Just moved to Europe from the US and have been thinking about something I’ve noticed on previous visits: The doors.
Our apartment door could probably stop a police battering ram as well as high-powered rifle fire. The deadbolts come out of at least two sides (I haven’t examined the top). You have to turn the key seven times to unlock it.
Why? Crime, especially violent crime, is so much lower here. This is the kind of door you’d laugh at as evidence of paranoid delusion if a US prepper survivalist had one installed on his house. Why do Europeans demand this level of security for their homes?
Um, are you sure you haven’t been to prison? I’ve been living in Europe for decades. I’ve only ever seen doors like the ones you describe in prisons (not as an inmate, by the way, but as a visitor during a criminal trial).
I can’t answer the question, but I can confirm that my time in Ireland, Scotland, and England presented me with much better exterior doors than I’m used to in the US. In fact, my wife and I frequently notice this when watching British TV shows. Even the doors in “cheap” flats seem to have very nice frames, doors, and hardware, often with multiple bolts engaging the door to the frame. You certainly see high-quality doors in the US, especially in new construction, but they’re still not usually up to the level I’ve seen in person and on British TV.
As always when someone asks about something “Europe/European”, I have to ask, where exactly In Europe? It’s a continent consisting of 47 countries and even more cultures. I’m German and have visited the Netherlands, France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland and Croatia in Europe, and never have noticed such an apartment door. Especially not a lock you have to turn seven times, that’s bonkers.
I’ve definitely seen doors like the OP described in Italy (I can’t vouch for seven times, but multiple rotations of the key to engage multiple bolts). As to why, I have no clue.
My house in Italy had a door similar to what is described in the OP. In Germany, I’ve lived in an apartment and a stand alone house. There was nothing remarkable about those doors–except they lock automatically. My last house had really solid, hard wooden doors. Back in the States now and I’m pretty sure my front doors are metal–but, thin and light. Not as heavy, solid or sturdy as the one in Germany.
100% Sure I could easily kick in my front doors if I needed to. With little effort.
Not sure about the one in Germany. Probably could with enough effort and enough kicks.
We have a high-quality door in our house, but our house is only 13 years old. The front door is extremely solid. That’s definitely not the case everywhere I’ve lived; in fact, when we moved in, I was kind of shocked to see how strong the front door was, because most every other house or apartment I’ve lived in has had a flimsier door. So it must be a new construction trend in the US.
I don’t know where the OP was in Europe, but doors like they described are ubiquitous here in Israel. I have one myself. It’s made of steel bars, sheet metal and polystyrene insulation, and I think it has 6 or 7 deadbolts, on all 4 sides. Most of them are manufactured by a local company called Rav-Bariach, known internationally as Mul-T-Lock.
I live in a low-crime neighborhood; doors like that are just considered basic home security.
Here’s a website showing the internal workings of one model. It’s in Hebrew, but I’ll translate if you have any questions: