Hardening the home

[Elmer Fudd]

I recently did a few things to harden our home to make it less appealing to thieves/home invaders.

1. Added exterior motion lights at all 4 corners and by each door. Approx $100 for the corner light controls at Home Depot, used Zenith Heath wireless components to replace the switches, not the exterior fixtures. A battery powered sensor outside, that I mounted away from the house facing toward it, one each front and back. Programmed the same code for both, so that any motion, front or back, turns on both front and back switches. About $60 at Lowe's for two wall mounted motion fixtures for two personnel doors.
2. Replaced the laughably weak front door clear stained glass insert with plywood and a peephole. You literally could have pushed this thing through with ONE finger. Also replaced the sidelight with plywood. About $60 at Lowe's.
3. Added a glass storm door in front of the front door, with a keyed lock. On sale $100 at Lowe's.
4. Added a stop lever device like those used in hotels to the door. About $30 at Lowe's.
5. Covered the garage door glass inserts with contact paper. Impossible to see whether vehicles are in garage or not. We always park inside. About $20 for Contact paper at Home Depot.
6. Added a tv camera to the porch so the wife can see visitors without going to door. $30 at Harbor Freight. I bought a b&w model that is rated to .1 lux for night vision, but it still needs the motion light to really see at night. Now they sell a color model rated to only 2 lux for night vision for $35.
7. Put a tv camera in the bedroom hall so we can see if anyone is in the hall if the alarm goes off. We already have cameras in the young children's rooms. $30 at Harbor Freight. You can buy IR LED arrays on eBay to use with night vision cameras that work real well. That is what we use in our kids' rooms.

Of course, we already have an alarm system. Saved some $ by changing to an internet based monitoring company.

These upgrades cost just a little time and money, but they give some peace of mind and would delay a determined intruder for a few seconds and make more noise, hopefully enough time to get to a gun.

I had a couple of well dressed men come to the door a few days ago. Probably Jehovah's witnesses. I brushed them off through the storm door, with the doorstop device on the main door. I had my carry pistol on me, as usual since I started carrying.

We live in a safe neighborhood, but I feel stupid for living here so many years before doing some of these relatively easy things.

 

[BigO01]

Well Elmer it sounds like you made some wise improvements to your home .

One thing I would like to add from watching the television show "It takes a thief" is to make sure you don't help any criminals out by leaving windows and doors unlocked or tools or anything that might help someone break in laying in the yard .

I saw one episode where the owners had been putting in a flower garden and had left one of the little hand tools in the flower garden and it was used to cut the window screen .

 

[Cosmoline]

Ditto the issue of keeping doors and widows locked with solid locks. That's a great show to watch, as they highlight over and over again how it's the stupid little things like an open window or unlocked back door that foil the whole system. Also, most people never seem to use their fancy security systems.

 

[El Tejon]

As someone in the business, I stress how important it is to keep your "toys" hidden from sight from the road. The smart burglars always scout a hit. Keep your jet skis, ATVs, dirt bikes, snowblowers, etc. in the garage and hidden from the street.

Be careful about letting strangers in to "borrow the phone" or "use the washroom". Common to have burglars to open a window or unlock a door while they are in your house under false pretenses.

Leave a light on and ensure the house looks lived in when you are away (vacation, visiting relative, etc.). In his autobiography, Malcolm X stresses the importance of light in defeating burglaries. I believe his suggestion was to leave the bathroom light on.

Get in a routine of locking all doors and checking all windows during the night. Do a "walk around" the house.

I have steel doors with steel frames and Medeco deadbolts on my doors. However, if I leave a door unlocked, it is all for naught.

 

[sansone]

ditto the nightly walk-around before bed

 

[SkiLune]

I've put a few $20 portable motion detectors by Doberman in strategic entry points, and used their portable alarms on ground level windows.

Some have suggested putting used, shot up, targets in the windows to send a message. I did that once while I was away, but have since taken them down. My reasoning is that while I am away, I'd rather not have BGs know there are guns locked in the house.

 

[budney]

El Tejon,

[blockquote]
As someone in the business, I stress how important it is to keep your "toys" hidden from sight from the road. The smart burglars always scout a hit.
[/blockquote]
How long have you been a burglar?

--Len.

 

[El Tejon]

Never, but I've worked for a bunch of alleged, and not so alleged, ones.

 

[gunNoob]

Check out this site. Lots of cool gadgets and gizmos.

http://www.homesecuritystore.com/

 

[george29]

I am also in the process of hardening my house, this security door from Lowe's cost about $75 and is secured with L brackets to the door and studs on all sides. The purpose is to give me time to wake up if intruders get in, the dogs sleep on the bedroom side at night. All my doors have a number of locks and door jammers.

The rifle in the pic is just to darken the pic

 

[Rick O'Shea]

A good attack cat is never a bad idea, either...

 

[johndoe1027]

As related to leaving a light on when on vacation;
Some of our more "comfortable" (read wealthy) brothers should check out Lutron Lighting control. I do not mean the dimmers at Lowes. I mean the whole house wired or wireless Homeworks systems (not available at Lowes). One of the (many) uber cool features is the vacation mode. While you are in the house you can record two weeks of activity. It records which lights are turned on and off and when it happens for two weeks. Then when you go on vacation, you just hit play on the master keypad and it replays that activity (astronomical clock so no need to worry about daylight savings) over and over until you get back. Pretty cool but VERY expensive (start at $5000 to weed out the riff raff). If anyone needs help with this PM me, it's what I do all day. I design those systems and A/V stuff too. I'm always willing to help out a THR'er.
A cheaper alternative is the cheap little timers that you can set to different times so that lights are going on and off here and there. That works a lot better than one light on constantly. IMO
Good work Elmer, you are one step ahead of me for sure.
My theft deterrent is to leave as much stuff outside as possible so that they never have a reason to break in. I have had a welder under my carport for over a year now sitting right next to a weedeater, chainsaw, etc..... Nice neighborhood out in the sticks.
+1 on the attack cat, I have two.

