#locksmith middlesbrough

Getting a new house, or purchasing your first house is an exciting time: you’re moving up the property ladder, moving to somewhere you’ve always wanted to live and getting more space to live in and store the things you need to live and enjoy your life. But since you’re moving into a new home, you need to consider just how secure your home is from intruders. There are lots of external factors involved, such as the general rate of burglaries in the area, but the prime factor is in the locks of your new home.

Get a New Locking System

Your common off-the-shelf door lock will be good enough to deter the petty criminal, but a dedicated burglar can find their way in by copying the key. Perhaps the previous home owner lost their key and it fell in the hands of a burglar, or the burglar accessed a locksmith database and copied it from there, but either way, there’s nothing stopping them from getting in.

Ideally, you can replace locks with a patented or a restricted locking system. Patented keys carry legal protection, preventing copies being made without providing proof of ownership, while restricted keys are unlikely to be copied due to their unusual design and unique mechanical features.

This means that extra keys can’t be made without your knowledge and previous owners or tenants do not still have access to your home. In addition, when patented keys are stolen or go missing, the existing key can be deleted from a locksmith’s key code database, the lock re-configured and new keys issued, ensuring that lost or stolen keys no longer work.

Burglar Alarms

Your home likely has a burglar alarm system already set up by the previous homeowner. Change the code of any alarms as soon as you move in and only give alarm details to people you trust. There’s no telling how long it’s been since the alarm code was changed by the previous homeowner or how reliable it is, so test it once you get a chance after unpacking.

A shed is the ideal storage location for a ton of tools and gear that wouldn’t fit inside your house: exercise equipment, gardening tools, paint buckets, bikes or motorbikes can be easily placed in a shed without the fuss of pushing them through the front door of your house or leaving them inside. However, your house is usually more secure than your shed.

The average shed in the UK, when it isn’t neglected as a dumping ground for various knick knacks, is very easy to break into. If you actually keep valuable things in your shed, the burglar will likely only have to deal with a cheap padlock. Perhaps they can look in through a window, with nothing obscuring what’s inside. Perhaps the shed door is fastened by screws on the outside, easily removed. Either way, the standards for securing your shed are low.

So how do you fix this situation? Purchasing a better lock than the shed supplier gave you is a quick first step, since these locks are always cheap and easy to break or pick open. Applying super glue or another strong adhesive to the screws in your door hinge can prevent a quiet thief unscrewing them. Adding curtains to the windows can protect you from opportunistic thieves looking for specific items before attempting to break in.

Wireless alarms are a good way to prevent theft when it actually happens. Putting any large tools away that could be used to break the door open is always recommended, and it has the bonus effect of making your garden look tidier. If you’re particularly worried about people stealing small items, storing them in a locked box within the shed is a good idea, as the thief can’t really tell what’s inside. Larger items, like lawnmowers, bikes and heavy gardening tools can be fastened together overnight, which will make taking one of them out of the shed much harder when there’s a bunch of junk fastened to it.