From cavemen days to present day, humans have had to defend themselves from the threat of robbery. While the basic threat remains the same, much of the technology has gotten better. Even though we’ve moved out of caves and into houses and homes, we still have to deal with people wanting to break into our place of residence and take our stuff. As a homeowner, it’s your job to protect your home and family to the best of your ability.
Here are some simple home additions that can beef up your security and provide the best defense against intruders.
Reinforce Your Doors
While protecting your windows, doggy-door and other weird entryways might seem like the ideal way for a burglar to sneak into your house, you’d be wrong. In fact, 34 percent of intruders simply use the front door and another 22 percent will just use the backdoor. While startling, the statistic sheds great insight into where to begin bolstering your home security. One of the easiest and most cost-effective methods to reinforce your doors is to install deadbolts. You can pick them up from your local hardware store for under $30 and they’re fairly simple to install.
However, a door’s weak spot is where the deadbolt lock enters the doorjamb. A hard and well-placed kick can break the strike plate, door frame or both—rendering your brand-new deadbolt useless. Many strike plates are cheaply installed with inch-long screws that can easily be kicked in. Replace the screws if they are under three inches in length to ensure that they cannot be kicked in with ease.
Smart Locks
If you have a bad habit of losing your keys, you may want to invest in a smart lock. A smart lock effectively eliminates the need to carry keys on you at all by providing entry to your home via a fingerprint or password. Most smart locks can replace your current locks in a matter of minutes without any need for hardwiring or drilling into your door.
One of the main downsides to the smart lock is the overall cost. At its cheapest, they will set you back about $50, while the versions controlled by smart phones can run you upwards of $100. The smartphone controlled versions will usually record the dates and times that certain key codes are entered, so you can track when specific people are entering your home.
Adhesive Alarms
Investing in whole-house security comes with the peace of mind associated with knowing your home is being monitored around the clock. However, they are expensive and will generally come with a monthly fee. Adhesive alarms are an affordable alternative and can be placed on any window or door. When the adhesive device senses movement by opening or harsh vibrations, it will sound the alarm.
These alarms do not usually have the capacity for video
surveillance or alerting the police of a breach, however, they hover around the $10 mark. The siren is rather piercing, clocking in at 110 decibels. If you want to open your window or door, you can simply turn them off at their basic switch with no drama.
Remember that insurers view a safer home as less likely to initiate a claim and may offer you a “loss mitigation credit” or something similar. Make sure to check with your provider, or if you are in the market for a new carrier, compare homeowners insurance quotes and find a provider that will credit you for a safer home.
You don’t need to have the benefit of a reduced insurance premium to want to safeguard your family from the problems of the world. All it takes is a few bucks and you can provide some much-needed extra security for the most precious investment of all — your family.
