Great Cheap Ways To Make Your House Safer Hunt

Wendrie

We put our most precious paper files, hard drive etc. in a box and hand them to my parents who look after them for us when we're going to be away.

roswell

moonrakerz wrote: »

If you have a nice cylinder (Yale type) lock on your front door - watch this - and be worried ! You can buy the keys off the web !!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKAJ845IBPg

I wish i had seen this 2 weeks ago, we moved to a flat with a external "Cleaning cupboard" the key supplied didnt fit, it took less than 3 seconds to get the door open with a screw driver and no damage .. so much for "Yale" being secure.

nickgriffiths

Perhaps someone could answer a few security questions that have been bugging me for years.

1.) Why bother securing the front/back door with multiple deadlocks? Many houses I have seen/lived in have a back door largely made of glass, and/or a front door right next to a lounge window. Why fit more than one lock to the door when it is far easier for a burglar to smash the glass? Surely kicking down a door makes as much noise as smashing a window (if done right)?

2.) Why bother fitting a burglar alarm? Much like car alarms, despite the amount of noise they make, I have known anyone bother investigating when a neighbours burglar alarm goes off. Does anyone actually look out their window when they hear an alarm? Are burglars actually put off by them?

3.) Why pay for your alarm to phone your friends and family? Not sure exactly how much burglar alarm companies charge for this service, but surely it's far cheaper to get contents insurance!

For these reasons, and from reading other forum members experiences, I see little reason to have more than a deadbolt on the front and back doors and to shut the windows.

Sami_Bee

nickgriffiths wrote: »

Perhaps someone could answer a few security questions that have been bugging me for years.

1.) Why bother securing the front/back door with multiple deadlocks?

2.) Why bother fitting a burglar alarm?

3.) Why pay for your alarm to phone your friends and family?

For these reasons, and from reading other forum members experiences, I see little reason to have more than a deadbolt on the front and back doors and to shut the windows.

Nick:
1, the point is a mostly glass door is not secure, as mentioned around page 3 there's no point putting loads of locks on a largely glass door but there is on wooden doors


2, an alarm is a good visible deterrent plus u need to make friends with your neighbours so they WILL act when it goes off


off that point make sure you lock the door behind you! with upvc doors being the norm these days its easy to forget that unlike old yales the door isn't locked when it shuts.
My neighbours had a lucky escape when they were decorating their front upstairs room it was dark so from outside u could see they were both upstairs and some nasty chavs tried the door and it was open luckily we saw them and scared them off before they got anything!

My friend even had her handbag nicked from her hall as she was going back and forth getting the weekly shop from the car :eek:

Makes me worry what the world will be like when my baby boy is grown up

Ruby38

Dora_the_Explorer wrote: »

1) Store as much information as possible online.
2) Keep very important docs in one file so you can grab it when you have to make an emergency exit.

Yes, quite right, but the flip side of the coin to that is that the burglar comes in and grabs the lot too! I don't keep everything together, I use a couple of places so it's not all together. You have to decide what is more important when you leave in an emergency!

gromituk

benyoung89 wrote: »

and dont forget to replace the battery every 8 months (they say 12 but why risk it for the sake of a few pence!!!)

Because they beep anyway when the battery is getting weak, and their estimate will be very conservative because they don't want to get sued.

OddjobKIA

put a sign on window as follows


Dear burglar of theif

if you intend on breaking into this house to look for valuables
please knock on the door I will help you look and we can split the findings 50/50

pkempc

roswell wrote: »

sorry i hadnt seen that artical at the time of posting,

Another tip for sheds, buy some solder and fill the screw heads with solder or for a few more £`s you can replace them with cluth head screws, Bolt is a billiant option to just remeber to put some big washers / plate behind them to stop the doors being pulled off and the bolts being pulled through the wood.

