Ensuring that your doors and windows are secure at all times will help to put burglars off targeting your home. If your doors and windows aren’t secure, then neither is your property. With crime figures supporting the fact that burglaries increase during the winter months, follow our top tips to keep your house protected.
Doors
In some households, Father Christmas has to enter through the front door, yet he isn’t alone as two-thirds of burglars will enter a property through the front door too. Our top tips for keeping your door secure are;
• Know who has keys – When you move into a new home, ensure you have your locks changed immediately as others may have copies of the keys. The only stranger who should have a spare key is Santa himself!
• Use a letterbox cage – If you purchase a cage or restrictor for your letterbox, you are potentially preventing any crafty burglars entering with tools or their hands when they try to unlock the door through the letterbox.
• Know how to lock a multi-point locking door – With so many locks on a door, it can be easy to accidentally forget one. However, thousands of burglaries happen each year due to doors not being locked correctly. Ensure that all members of the household know exactly how to lock your door.
Windows
It isn’t just doors that burglars choose to break through, unfortunately windows are a popular choice too. It’s easy to forget to shut and lock your windows, but it’s this easy mistake that could massively affect you.
• Replace single glazing – Single glazing can be incredibly vulnerable to attack by burglars, especially on lower levels. Ensure that you replace any single glaze, or old double glazing, windows with new double glaze that meets today’s security standards and protects your home properly.
• Securely bead windows – It is highly recommended by the police that all windows are securely beaded externally and internally. This will help prevent the glass in the window from being removed from the outside, as it may not be adhered to the frame correctly without any beading.
• Don’t retrofit locks – UPVC are impossible to retrofit extra locks too. Any double-glazed windows you have installed should have their locking systems fitted during the manufacture.
If you’re looking at replacing any of your existing windows or doors in order to make them more secure, get in touch with us today. We have a wide range of UPVC windows and doors at the best value and also offer a 24 hour glazing service.