Safety Locks on Doors

[MiffieandMaddy]

Hi there, I am new to mumsnet so please forgive me if I haven posted this in the wrong section!

Anyway after some advice. Our front door opens straight out onto the road (which is a very busy B road, and has a 50m/p/h speed limit which everyone exceeds by about 10m/p/h). My little one is just about to start walking as although I think I am a little way off this at the moment, I am getting very worried about her opening the front door and ending up on road.

The obvious thing would be for us to keep it locked (which we will) but I just dont trust everyone in my house to always do this. (Imagine scenario, in car about to leave for work, realise forgotten phone, just pop indoors to grab it. You are not realistically going to lock the front door, and we all know it only takes a second for the little ones to sneak out).

Therefore can anyone recommend a child safety lock, that operates the second the door shuts, and does NOT require you to put a latch down or anything? Any tips/advice much appeciated, before I spend £500 on a new front door!!!

Could you not use a Yale lock?

Yes that is what I had planned, until I thought she will be able to open that as a toddler surely (remember Alfie gets in first?!). Or is there a way to set them as a dead lock type thing the minute the door shuts?

A high level Yale where she can't reach.

yes, agree about high up. If about shoulder-height is high enough, it adds an extra defence against the door being forced, provided you also have a BS deadlock at kick/waist height.

British Standard nightlatches (rather more expensive than the simple yale type) can also have the internal knob deadlocked by a turn of the key. This is to prevent burglars smashing glass to turn it, or reaching through the letterbox with "a simple home-made tool" to turn the knob and open the door (so letterboxes should be as far from the locks as you can manage, and preferably fitted with strong cage, but that's another matter).

However if you do lock the knob when people are in the house, you might have a delay getting out in an emergency, so high up will do until the little treasure learns to climb on a chair.

You could have a buzzer fixed to the door too (one that you can turn on and off)