How Security Ratings Work
Four different things get called “security.” They are tested differently and they protect against different attacks. This page explains every rating we quote, in plain language.
Door reinforcement
No consumer standard rates reinforcement kits. What matters is mechanical: how long the screws are, whether they reach the stud, how far the steel spreads the force of a kick along the jamb. Deadbolts and locksets do carry a rating, ANSI/BHMA grades 1 through 3, and Grade 1 is the strongest.
Forced-entry resistance
Tested with a clock. 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. RC3 is one attacker with a crowbar, screwdrivers, and a hammer for five minutes of tool time inside a twenty-minute window. RC4 adds saws, axes, and battery power tools for ten minutes. A single attacker and a pausing clock make RC classes gentler than the State Department levels.
Ballistic resistance
UL 752 assigns levels by the round the barrier stops. Level 1: 9 mm. Level 2: .357 Magnum. Level 3: .44 Magnum, three shots. Level 4: .30-06, one shot. Level 5: .308, 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 cover armor-piercing 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. The wall, the frame anchors, and the gap under the door decide whether the rating means anything in your house.
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, and we will never tell you it does.
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. Ask any screen seller which of those two words, tested or certified, applies to the product in front of you.
What we do with all of this
Your Stronghold Report grades each opening and recommends a level of protection that fits the threat you are worried about and the budget you have. The answer is sometimes long screws and a $595 reinforcement, and sometimes a rated door. We quote against the exact product and the exact rating, every time.
Schedule your free home security assessment.
We score all 73 points, hand you the Stronghold Report, and tell you the three things we would fix first, whether you hire us or not. No alarm sales pitch. No obligation. No scare tactics.
Or call 254-423-5742.