:beer:

Excellent idea - I'm replacing all my shed door hinge screws this weekend with Star Drive heads from my local Screwfix.
http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/cat.jsp?cId=A231603&ts=97568

edthedead

Only just seen this thread and read though it.

I have been to quite a few burglaries, here are my list of top methods used...

1. Back door or window left open at night, especially if it is a door not used often... always check them before you go out or to bed! The vast majority of burglaries are in my experiance oportunist.

2. The UPVC window trick - I won't go into to much detail although someone has already mentioned it on this tread (and I'm sure the SOCO will know what I'm talking about). Not really much you can do about this one maybe worth glueing certain parts of the exterior of the window frame or even getting more modern windows (££) - your local crime reduction officer will be able to give advice.

3. Opening the front door which is only secured by a yale lock. This also applies if you have a multi point locking UPVC door, but don't lock it fully! - The solution is to fit a dead lock to a wooden door or lock a UPVC door by pushing the handle up and turning the key. It is very easy to 'slip' the yale type lock!

4. Fishing keys through the letter box - common sense - put the keys out of sight.

5. This is pretty rare but does happen - Smashing through a window or door. Somtimes done using tools taken from the shed of the attacked property or a neighbours shed - that way they don't have to carry it with them to the scene and risk getting nicked en-route - secure your outbuildings!

- Single glazed windows - very easy to break, get window locks and lock them! Put stuff on the window sill inside i.e cactus's (cacti, whatever!).

- Double glazed windows - hard to smash, much better than single glazed although remember the UPVC window trick above!

- Wooden doors - fit a dead lock on the front door, you could even put 2 on, one at the top, one at the bottom with a yale lock in the middle. On the back door I have a dead lock and then 2 Rack Bolts (search on Screwfix) with the thumbturns, top and bottom. I also have a yale handle that I got from B&Q that can be locked in position so you cannot turn it from the outside. Rack bolts are the best bolts I have found - I have smashed a fair few doors and they are easily the hardest type of bolt to break! If you have glass in your wooden door it is best to have double glazed or preferably only small area away from the locks.

- UPVC doors - generally much more secure than wooden doors. Make sure you double lock them every time. Very hard to smash open since they flex and the frame also flexes.

In my opinion a house with modern double glazed UPVC door and windows which are locked is very difficult to get into without making an awful lot of noise which is exactly what a burglar does not want to do!

Ashburn_House

scootermacc wrote: »

wrote I work in the industry. Some tips on top of what has already been said. Ashburn House replies :-

Most of the methods suggested for making a house safe in this forum involve directing local burglars at neighbouring homes.

Anti-theft efforts should concentrate on pointing the miscreants in the direction of the local police station where they can be prosecuted and removed from circulation (in either your home or that of your neighbours). Information about the activities of the local thief population should be collected by cameras and stored to provide evidence for a successful prosecution.

Most camera systems require power from the domestic mains and a connection to a TV, recorder or computer. As a result they are expensive to purchase and often require more expensive professional installation. The recording system (recorder, computer etc) is subject to theft by the burglars themselves.

What is required is a stand-alone camera powered by a long life battery that should be easily fitted on a DIY basis. It should be motion sensitive, have IR lighting for night-time viewing and report directly to an internet URL accessible by the owner. The quality of the lens and recording system should yield images that are evidential for prosecution purposes.

Preferably it should be concealed and mounted low, pointing upwards at the local hoodies rather than mounted high and pointing downwards. A dummy camera could be mounted high to encourage the hoodies to look towards the real cameras

Following a burglary or attempted burglary, the activities of the thieves could be downloaded on to the owner’s computer (if that still remains) or via an internet café, and e-mailed to the local police. If the images are timed and dated and of good quality then the police would be prompted to react.

Most burglaries are committed by a small population of habitual career criminals (usual prompted by drug addition). Their removal into incarceration would cut this type of crime to a small fraction of the current level.

So, are there camera systems, of the type described above, available at a reasonable price or is this just a pipe dream?