FPC Security for Secret Doors
FPC’s sophisticated access control systems are used for security applications as inventive as our clients can imagine. One great example is our long-time customer the Hidden Door Store – an award-winning builder of complete, secure secret door systems for homeowners around the globe!
The Hidden Door Store leverages FPC’s wireless keypad reader as a secure access method for homeowners looking to open their hidden bookcase door or secret mirror door in a secure way. FPC’s combination of door security solutions combined with Hidden Door Store’s engineered creations results in some stunning solutions for their clients.
Once only a luxury feature of mansions, hidden passageways have become increasingly popular in residential applications all throughout the USA and the world. While many homeowners are thrilled to recreate their favorite Batman or Indiana Jones scenes, the majority of clients instead utilize a secret door to create very high-level security.
Traditionally, a popular fallacy of security has been perpetuated throughout the ages. The same fallacy often is stated when speaking to some friends, safe salesmen or amateur security experts. The fallacy is that the bigger the safe is, the more secure your valuables are. This drives an arms race between safe manufacturers.
Who can create the bulkiest safe? Who can create the heaviest safe? Which one will have the widest number of features and backup security methods?
The same is true with vault doors. Consumers’ imaginations are filled with visualizations of a large, round, steel bank vaults – the type of bank vault that looks like it has multiple levels of security and can’t be blasted through – and is incredibly expensive and inconvenient.
In fact, these lessons are flawed. Robust, visual security is a threat in and of itself. This is for multiple reasons.
The first reason is that a large safe or vault door lets the world know that you have valuables worth stealing. Often those seeing your safe or valuables are truly good people. Perhaps it’s just a daughter’s boyfriend who visits. Or maybe it’s a cleaning lady who works at your house. Or perhaps you have handymen, painters or various repairmen frequenting your home. Many of them will see your safe. It’s hard not to expect their imagination to run wild about what might be inside of your large safe.
Still, while you may be unsure about the integrity of a few, the vast majority of people who visit your house will certainly be upstanding people. Your visitors aren’t usually the problem. The problem occurs when those people mention the presence of your safe to the wrong person. When these visitors talk to their friends, they may carelessly mention that they were intrigued to see a large safe at the house they were in earlier in the day. If an actual thief or criminal hears this, your house is highly at risk.
Losing control over the knowledge of your valuables is a risky proposition.
The second problem with traditional security methods is that they point criminals within your house to where your valuables are located. Once a break-in occurs a thief has a limited time frame to extract as much of your value as they can. They will dedicate their effort to identifying what areas hold the most value. Common sense is backed up by numerous research studies which indicate that burglars love to locate a safe. A safe tells them that this is the space they should focus most their efforts on. This is where they can extract the most value. The safe is a magnet for the criminal. You are helping them use their limited time in an optimal way.
Finally, traditional security often does not live up to its promise. Simply put, no overt security method is completely secure. Even the most robust safe can be broken in to – and not with the sophisticated tools or expertise you might imagine, often with simple leverage and basic tools. With enough pressure or enough time anything will crack open – online articles abound describing this. If the safe appears too complicated to break in to, the criminal will simply choose to take the entire safe with them. This even happens to people who have multiple other security measures in place, for example famous actor David Spade had his safe stolen right out of his closet recently.
Reading this, you’re probably beginning to feel like your valuables are significantly more vulnerable than you initially considered. But fear not. These vulnerabilities are due to the one thing that traditional security completely misses the mark on. The one thing that FPC and its client, The Hidden Door, are experts in providing for security: secrecy.
Secrecy is critical when it comes to proper security. It avoids people imagining what your valuables might be. It avoids the wrong people knowing where they should look in your house to find your prized possessions. It can avoid you getting the wrong kind of attention in the first place.
FPC Security has a full suite of secrecy-focused security products, from electronic magnet lock doors to discreet fingerprint scanners. Using FPC’s products, Hidden Door Store has pioneered one extreme method of secrecy: building security-focused secret doors.
A secret passageway is considered a high security feature as it offers unparalleled level of secrecy for a potentially very large space. A criminal cannot find what they cannot see, they cannot break in to an area that they cannot see. The most popular models of secret doors are hidden bookcase door, but many other options abound. Ornate revolving fireplaces, automated trap doors, functional pool-cue racks, reflective secret mirrors, and even lifting staircases are all possible concealment options.
But having a secret door doesn’t require owning a mansion or even an extra-large house. A secret door can be added to an existing house and usually acts to increase space.
Simply retrofitting a closet door in to a secret door can create an entire hidden and secure room, for valuables ranging from precious metals to firearms. No special room is needed. Additionally, it turns what once was just a door in to either a functional space (for example a mirror is now there) or a storage space (for example books on a bookcase).
Other common locations for a hidden door besides for a closet are crawl space, unused attic space, a laundry room, a utility room, an extra basement room, and many more clever locations that may have been of limited use prior. Still others will add the secret passage as an entryway to an existing, well-used room in the house. For example, it may be used as a stunning entrance to a kids play room, a billiards room, a wine room, a home theater area or a home office.
Most clients are private about what they choose to keep behind a hidden door, but there are some well-know uses. One of the most popular is firearm storage, sometimes creating an entire gun closet. A hidden space allows for securely storing a large number of firearms, rather than the cramped confines of a safe. It also provides a convenient way to keep firearms safely away from children.
Another common use is to keep jewelry safe. This works especially well if the door leads to a closet. This allows for a woman to keep her jewelry throughout an entire walk-in closet, instead of a small area. It can be displayed to her preference while still enjoying peace of mind of their security.
The addition of FPC Security’s access control features adds another layer of security for Hidden Door Store’s clients. By integrating FPC’s wireless keypad and wireless buttons in to their secret doors, clients both have at their disposal quick methods of entry in case of an emergency and more secure methods of entry for confidence in the security of their valuables.
FPC’s wireless technology on these devices means that the homeowner can be much more flexible in storing and concealing their door control device. The access control device can be operated within 40 feet of the door – no need for wires or any telltale signs.
The wireless button offered by FPC gives Hidden Door Store’s clients a great way to quickly access the door. This is valuable in panic room situations, where the client may be looking to protect their own life or the life of their family. A complex entry method could delay a life-saving room from being accessed in time. FPC’s intuitive wireless button is a great option for this scenario.
FPC’s wireless keypad allows two levels of security for their door. A criminal would need to identify the secret door, find the wireless keypad and still figure out the right combination code – simply an impossibility. This is an excellent choice for a door protecting high value items.
How will YOU enhance your security? As you can see, with an eye towards secrecy, you can easily surpass the security levels of even very expensive traditional security methods.
Visit the Hidden Door Store to see their secret doors that incorporate FPC’s technology or begin building your own security and automation system in FPC’s expansive Door Access Control section.
Gain confidence in the security of your family and your valuables!
