sliding bolt latch on the outside of bedroom

[Jac915]

I have been viewing houses. There is one house that has sliding bolt latch on the outside of bedroom.

I can't stop thinking what are they for
It's a bolt without keys so I can imagine locking someone inside

Why would ppl put it on the outside?

Perhaps child proofing if it was up high easier than putting a baby gate across if it's a room the child can go in. What was the room used for an office? Arts and crafts room with paints etc.

a room the child can't* go in.

I used to babysit for a few kids whose bedroom had a bolt on the outside of the door. I know the parents used to lock them in to stop them getting out once they’d been put to bed. They used to tell me to lock it too but not ever having my parents do this to me I thought it cruel.
I never locked the door, they loved me babysitting as you can imagine, poor kids 😞

We moved into a house that had this on the bathroom and upstairs bedrooms. Initially thought it was something sinister but later decided it was because they faced out over a flat roof so if you were eg going on holiday you could lock them and anybody that came in the back couldn't get past that room. At least that's what we reckoned!

A house near us had this, on every door, they only locked them when they went on holiday, therefore if a burglar got in they couldn't progress without making a racket.

Is there a flat roof outside the window? We used to lock ours from the outside when we went away, so that anyone climbing in couldn't get further than that room.

We had little hook latches on a couple of bedroom doors to stop wandering toddlers. Much cheaper and less hassle than baby gates and did the same job of keeping the children safe. Deliberately bought flimsy ones that would be easily forced if anyone was ever accidentally locked in.

This house had a bolt on the outside of a room used as an office, when we moved in. It was up at the top of the door and was to keep the little horrors out.

I went in a house after tenets had moved out, and they'd fitted bolts to the outside of all the upstairs doors - bedrooms and bathroom.

It looked really creepy. They were heavy duty ones like you'd put on a shed.

Turned out their dog had figured out how to open doors!

I mean to stop toddlers wandering in to the rooms, not to stop them getting out.

We had these to stop the dog letting herself in every room.
She was a bloody menace!

My sewing room (a spare bedroom) has a bolt on the outside and so does our bedroom because when we go out for the day we don't want the children going in there because they normally let the cats in then don't realise and accidentally shut them in there as they leave again

We had one on the outside of the bathroom door, to stop toddler son wandering in and mucking about with water unattended.

@Faranth

I went in a house after tenets had moved out, and they'd fitted bolts to the outside of all the upstairs doors - bedrooms and bathroom.

It looked really creepy. They were heavy duty ones like you'd put on a shed.

Turned out their dog had figured out how to open doors!

This is why I had them on ours! I now have taller safety gates so no risk of 4 big dogs ploughing up our beds while we're out anymore. I hated how the bolts looked, definitely worried that visitors might think I was locking my kids on their rooms! I wasn't!!

We used to have one high up on the outside of the bathroom as pre-potty training DS went through a phase of going into the bathroom and trying to climb into the bath.

We have one on en-suite bathroom as it’s in toddlers bedroom. Don’t fancy him throwing all his books down the loo or flooding the place yet!

We have one at the top of the door of a bedroom we use for craft things. Needles, oil paints, Stanley knives......all things we didn’t want toddler DS to be able to get to!

Because there was a member of the household who had to be restricted fpr their own safety, while their carer got a few hours sleep at night.

    Dementia  is just one possible  (and common ) example. Some people  with dementia are particularly active at night and  would be in severe danger if they had unsupervised access to stairs,   a stove, gas appliances,  boiling kettle,  and outdoors.

@Freshandtasty

I used to babysit for a few kids whose bedroom had a bolt on the outside of the door. I know the parents used to lock them in to stop them getting out once they’d been put to bed. They used to tell me to lock it too but not ever having my parents do this to me I thought it cruel. I never locked the door, they loved me babysitting as you can imagine, poor kids 😞

My grandparents had a bolt on the outside of their bathroom door for this reason. It wasn’t for locking people in.

Oops! Quoted the wrong post. That’s not why my grandparents had a lock on their bathroom door …

@bravefox

We moved into a house that had this on the bathroom and upstairs bedrooms. Initially thought it was something sinister but later decided it was because they faced out over a flat roof so if you were eg going on holiday you could lock them and anybody that came in the back couldn't get past that room. At least that's what we reckoned!

THIS is why my grandparents had a lock on the outside of the their bathroom door …

I had trouble when my son was younger with him trying to mistreat our pets. I put a lock high up on the outside of my bedroom so that I could lock the pets in and prevent him doing this.

We have a hook and loop type latch high up on our spare bedroom door. It’s locked when nobody’s in there so our toddler can’t go in and do himself harm with my sewing machine/dressmaking shears/rotary cutter.

Yes, my parents used to have one on the outside of the bathroom and bedroom doors that led onto the extension roof so that they could lock when they went away incase anyone broke in. My younger sister used to take great delight in locking me in my bedroom when I was a teenager when she was cross with me! (Not for long!)

I had one high up on the outside of my studio door in the last house in case children visited- too many things like chemicals and knives etc. in there for kids to be allowed in on their own.
One house we looked at had a bar on the inside of a downstairs room, which puzzled me. It gave me pause for thought when a mate said, 'oh, that was his porn room, was it?'