Security of garden sheds?

cyclonebri1

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

I


IMO, you can't really put a price on security, especially in this day & age.

Exactly, which is why I went to the trouble and expense that I detailed, they took a £600 petrol shredder from mine:mad::mad::mad:


My comment was made in view of this being a money saving site, but sometimes you have to spend to save;);)

Dukesy

Nothing is completely secure - just ask those of us who have had to break into their own houses in the past.

Anyway, to the point: if you buy one of those put-it-up-yourself sheds from B&Q or wherever, you are buying the flimsiest, worst quality bits of **** ever made. We currently have one in a corner of the garden, left over from the previous owner. I can push the window out with one hand, giving a nice, person sized access. I can lift the boards off the frame without the help of tools, and the screwed on padlock hasp and staple is just beyond pointless. It would be ridiculously easy to break into this shed.

OH owns a business making expensive timber sectional buildings for people with, largely, expensive hobbies. Most of the time these people want their garden buildings to house their expensive hobbies, and thus want them to be secure. Sections are not screwed together, but are bolted together, locks are bolted on, roofs are bolted on, the construction is heavyweight, closely fitting timber, windows are often made to the same spec as you'd find in a house etc etc. In most cases, heavy duty locks are fitted and so on. HOWEVER, even with all this, there is no guarantee that it's secure - if someone wants to break into anything, they will find a way.

That said, it'd take much longer, be much are difficult and be much noisier trying to break into one of OH's buildings than it would to break into a B&Q shed, which might be offputting, I guess.

If you really want security, I have to say you're going to have to spend some money to get it.

Alan_T_2

ringo_24601 wrote: »

I have broken into my own shed before when the padlock broke. All it took was an electric screwdriver to take one of the doors off.. Took a few minutes.

I wouldn't store anything worth loosing in one

Obviously this worked for you in that instance, but from a security point of view you should look at changing the visible screws to security screws that can't be loosened with ordinary screwdrivers.

cyclonebri1

Dukesy wrote: »

Nothing is completely secure - just ask those of us who have had to break into their own houses in the past.

Anyway, to the point: if you buy one of those put-it-up-yourself sheds from B&Q or wherever, you are buying the flimsiest, worst quality bits of **** ever made. We currently have one in a corner of the garden, left over from the previous owner. I can push the window out with one hand, giving a nice, person sized access. I can lift the boards off the frame without the help of tools, and the screwed on padlock hasp and staple is just beyond pointless. It would be ridiculously easy to break into this shed.

OH owns a business making expensive timber sectional buildings for people with, largely, expensive hobbies. Most of the time these people want their garden buildings to house their expensive hobbies, and thus want them to be secure. Sections are not screwed together, but are bolted together, locks are bolted on, roofs are bolted on, the construction is heavyweight, closely fitting timber, windows are often made to the same spec as you'd find in a house etc etc. In most cases, heavy duty locks are fitted and so on. HOWEVER, even with all this, there is no guarantee that it's secure - if someone wants to break into anything, they will find a way.

That said, it'd take much longer, be much are difficult and be much noisier trying to break into one of OH's buildings than it would to break into a B&Q shed, which might be offputting, I guess.

If you really want security, I have to say you're going to have to spend some money to get it.

But inspite of hubbies best efforts, they will simply bust the window, simple and quiet, if done correctly.

There's also a big difference when breaking into your own property, you don't mind the noise or care if you are seen, the rogues do;)

Dukesy

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

But inspite of hubbies best efforts, they will simply bust the window, simple and quiet, if done correctly.

There's also a big difference when breaking into your own property, you don't mind the noise or care if you are seen, the rogues do;)

Agreed, hence why I said this:

"HOWEVER, even with all this, there is no guarantee that it's secure - if someone wants to break into anything, they will find a way.

That said, it'd take much longer, be much are difficult and be much noisier trying to break into one of OH's buildings than it would to break into a B&Q shed, which might be offputting, I guess."

Hintza

We are never broken in to.

Mainly because all the sheds are unlocked, the stables are unlocked, the container is unlocked, the cars are unlocked and more often than not the house is unlocked.

Absolutely no need to break in :rotfl:

And touch wood we have never been burgled.

penguingirl

Our shed is also unlocked- tbh if someone went into it they could take some of my junk to the tip for me! In all seriousness we don't keep anything valuable in there, just cheopo DIY stuff (but no power tools or copper plumbing bits), garden chairs, washing line etc. so it's not something we worry about, and we find it easier to leave it unlocked as the postie pops things in it for us.

I remember a couple of years ago our cat got shut in the neighbours (N1) shed when they went away for a holiday. Other neighbour (N2) reckoned only way in would be by smashing window and was on the phone to N1 who was rambling about the security, the anti-tamper screws etc because he kept his motorbike in there. My OH had the door off in the time it had taken me to switch the kettle on so the anti-tamper screws weren't up to much!

ic

When you build your shed, screw down the roof. My shed was broken in to by the burglar standing over the fence on something, and pulling the roof up. They snapped the roof enough to see and and see there was nothing worth taking.

My current roof is plywood, screwed down, rather than the original chipboard nailed down.

This encouraged me to upgrade my wireless burglar alarm to a zoned one which I could turn on at night (including sensors in the shed), and to fix the security light that covered the shed.

Oh yes, they broke in on a very stormy night - all the noise was covered by the howling wind and the clattering of bins and stuff. Probably looking for bikes. Don't keep anything of value in your shed, or make sure its insured. I keep the expensive power tools in the house, and my garden electricals in what was the brick lean-to outside loo.

Hintza

We are probably too blase but generally around here if they decide they are coming they tend come ready to take the lot and normally in daylight. Not very easy for the casual burglar to leg it over fields and burns with a lawnmower.

cyclonebri1

It's an old anecdote but has some relevance here if it alerts folks to what can happen;

About 15 years ago we had bought out present house, I was in the process of gutting it. I was ripping out the hall floor on this particular day.

Red hot summers day so had a 2ltr bottle of pop on the front doorstep as the work was very dusty.
We live on the main road through a small village, fair amount of traffic.

Anyway I was sat on the doorstep every 15mins all afternoon.
Saw a white tranny van parked outside of a neighbour 3 doors down, it was there for an hour or so, never gave it a second thought.

That evening a knock on the door, the police.

I'd sat and watched them empty the house of every thing of value without even realising what was going on:eek::eek: