How Security Ratings Work

Door reinforcement

No consumer standard rates reinforcement kits, so we judge them mechanically. We care about how far the steel spreads the force of a kick or a hit along the door jamb, how long the screws are, and whether they reach the stud. Deadbolts and locksets do carry a rating, ANSI/BHMA Grades 1 through 3, and Grade 1 is the strongest.

How Stronghold uses it. Stronghold Reinforce uses only premium door reinforcement kits made from the highest-grade steel. The jamb plate spreads the force of a kick along the whole frame instead of letting it concentrate at the latch, hinge shields anchor the hinge side into the stud, door shields wrap the lock edge so it cannot split, and every screw is long enough to reach the stud. The assessment tells you which doors need it and in what order.

Forced-entry resistance

The U.S. Department of State standard SD-STD-01.01 puts a two-person team on the door with sledgehammers, a 120-pound battering ram, crowbars, chisels, and hacksaws for the five-minute level, and a six-person team with a splitting maul and an axe for the fifteen- and sixty-minute levels. The door fails when the attackers open a hole big enough to pass a 12-by-12-by-8-inch block. Ballistic rounds are fired first. Tests run at labs the State Department approves, with a government witness present.

ASTM F3038 is the civilian version: a six-person team with hand tools, timed at 5, 15, 30, or 60 minutes. ASTM says the test “is not intended to establish or confirm the absolute prevention of forced entries.” Neither are we.

Europe rates burglary resistance under EN 1627 in classes RC1 through RC6. The two classes we quote:

• RC3: one attacker with a crowbar, screwdrivers, and a hammer, five minutes of tool time inside a twenty-minute test.
• RC4: adds saws, axes, and battery power tools, ten minutes of tool time inside a thirty-minute test.

A single attacker and a pausing clock make RC classes gentler than the State Department levels.

How Stronghold uses it. The rated doors we install are tested to the five- and fifteen-minute forced-entry levels and to RC3 and RC4. The rating belongs to the door and frame as one assembly, installed the way it was tested, so we measure the opening first and the quote names the exact assembly and its rating.

Ballistic resistance

UL 752 assigns levels by the round the barrier stops:

• Level 1: 9 mm handgun, three shots.
• Level 2: .357 Magnum, three shots.
• Level 3: .44 Magnum, three shots.
• Level 4: .30-06 rifle, one shot.
• Level 5: .308 rifle, one shot.
• Level 6: 9 mm from a submachine gun, five shots.
• Level 7: 5.56 rifle, five shots.
• Level 8: .308 rifle, five shots.
• Levels 9 and 10: armor-piercing rifle rounds and .50 caliber.

“UL Listed” means UL itself tested and lists the product; “tested to UL 752” means a lab ran the UL test method.

NIJ 0108.01 is a 1985 government standard for protective materials and was never written for doors and windows; treat it as a secondary reference. A rating applies to the panel, door, or glass that was tested.

How Stronghold uses it. Bullet resistance is an option on some of the rated door assemblies we install, specified to a stated UL 752 level. It belongs to specific cases, a safe room door most of all, and the assessment decides whether your house is one of them.

Storm shelter and safe room

FEMA P-361 and ICC 500 set the design standard for tornado and hurricane shelters. A shelter door assembly has to pass impact testing in the configuration it will be installed in and carry a label from a third-party certification agency. A heavy steel door alone does not create a certified shelter.

How Stronghold uses it. We install safe room doors that an intruder cannot get through in minutes. A safe room door alone does not make the room a certified storm shelter; the walls, ceiling, and anchoring decide that, and we tell you plainly what your room is and is not.

Security screens

AAMA 1901-25, published by FGIA in June 2025, is the first U.S. specification for security screen doors and windows. It tests dynamic impact, pry, pull, and knife shear. Third-party certification to it began in July 2026.

How Stronghold uses it. The Stronghold Security Screen is 0.9 mm 304-grade stainless steel mesh in a welded aluminum frame, clamped into the opening with tamper-resistant screws so it cannot be pried out as a unit. The product is independently tested for dynamic impact, pry, pull, and knife shear under AS 5039, the Australian security screen standard. A screen carries no forced-entry time rating. It stops the quick, quiet entry through a window or a screen door, and the assessment tells you which openings need one.

What we do with all of this

Your Stronghold Report comes out of a 73-point inspection and lists every fix we recommend to improve the security of your home. We recommend a level of protection that fits the threat you are worried about and the budget you have.