Helping to Make the Exterior of your Property Secure
Passageways
The first line of defence against a thief gaining entry to your property is the outside land surrounding your house. For this reason it is important that any passageways leading from the front to the back of your property should be secured with strong, lockable and high gating. It maybe necessary for you to liase with your neighbours about fitting the gates, however, it will be a benefit to your neighbours as well as yourself.
Garden sheds, conservatories and garages
It is not uncommon to have valuable power tools kept in your garden shed and you will most likely have your cars/s in your garage. Never leave either the garage or garden shed unlocked and even more importantly never leave any of the windows or doors unlocked in a conservatory as this could be a very easy way for a burglar to gain entry to the main portion of the house.
The garage and shed doors should be sufficiently strong so that they will not collapse under force and padlocks should be fitted. If possible it would be advisable to also padlock tools internally to the shed itself for an extra level of protection.
Finally, make sure that any ladders are always stored securely in the shed or garage – never leave them outside or in the garden as a thief could use these easily and quickly to scale the house and gain entry where the security is perhaps less secure.
Outside lighting
Figures illustrate that almost 60% of all burglaries take place under the cover of darkness. Therefore, if good outside lighting is utilised it can put off a thief or draw attention to them whilst in the act of attempting to break into your home.
It is very important to make sure that the correct lighting setup is selected as the cost to power the lighting can become expensive and if lights are continuously on during the night it can be an annoyance to neighbours and even potentially hazardous to drivers. For this reason it is important to ensure that the lighting is pointed in a downward direction.
Lighting options for homeowners are energy efficient motion sensing lighting that will come on whenever there is movement within range of the sensor, or a dusk to dawn controlled switch that will provide light in the darkness hours at a uniform and low level of light.