Home Style Decorating

Your home should be protected from being bulgarized. But, what can you do to protect it? There are a number of simple ways you can do to protect your home. When it comes to home security, knowing the hardware that will work best in your home is an advantage. Providing an environment that would make a burglar uncomfortable is the best defense against property damage or loss. Some of the most common devices are motion sensitive lighting, deadbolt locks, window locks, surveillance cameras and alarms. All of these will help you in protecting your home. Time, noise and visibility are a burglar’s worse enemy. Aside from hi-tech gadgets, simple devices can help in little ways and the best thing is that you can install it yourself.

Doors
Your door is the first line of defense when it comes to baring anyone from entering your adobe. Aside from the keyed door knob, you can bolster your door’s efficiency by adding:

• Deadbolts: A deadbolt should be installed to the main door of your home. There is no compromise in this.
• Flush bolts and sliding door reinforcements: French or double doors with glass panes should be braced with with flush bolts at top and bottom edge of the door to reduce its inward give and provide more security. Sliding patio doors can be reinforced with secondary locking mechanisms. Spring locks, safety bars, everyday household objects (which can be cut to fit snugly into the sliding door track to prevent break-ins) and drilled nails or metal pins to prevent lifting are the most common types of secondary locking mechanisms.
• Hinges and fasteners: Hinges and fasteners that can be easily be removed should be replaced with non-removable ones. The door should open inwards so that the door hinges can not be removed from the outside. Exposed hinges can be protected by inserting small non-removable screws into the middle of each pin. Fasteners can be secured by using one-way screws or by grinding out the slot with a drill and filling it with liquid metal or a similar material.
• Locks: There are two kinds of locks; the primary locks which are mostly cylindrical like key-in-knob locks and the auxiliary locks which acts as a booster lock to the primary lock. A good lock can be a very effective deterrent. Deadbolts, interlocking bolt rim locks, rim deadbolt locks, pushbutton rim locks or digitally coded deadbolt systems with a keypad or electronic remote are some examples of auxiliary locks.

Windows
Windows are often used by burglars to enter a house and for this reason, your windows should be protected and its burglary-deterent rate improved. You can do these by following the following recommendations:

• Any window that is not to be used as a fire exit should be securely closed or added with grill work.
• Double hung vertical sliding windows or horizontally sliding windows can both be pinned with removable nails or pins. Keyless latches may be secured by drilling holes through latches and inserting removable pins or by replacing existing latches with keyed latch sets.
• Awning and casement windows can be secured with keyed latches or keyed slide bolts.
• Semi-sashed or sashless windows can be blocked with pieces of wood fitted snugly into their bottom tracks to prevent them from sliding and by drilling small screws into top tracks to prevent these from being lifted.
• Picture windows and skylights are inoperative and provide adequate security as most thieves do not want to break a window.
• Basement windows may be secured with grillwork, guards and bars. At least one basement window should be operable so it can be opened in case of need for emergency escape while all basement windows located in bedroom areas need to be operable.
• A special kind of window paning can be used to make the windows shatter-proof.

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