Let Your Home Be Your Fortress: Security Tweaks That Can Make You Safer Today
Your home is the place where you should always be able to feel most at peace. After a long day’s work, there is nothing more gratifying than seeing the front door, and walking in. This is the point where you can shake off whatever the day has thrown at you and become yourself again. This is why losing your keys can feel like a nightmare. Wondering who has them now, and whether you’ll get them back, is enough to make you panic.
The thing that makes your front door so welcoming is the knowledge that you can walk through it, but unwelcome visitors cannot. So if that barrier of strength suddenly becomes a point of weakness, it is always uncomfortable. Indeed, any weak point in your home can become a constant worry until fixed. So let’s go around your home and make sure you can feel confident and secure.
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The Front Door
As well as being the point by which you leave and enter the home, a door has become so much more. An aesthetically pleasing front door can, it has been proven, add curb appeal to a home you may want to sell. A bright color can make it feel more welcoming, the portal to somewhere special.
It can, however, be an opportunity for intruders. Antique, old-time doors may look jolly, but they need to be strong and sturdy and have secure locks fitted. If your door has been in place for over a decade, think about how you can make it more secure today.
The Conservatory
Adding a conservatory to a home is one way of making it feel more luxurious. The tradition is to make it light and airy by having a lot of windows and allowing in the sun’s rays. It’s common to have full-length windows and patio doors in place. This allows you to open the doors on to the outside and look out over your garden.
It is essential to make sure that the doors are well maintained and that any window that opens is reinforced. Bifold doors are a good choice in conservatories as they can be more securely locked. To even the most resourceful burglar, they’re an obstacle that says “move on”. Suppliers such as Debar put the security of their product as a number one priority, while not cutting corners on aesthetics.
Outdoor Storage Space
While our home itself may be as secure as Fort Knox, many of us are guilty of an “out of sight, out of mind” attitude to storage spaces. A shed, or a garage, may be a little bit less impregnable than the house itself. This is despite the fact that often, they are the spaces that contain some of our most valuable items. Power tools and seasonal equipment can be attractive to a burglar.
Garages, especially those that adjoin the house, can be even more of a risk. While we may lock our front door as a matter of course, and keep all windows shut, a garage can be an entry point for a burglar. It is essential to make sure that, even if we don’t keep our car in there, we keep the garage firmly locked at all times. Opportunistic burglars have been known to sneak in when the door is unlocked and lie in wait.
The Windows
Although it may sound obvious, windows are still too often the point of ingress for a burglar. This can happen for any number of reasons, but just a few are as follows.
Windows are left open often in the summer, when temperatures soar and humidity is a problem. Still, stale air is no fun to live among, and just to get some freshness into the house, we leave them open. If you have windows open, make sure you are in place to monitor the rooms where this is the case. A burglar can be in and out without making a sound in a very short space of time.
Also, if windows have not been replaced for a while, general wear and tear can result in them having a weak point. A burglar may not even need to break the window to gain entry. Make sure that your windows are strong and secure at all; run checks at least twice a year. It’s better to be safe than sorry.
One last word of advice for keeping your home safe. If you have recently purchased high-value items, break down their boxes and dispose of them yourself. If you leave them out with the garbage and recycling, you may attract burglars who know exactly how much they’re worth.
