What are the most effective home-security strategies?

A home that’s safe enough for your family to sleep in and secure enough to sit empty for months on end while you’re summering elsewhere is one whose construction and parts are sturdy and durable.
 
Here are six changes that will make your house safer.
 

1. Inspect your exterior doors—all of them, from the front entrance to the sliding glass patio doors to the roller door in the garage—even the door that leads from the inside of the garage to the house. If any are hollow—and therefore easy to bust into--replace them with solid-core fiberglass versions, which are durable and resist rot and warping. Replace decorative glass sidelights with impact-resistant glass, and get rid of openings like mail slots and pet doors. Install deadbolt locks on all, and place a Charley bar on the slider.
2. Install energy-efficient security lighting. Shield overhead lights so the beam points to the areas that need lighting and not into your neighbor’s window. Rig your security lights to motion sensors or timers so they turn off when they’re not needed. And choose energy-saving compact fluorescent light bulbs, LEDs (light-emitting diodes) or solar-powered floodlights, which rarely need replacing.
3. Use landscaping to create a subtle barrier around your house. Examples: Plant some prickly pear cactus or low-growing, thorny bushes under windows. Uproot overgrown bushes where an intruder could hide. Trim tree branches away from your house so a skulker can’t use them as ladder to an upstairs window. And spread gravel or pebbles under windows. It’s pretty hard to sneak around outside with noisy, crunchy gravel underfoot.
4. If you’re replacing your home’s windows, buy models with good locks—and lock them; a huge percentage of burglars enter homes through unlocked windows Also, consider investing in tempered or impact-resistant glass. It’s designed for use in hurricane-prone coastal areas, but many inland homeowners are installing the sturdy, shatterproof glass as insurance against break-ins.
5. Make it clear that your home is your personal space. Display big, visible house numbers out front. Raise the home’s entrance by a few inches to give the impression of a barrier. Add a small statue or piece of landscape art to mark the end of the public space and the beginning of your private yard. Engrave your family name into a garden stone or onto a metal nameplate near the front door. A study of burglaries in Utah showed that houses with nameplates had fewer break-ins than those without.
6. Invest in a home security system. The more automated it is, the less you have to remember to do. Choose one that lets you program your lights to turn on and off at specific times to give the impression that your home is occupied when it’s not. Your system can include sound and motion sensors, which can be connected to a computer—and even notify you or the police via phone or e-mail if it “senses” that there’s an intruder, a flood in the home or a fire. Fancier systems even let you monitor your home over the Internet while you’re at work or away for the summer.

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