How to Prevent Burglary When Moving Into A New Home

Locksmith : Home security

I contacted my locksmith in Hemel to find out what would be the best methods to prevent burglary and he shared with me some useful tips which you can read below.  So here are seven important tips you should take into account when you first move into your new place of residence. Having said that, some of these tips will be just as helpful to those of you who have lived in the same house for years. I just make mention of new home owners because they are more prone to being burgled due to the fact that know one knows who they are initially so they don't have the benefit of a neighbour looking out for them.

Tip #1
For maximum security you should change the front and back door locks to your home. You don't know who the previous owner may have given a key out to and you won't want to be in the position of finding someone in your house when you return home from work.

Tip #2
You must have your garage door remote control recoded immediately. This is one of the easiest access points of any criminal. You can do this if you feel confident to do it properly. If you do not, have your Hemel Locksmith do it for you. This way you know it will be recoded properly. You should also have them check the pressure setting on your automatic garage door as well. You want it to close securely, but not with any kind of crushing force.

Tip #3
Check all of the entry doors into your home for deadbolts. Every door needs to have a fully functioning deadbolt on it. The way to tell if it was installed correctly, is by checking to see if the bolt fully engages on the inside using the knob and from the outside using the key. If you notice a sticking, be sure to let you locksmith know right away. They will reinstall the lock or replace the deadbolt if needed. Many homeowners neglect this area and will only have one door secured by a deadbolt.

Locksmith Basics : How to Secure a Door to Prevent Theft

Tip #4
Be sure your house does not look too sterile. This means, your home needs to look like you live in it. Some homeowners will keep their home so clean and noise free that is appears to be a vacant home just waiting for burglars to help themselves. Try leaving on a TV or radio when you are not home. Also, turn on your outside lights at different times each evening. This will let any criminal who may be casing your home see that someone lives there are is home. Having pets, even a cat that gets in the window, is another great signal that the home is occupied.

Tip #5
Even before you move into a new home, you need to install locks on all of your windows and on your sliding glass door. If there are already locks installed, replace them. Out of work construction laborers know all the trucks on how to access homes, such as through windows without locks. If you do not know how to install these locks, have your locksmith do it for you. However, make sure they replace any existing locks with new ones and in a different location. Also, do not forget any upstairs windows. You would be surprised to learn how many burglars are willing to climb in from upper levels.

Tip #6
If your garage is not going to be used as an accessible garage, but instead a storeroom, padlock it. Also, create a barrier with the items you place in your garage-storage room. You will also want to disable the emergency release cord. If you have no idea how to do this, your locksmith from Hemel or from anywhere else certainly will.

Tip #7
This tip is one of the most common mistakes made by the majority of homeowners. Never give out copies of your house keys to anyone. People have a misguided trust in their friends in that their keys will always be secure in others’ hands. However, imagine if your best friend has her purse stolen and your keys are in there. Or, imagine if their teen decides to use your home to throw a party while you are out of town?

Unusual Places You Can Find Work As A Locksmith

Depending on where about you live you may have to travel or move to a more heavily populated area to get the business. Being a Watford locksmith may offer more opportunity than being a locksmith from a village knowone has ever heard of.  But there are also locations within locations that can provide a more than interesting life as a locksmith.  For example, working for a casino company as a contractor going round servicing all the locks can prove to be a lot of fun. Mixing in with the excitement of the casino customers and the bright lights of the machines and tables offers a work environment like no other. 

In fact any place of gambling can be an exciting place to work and there are plenty of establishments to choose from as people race horses, cars and bikes around a racetrack while people bet to their heart's content. Race courses, car circuits and football stadiums all have locksmith work. Just think of the thousands of people who attend big events only to lose their keys or the big contracts locksmiths get to maintain the locks on all the doors the the buildings.  

Working on resorts can be rewarding as you get to stay on site in some fabulous holiday places around the world. Many locksmith companies are hired to maintain such places and the type of resort doesn't just stop at holiday destinations because you have lots of retirement villages who also hire locksmiths on long term contracts.

Another interesting place to work as a locksmith is in an airport and it's big business too because of all the millions of people who frequent airports throughout the year. Many lose their keys on route and airport officials also hire locksmiths to maintain the many security measures throughout the airport. This doesn't include lock business for all the thousands of vehicles, doors and windows to name a few.

How to Find a Locksmith

On a less exciting level, working in a big city like London or Manchester can bring in some large income because of the demand there is for locksmiths in these areas. There is more crime happening in cities around the world than anywhere else so there is no shortage of business fixing and replacing locks.

As a rule of thumb where there are large masses of people you will find work for locksmiths but don't be surprised at the level of competition because where there is increased work there is also big competition. This is why getting a contract in some of the more unusual places can be rewarding and easier to come by. To reinforce this point I was looking in a magazine the other day and looked in the classifieds under locksmith Watford only the other day and found a ton of locksmiths advertising.

There are certainly more scenic places than cities and if this is what you are after then perhaps the far reaches of scotland and surrounding islands or Alaska. There are many locations round the world that offer outstanding beauty and you may think that there is no business in these places but you would be wrong because there are still plenty of homes, buildings cars that need locksmiths.

School, colleges and universities are also a different environment to work in and can prove to very interesting tending to jobs around campus and buildings owned by the education authorities. Yet another place of interest is in the various hospitals around the country who have thousands of door and window locks which need replacing from time to time, not to mention the problems visitors have locking themselves out of their vehicles.

As you can see from the examples above, a locksmith career can be an interesting one and in some respects can take you to live in places you never dreamed of so it's worth careful consideration