If you were locked out of your house, would you be able to gain entry? If your answer is yes, then you can be sure that a thief, who probably has a lot more experience that you do at breaking and entering, will also be able to. Don’t make it easy.

Total security is virtually impossible to achieve in the average home, but a lot can be done to deter a thief and make breaking in more difficult. With each stumbling block that you create, the thief has to spend more time and effort to gain entry into your house. Try to make it difficult enough that the thief is totally discouraged from attempting to break into your home in the first place. Remember that burglars don’t like obstacles, noise or light. With this in mind factors that contribute to a good home security system include:

• Bright exterior lighting, which preferably should be controllable from inside the house. Try not to only turn these lights on only when you go out. Light up your property every now and then, even when you are at home, so as not create a pattern.
• Fencing, railings or other sturdy perimeter enclosures about the house with gates which can be locked.
• Security gates and peep-holes on all external doors.
• Safety chains on all external doors.
• Sturdy burglar-proofing on all windows.
• An efficient alarm system, preferably combined with a response service.
• Dependable, trained dogs.
• Visibility from the street and from adjacent houses.
• Good quality locks.

The roof is a weak link in many homes and is responsible for a considerable number of unlawful entries. It is relatively quick and easy to remove tiles or other roofing material to gain entry, and this happens frequently. Consider some form of roof protection, such as placing a dual-tech detector in the roof. These detectors are more expensive than standard PIR’s as they use a combination of technologies to provide effective protection in harsh environment while eliminating false alarms.

A recent trend is that automated gates are being targeted by so called “Gate Crashers”. Given that there are a wide range of automated gates in the market there are an equal number of ways of dealing with this practice. The first way is to physically fortify the gate against intrusion. There are some simple and ingenious methods of achieving this which are obviously dependant on the gate construction. The second method is to install outdoor beams or an outdoor passive to cover this area. We again would like to extend an invitation to you to contact us directly so that that we can assess you specific environment and advise accordingly.