There’s no way to fully burglar proof your home. A smart and committed burglar will, with enough time, find a way to get inside most homes. But you can successfully keep out 99% of potential burglars with basic home security measures, and that’s usually enough to secure your home.
In this post, we discuss the 4 best ways to burglar proof your home.
Follow the Three Ds of Home Security
To burglar proof your home as best as you can, follow the three Ds of home security: deter, delay and detect.
Deterrence is the first line of defence and the goal is to make sure it’s the only defence you’ll need most of the time. Deterring a burglar prevents damage as they try to break in, potential loss of valuables and a whole lot of hassle.
To deter a burglar, find different ways to discourage them from attempting a break-in. Here’s where having a fierce dog, visible security cameras and a well lit exterior can help.
Keeping your home well visible from the street and putting up security warning signs can also get a potential burglar to think twice about targeting your home.
Delaying a burglar involves making it harder for them to break in. A strong door, good quality locks and security bars are some of the ways you can slow down a burglar.
Finally, there’s detection. Here’s where an alarm system and security cameras are useful. They let you catch a burglar in action and hopefully avert further damage and theft.
Based on these, here are the best ways to burglar proof your home.
1. Start With Good Quality Locks
Even without a fancy burglar alarm system or wireless cameras, basic measures like having good quality locks can keep out most burglars.
External locks for your front and back doors should resist different kinds of attacks including snapping, drilling and picking.
Some good locks include a 3-star Euro lock cylinder (for composite and uPVC doors), deadbolts and deadlocks (get a BS3621 mortice deadlock), and smart keyless locks.
You can further secure doors by adding a security bar to make it harder to force the door open just in case the lock is defeated. A security bar is a great delay method.
Other improvements to make your doors more secure include installing a sturdier strike plate, getting a stronger door and replacing exterior hinges with internal ones.
2. Secure all Potential Entry Points
Many homeowners do a good job securing the front and back doors, but then forget other entry points a burglar might target.
Walk around your home and make sure any potential entry point is well secured. Start with the windows. Anti-shatter window film, window locks and window security bars can deter and delay a burglar.
Another entry point that’s often ignored is the garage door. Burglars can force garage doors open. An even easier method involves using a coat hanger as shown in this video.
To make your garage door more secure, install an extra lock, get a garage defender to keep the door from being forced open and upgrade to a more secure garage door opener that uses rolling codes.
3. Install a Home Security System
Once you have covered the basics, now you can move on to the more advanced security measures.
A complete home security system provides additional security across all three Ds – deter, delay and detect.
A basic home security system includes a burglar alarm, motion and contact sensors, external lights, security cameras, and signs and stickers. To these you can add a video doorbell and smart locks.
You can get a complete home security system kit with most of the stuff you need. Or you can buy a few components at a time depending on your budget.
4. Extend Security to Inside Your Home
Don’t forget that home security should extend to inside your home. As you install exterior lights and cameras, add security measures inside your home as well. These provide additional deterrence, delay and detection if a burglar manages to get inside.
Some good security ideas for inside your home include internal wireless security cameras, a safe for your valuables, and motion sensors.
Make sure the cameras have motion sensors (either internal or external) so that you get alerted if there’s movement inside your home.
