With longer days and warmer weather on the horizon, we naturally spend more hours away from the home—whether vacationing, socializing, or just spending an afternoon out back in the garden. Unfortunately, the spring and summer months traditionally see an uptick in opportunistic burglaries. Use this professional checklist to evaluate your home's defenses.
1. Check Window Locks and Restrictors
We love throwing the windows open to let fresh air in, but it's dangerously easy to leave ground-floor windows open when you walk out to the store. Ensure that all window handles turn smoothly, fully engage, and lock with a key. Furthermore, consider installing window restrictors on ground-floor openings so you can safely ventilate rooms without leaving a gap large enough for an intruder.
2. Inspect Outbuilding & Shed Security
Your shed or detached garage often houses thousands of pounds worth of power tools, bicycles, and gardening equipment. Shockingly, they are usually secured with a simple £5 padlock. Upgrade to hardened steel, closed-shackle padlocks combined with heavy-duty hasps that conceal the mounting screws. Additionally, consider locking high-value items to internal floor anchors.
3. The Garden Gate
Ensure your side gates and rear access panels have stout, well-maintained bolts on the top and bottom. Burglars prefer entering through the back of a property where they cannot be seen from the street, so a tall, locked fence is an excellent deterrent.
4. Service UPVC Door Mechanisms
Changes in temperature and humidity can cause UPVC doors to expand and contract, throwing the multi-point locking mechanisms out of alignment. If you have to lift the handle with excessive force or push hard against the door to lock it, the gearbox is under extreme stress and will inevitably snap. Have a professional UPVC specialist re-align the door now before you are locked out permanently!