5 Ways to Keep Your Home Safe while on Holidays

Who doesn’t love to go on holidays? Nobody! Everyone loves a good holiday. You get to relax and take time off work. There is not a worry in the world.

But have you ever been on holiday and worried about if you home is safe? Or if you will be coming back to a home that was broken into?

Here are five different ways to keep your home safe while on Holidays.

Check the Locks

The very first thing to do is to check all the locks in your home are up to par. What makes a bad lock? Well visually if it looks old it’s easy to break.

Another check you can do it to take a similar key to what is actually used for that particular lock and see it will open. Really old locks will open in this way.

Another thing to check is how secure the actual locking mechanism is on the outer door frame. If this could potentially be ripped off with a little force. Then the lock as a good as dead.

If you have any issues like this taking place. It’s time to replace your locks or door frames.

Make it look like Someone is Home Every Night

This is one of the oldest tricks in the book. If you were lucky enough to go on holidays as a child you might even remember your parents doing this every time you went on holidays.

  • Buy a few electric timers and have some laps turn on in the evening and then turn off at an appropriate bed time. This will distract robbers who into passing by your home as that think someone is home.
  • Are you friendly with your neighbors? Ask them to park in your driveway and use it as their own until you are back. This way if robbers are scoping our your place for a few days they will see a car in the drive way sometime and sometimes the car is gone. This is normal behaviors form someone who is living in the property and they will not target your home.
  • Be a bit messy. If you have a porch or a front yard. Leave some kids toys out. Or leave our some gardening equipment  (that has low value) in plain sight. This will give the impress someone is home and has not brought things inside for the evening.

Get a Locksmith to Provide a Home Security Audit

One  of the best things you can do it to get a locksmith to attend your property to give you a home security audit. They will be able to check the windows, the doors, all your locks and a few other things that can be used as an entry point into your home.

This might be free or it might be chargeable. It just depends on the locksmith your use. For example this locksmith in Bournemouth AbacusLocksmiths.com does a free security audit at your home when you buy any of their locksmith services. Check them out on Yelp. So if you are getting your locks changed for example it might be best to ask them while they are there is they can quickly check on the security of your home.

Use a Safe

If you have a safe in the property then use it for what’s it’s meant for!

Any valuable items should be locked away like extra cash, jewelry, important documents and so on.

Use Home Security Stickers

Even if you don’t have a home security system try to get some spares from a neighbor or a friend. If a potential robber is looking at your home as a target and they see home security stickers then they will likely be deterred from breaking in as they know the alarm will go if.

It’s even better if you actually have a home security system. But just the stickers alone can be enough to put off a would be robber. Think if it this way. When you see as sign that says something like ‘beware of aggressive dog’ what do you do? Do you jump the fence and see if it was a real sign? No! You’d walk away.

The Best Locks to Protect Your Business

It’s very important to protect your business. But how do you know what locks you should get? That’s what we will cover in this article today.

Good locks are not only there to protect your livelihood to prevent break-ins and vandalism. They will also make sure you are compliant with your business insurance policy.

Picking the right locks for your business is a very important consideration for any business, large or small.

Exterior Security Measures

A business naturally has interior and exterior areas that need to be secured. Below we will explore the outside of your businesses security.

Deadbolts

By far the most popular choice and also a  very simply yet effective lock is the deadbolt. The reason behind this is because they are very hard to break due to the massive bolt (or two, even three) that is inside the locking mechanism.

Deadbolts are very strong

Padlocks

A great way to protect outside doors that below to a garage or a storage unit is through the use of a regular padlock. No don’t be mistaken. Don’t just go to the local store and buy a cheap padlock.

Padlocks are only as effective as they are strong so you want to purchase a high quality padlock.

Security Bars

Another way to secure your business is with security bars. While not exactly a lock they can be used in an effective manner in places that can’t really be locked. For example a small window on the back of the business that if smashed could allow a small person to break in.

Well a set of security bars prevents this.

Interior Security Measures

Now we will move onto getting the inside of your business secured.

Lever Lockset

If you can afford it you should install a lever lockset on every main door inside your business. This is a step above your average door knob that can easily be broken. A lever lockset is a more heavy duty option. Some places you might want to install this lock is document rooms, rooms that contain expensive electrical equipment such as an IT server room and so on.

Filing Cabinets

Every business has old records unless they started in the last few years. Even then they will still have documents that are sensitive in nature. A business is legally responsible to keep its records secure. A good example of this is a law firm.

You can go one step further than having a filing room installed with a lever lockset. You can then have each of the filing cabinets lockable. Generally this is not something you decide after the fact. You will need to either make this choice before deciding your filing cabinets needs to be locked. Or you will need to replace your filing cabinets with new ones that are lockable.

Pro Tip: If you have to buy new filing cabinets then sell off your old ones to cover some of the replacement cost.

Apartment Security Tips & Advice for Renters

Renting an apartment is a pretty common step for most people young or old. Not everyone wants to own and not everyone can afford to own.

In today article we will discuss a few key points that you can easily implement to help keep your apartment safe and secure.

Before Moving In

Before you commit to putting pen to paper and signing your rental agreement there are a few things you can do to make sure the place that you move into will be safe.

Research the Local Crime Statistics

If you are moving to a new area you know nothing about you might be stung. It’s best to research the crime statistics online for the suburb you will be moving to. Normally there are local government websites that provide  this data and compare it to the national average.

For example UKCrimeStats.com is a good place to look. Check out this example on London crime stats.

How’s the Lighting?

If the apartment complex is not well lit at night this could be a sign that the apartment complex could be targeted for break-ins. As it’s very easy to slip away unnoticed in poorly lit areas and this is what a robber is looking for.

Make sure the apartment you want to move in to has good exterior lighting and even better if it has a front security desk or key card access.

After Moving into your New Apartment

Once you’ve found that perfect new place to call home there are a few things you’ll want to take care of to make sure you are safe.

Change the Locks

You’ve just moved into a new apartment and the owner or agent gave you a fresh set of keys. But how can you know if the old tenants don’t have a copy if it’s by mistake or on purpose with the plan to rib the new tenants.

It’s best to speak to your building management first. Ask them what the buildings policy is. You might find out that changing locks before a new tenant takes over if part of policy. If this is the case ask to see the paperwork to confirm the locks were changed.

If the locks were not changed then it’s time to get on the phone and call a locksmith about getting the locks changed.

Get Renters Insurance

Just because you don’t own the apartment doesn’t mean you should skip on insurance. There is still a slight chance you could have a break-in. So it’s best to get renters insurance.

This insurance will also cover your for a variety of different things that such as fire or flood damage that you should be covered for and have nothing to do with break-ins.

Buy a Good Set of Blinds for each Room

A nice set of blinds not only looks good but it also prevent would be robbers from seeing what’s inside your apartment. This is one of the lowest cost options that gives you that extra sense of security.

Just remember to close the blinds when you leave your apartment each time.

This list is only a small part of what you could potentially look into. This is a great resource of over 20 different things you can check on to make sure you apartment is safe and secure.

Access Plus Locksmiths

Welcome to Access Plus Locksmiths!

If you are looking for advice on what lock to buy for your home. How to do DIY lock repair. Tips and tricks on picking your own locks (only to get back into your own home obviously), security advice… Then you are in the right place. Our site is going to be jam packed with more information that you can read.

Until we get started here watch this neat video on how to pick a deadbolt fast!

Update: We are now live! Check out our guide on the best locks to protect our business.