Your home should serve as your safe haven. It is where you retreat at the end of each working day or when you are finished socializing, and it should be a space where you can let your hair down and relax. This is why you need to take active steps to ensure that your home is safe from the inside out. Here are just a few steps that you can take to achieve this. You never know - following them could quite literally save your life down the line!
Check Your Foundations
Sometimes threats facing your home aren’t immediately obvious. A major threat to any property is structural damage, and unfortunately, this is something that will affect many of us during our lifetime. A common issue is damage to a property’s foundations. While these are strong and support a property, they can become cracked or can erode away as the years go by. The causes of this are generally unstoppable - rainfall can cause soil around the foundations to swell, which puts extra pressure on the foundations over time. Signs of foundation damage include your property appearing to lean to one side, or cracks appearing around your window frames and door frames. If you fear that your foundations may be developing problems, you should call in a professional contractor who can use mudjacking to level your foundations and can carry out other work to put wrongs to rights before major damage occurs.
Install CCTV
We tend to associate CCTV systems with commercial and public spaces. We see them monitoring our behavior in stores (ensuring that we do not steal), we see them keeping an eye on us in bars and clubs (reducing the amount of fights that break out), and they are spread across the streets to capture any other illicit activity that might be being carried out. But have you ever consider installing a CCTV system on your own property? This is a brilliant option for those who want a full record of activity outside of their home, discouraging people from engaging in illegal behavior around our personal space. Installing CCTV on your home’s exterior not only wards off trespassers, but will identify those who do try their luck and continue unfazed by the camera's’ presence. The protection provided by CCTV can also extend from your property to possessions that remain outside, like vehicles. If any damage is caused, you will have a clear image of the person at fault and can then pursue prosecution or compensation with solid evidence at hand. Ensure that your security camera installation is carried out by a professional, as they will know how to best angle the device for maximum coverage.
Install a Home Security System
While CCTV acts as a good deterrent and can help you to identify anyone who attempts to damage or break into your home, it doesn’t take any measures to draw attention to the culprit while they are carrying out a crime. If someone does trespass onto your property, you’re going to want to know about it and for action to be taken to ward them off as quickly as possible. The best way to alert yourself to intruders is by installing an alarm system. You can set this to detect movement during the night or when you leave the house. It will then trigger upon movement, alerting yourself or your neighbors to any disturbance. The loud noise it emits will generally cause criminals to scarper, as too much attention is being drawn to them.
Check Your Smoke Alarms
Fire is a major threat to any property. Many people make the mistake of assuming that fires only break out from cigarettes not being disposed of properly or candles being left to burn without supervision. While these are common causes of fire, they are not the only ones out there and not every potential trigger is quite so easily monitored or controlled. Electrical faults or appliances being left on could also create a spark with devastating effects. This is why every homeowner should fit their property with a high-quality smoke alarm. This is an essential safety feature. The system will detect any smoke in your home and alert you to potential fires at any point of the day or night. As we are all aware, fire can wreak havoc with a property and perhaps even destroy everything that you have ever worked towards. That’s before you even consider the human life at stake! You need to ensure that you have working smoke detectors on each floor of your home and regularly check that they are working. Every so often you will need to replace the batteries, as they deplete with time and use. Checking that your alarm is working is simple, so there’s no excuse to neglect this responsibility. Many will have a test button. It should also go off every time food is burnt in the kitchen.
Install a Carbon Monoxide Monitor
An invisible, but potentially deadly threat, in your home is the presence of carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide is an invisible gas with no scent or taste, so if it is present in your property and you don’t have a carbon monoxide detector, chances are that you won’t know about it until it’s too late. This is why it is often referred to as the “silent killer”. But you can alert yourself to excess levels of this gas in your home relatively easily. All you need to do is invest in a carbon monoxide detector and then have it installed professionally. This simple process can significantly reduce danger in your home.
As you can see, every property faces all sorts of potential threats. But there are simple and relatively straightforward steps that you can take in order to reduce interior and exterior threats and hazards. Hopefully, the above advice will help to get the ball rolling in the right direction!
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