 

[tmajors]

It would be impossible for me to harden my home as my wife doesn't understand the merits of closing and locking the windows. Even in the WINTER there is always at least one window open 24/7. Yes my heating and cooling bill is completely out of hand. The thing that bugs me the most is that she'll insist that I lock the doors...twice...but still that big huge bay window right next to the front door is wide open because "it's so stuffy in here." :banghead:

....hmmm I wonder if I can find someone to put cast iron bars on all my windows.

 

[Big Calhoun]

I live in a condo so it isn't like there's much I can do. However, just to possibly give some folks some ideas...

1. First, I had the deadbolt replaced with a deadbolt privacy lock - it can only be accessed from the inside.

2. The peep hole has a small wireless camera mounted. The camera is viewable from any of our laptops and my cellphone - also includes ability to remotely view.

3. THere's a small camera on the bottom of our neighbors patio that looks at the street, parking spaces, and the entrance way. Also viewable via the internet on our laptops and my cellphone.

4. I installed a new 'catch' assembly on our patio door. There's a metal rod that extends from one side to the other, it used to sit in a plastic catch that was partially broken - IMO, someone could have easily jimmied that bar loose. So I put in a metal assembly. I also put a simple screw in between the door and its track. If by chance someone does get that bar loose, the screw will jam against the track, preventing the door from opening.

5. Finally, we have two spare bedrooms that aren't used. One has a treadmill that is right up against the window frame. The other has a bunch of whiskey bottles, some with loose change in them. Figuring a poor mans alarm system.

There are other little things that I do to also provide 'security'...

a. I try to know my nieghbors and their habits. Not that I put them through an inquisition or anything. But just to learn enough so that I can recognize when something looks out of place.

b. Any place I've lived, I always walk the perimeter to see what a potential burglar could see. I try to arrange my home accordingly - goal being I don't want you to be able to see anything tempting inside my home unless I can also see you looking/watching.

c. I NEVER, EVER, NEVER EVER throw out boxes from appliances or gear until night time. Even then, my name and address are crossed out and I try to break down the boxes enough that you can't tell what their original size was and try to make any company/manufacturer names on the boxes unreadable.

Outside of that, the rest is just being observant. I'm known to constantly peek through my blinds to survey what's going on. I frequently sit on my patio, have a drink, and watch the boogergoblins and troublemakers ride and skate by.

 

[morcoth]

+1 on the boxes

I myself always bring my expensive stuff boxes to work, and pitch them there, I have seen houses that setout that fancy 50'' plasma box n trash day, and 2 weeks later, they have a nice bare wall.

grrr

also for security, get a motion activated camera, that can upload to a website, install a monitor program to let you know if your "Web cam" is updated, and bingo, you see your kid messing in your office/gunroom.

Morcoth

 

[Eyesac]

Nice dude, I'm jealous. The Camera for the front door is a great idea.

 

[Elmer Fudd]

....hmmm I wonder if I can find someone to put cast iron bars on all my windows.

Don't do it unless the bars can be removed with a quick release device from the inside. You don't want to be trapped inside if there is a fire. I know of at least one story in the last year locally where a family got trapped this way ...

 

[Bubbles]

Another security option is to have the shatter-resistant window film installed on the ground-level windows. After researching them a bit I found that depending on which ones you have installed and where you live (climate zone), you may be eligible for a $500 tax credit under the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/WF/3MWindowFilms/CustomerSupport/TaxCredit?WT.ac=TaxCredit

 

[avmech]

Added thought on a monitored alarm: we have the alarm hooked up through the regular phone line, but if someone cuts the line, we have a cell line in the attic that allows the alarm to make the call. Just a little more comfort

 

[Winter Borne]

Cudo's to all who have hardened their homes. Big believer here. I am suprised to see no mention of a dog. I lived in some tough area's in NYC and one year both of my neighbors were burgled. We had no problem though thanks to Maggie, a rescued Pitt that I got in Long Island.

mk

 

[DawgFvr]

Physical House security is my weak link...or so I believe. I have a sliding glass door that leads to a back deck and, although nice looking, I think it has potential as an entry point...especially since my house is on the border of a Christmas tree farm. It has a lock, of course, and it does have one of those bars at the bottom that (friction) tightens on the other sliding door...I believe this is so that nobody from the outside can leverage the door off the track...right? Any suggestions on hardening this? My front door is steel...but I have a door going into the garage that is a basic, cheap wood door. I think that should be replaced with a steel door w/bolt as well. I have been jaded to date cuz my next door neighbor is a State Trooper who leaves his patrol car outside the house most of the time. Still, that could make us more of a target with some bad guys.

 

[avmech]

In order to prevent a slider from being leveraged out of the track, I installed some big screws into the top frame, adjusted so that the head barely makes contact with the door so it can't be moved up and out of the track.

As far as a dog goes, I thought that was just a basic requirement......everybody should already have one, specially a big black and brown one with cropped ears and a docked tail.(dobie that is)

 

[Geno]

george29:

That's a wicked-looking attack-cat sitting at the ready!

Doc2005

 

[ilbob]

consider reinforcing the door frame as well. there are several companies that make steel reinforcement plates you can add that make it very difficult to kick in a door.

 

[rbernie]

The burglars around here don't bother with windows or doors. They push in and bow the top of the garage door just enough to slip a hook on a stick and grab the automatic garage door release rope. They pull it, and VOILA! They have instant access to the house thru the garage.