, reach in, turn it. The lock has been defeated without touching the lock.
If your back door is glazed, a key-both-sides cylinder is the safer choice, with the key on a hook at adult height, out of arm's reach of the glass, every time. That last part is not optional. See deadbolts.
Conversion flats
A good part of M20 is big Victorian villas split into three or four flats, which brings the shared-street-door question: everyone in the building has a key, and so does everyone who ever lived there. Your own flat door is the lock that means something. We can rekey a communal door as one job with a key per flat rather than four neighbours arguing about quarters.
What it costs
| Job | Price |
|---|---|
| Side gate, closed shackle padlock and hasp | £45-90 |
| Patio / french door multipoint service | £45-85 |
| Gearbox replacement | £60-120 |
| BS3621 back door mortice, fitted | £85-140 |
| Key-operated window lock, per window | £25-55 |
| Lockout, non-destructive | £65-110 |
| Communal door rekey, key per flat | £70-140 |
Around here
Questions people actually ask
What's the weakest point on a Didsbury house?
The back, and specifically whatever gets somebody into the garden in the first place. Front doors here are on streets with people walking down them, which is genuinely protective. Back gardens are long, walled, full of mature trees and back onto other gardens exactly like them, which gives anybody working on your patio door all the time and privacy they could want. The side gate is the cheapest thing to fix and the one nobody thinks about: a closed shackle padlock and a decent hasp is £45 to £90.
My patio door handle is getting stiff. Is it the same as a front door?
Same mechanism, worse odds. Patio and french doors are wider and heavier than a front door and run more locking points over a longer strip, so when the door drops even slightly the whole run binds and the gearbox takes the strain. They tend to go stiff earlier and shear faster. Caught while it is only stiff, a service and realignment is £45 to £85. Once the gearbox shears it is £60 to £120, and on a patio door that often means it will not lock at all.
Should my glazed back door have a thumbturn?
Probably not, and this is a real trade-off rather than an upsell. A thumbturn means you can always get out, which matters in a fire. But on a door made largely of glass, somebody can break one pane, reach in and turn it, which defeats the lock without touching the lock. If your back door is glazed, a key-both-sides cylinder is safer, provided the key lives on a hook at adult height and out of arm's reach of the glass and the letterbox. Every time, not most of the time.
I'm in a Didsbury conversion flat. Is the communal door secure?
Treat it as a door rather than as security. A Victorian villa split into four flats usually has a street door that everybody in the building has a key for, plus everybody who has ever lived there, and nobody has changed it because nobody is quite sure whose job it is. Your own flat door is the only lock in that building that genuinely means anything. If the flats do want the communal door done, we quote it as one job with a key per flat, which is easier than four neighbours arguing about quarters.