Home Security - Advice and Recommendations

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Smithyithy

Smithyithy

Active Member
Hi all,

I'm looking at home security options, specifically with relevance for firearms.

I purchased a property last year that we're refurbishing to move in soon (touch wood). It's a little old terraced cottage, so parts of the refurb have invariably meant modernising / improving security: new composite front door and new (locking) front windows; new handles, locks, and bolts to rear door and windows; I will install a video doorbell once I move in and have WiFi set up, so I'm thinking of additional measures beyond these..

The gun safe will be installed against a solid brick party wall, within a built-in cupboard in the main bedroom. If I obtain FAC, I'll either install a separate ammunition safe or compartment within the cabinet..

My query really is additional home security beyond the above. I don't want to overload the house with alarms, cameras and sensors, but I do want to ensure adequate security is in place for the firearms both for my own peace of mind and to satisfy the FEO.

Can anyone offer any recommendations or experience on either what they use, or what their FEO may have required / suggested? I'm not generally convinced of the effectiveness of alarms systems nowadays as 90% of the time people seem to ignore them going off, but I suppose a monitored system or one linked to a smartphone is useful to alert of triggers.. My view usually is that 'physical' security such as proper locks etc is more effective than 'digital' security such as cameras and sensors, but I'm open to opinions and ideas.
 
Do you really want your safe in your wardrobe? what about those 4am starts and 2am foxing missions, sneaking upstairs and trying to put a rifle away without waking the Tank Commander is fraught with danger!!!
Regarding cameras, i wouldn’t want to live without mine now, if anyone steps on my drive my phone pings straight away, likewise the whole perimeter of my property is covered so its not so much about footage, more about being alerted if a wrong ‘un steps the wrong side of the wire!
 
Pellet Pinger said:
Do you really want your safe in your wardrobe? what about those 4am starts and 2am foxing missions, sneaking upstairs and trying to put a rifle away without waking the Tank Commander is fraught with danger!!!
Click to expand...
Absolutely this^^^
Having gun cabinet in the bedroom seems a really dull idea to me.
As is having it in the loft, which is something else I often see suggested on here.
 
Best person to engage with is your FEO. They will advise you in what West Mercia expect. All other views are really just conjecture...

All police organisations interpret the guidance differently ....but as a rule of thumb 6+ firearms usually triggers additional security measures...again depending how the FEO reads the national guidance.......

Firearms security handbook 2020

Your suggested location seems secure in terms of the guidance (if potentially a ballache)....but again FEO best person to advise.
 
I agree with speaking to your FEO. At my last renewal I was asked to do something I didn't think improved my security,.and many things I've done which I think does improve security he did not seem interested in. I.e. I didn't think it was logical and felt a bit of a 'box ticking' exercise.
 
Don’t speak to your feo
They all make up different things uses and will have you running in circles

There s no requirement for home security systems so whatever you fit is a bonus and regards the feo it will have to do whatever they say as you are going beyond the requirements by having it.

Cameras. HIK micro to a hard drive
Alarm system. Pyronix enforcer wireless

Both very very good and non subscription
Stay away from all this verysure rubbish


Also. Be prepared to advise them you have a multi hundreds of pounds worth of security only for them to insist you fit a £7.99 key box to put the gun safe keys in .
 
The point I was making about speaking to your FEO is that they may be happy what you have. For example, they may be happy with no alarm or a £10 shed alarm so there may be no point in fitting a more expensive whole house alarm system.
 
A Yale wireless alarm system is easy to install and will ring your phone if triggered.
 
Smithyithy said:
I'm looking at home security options, specifically with relevance for firearms.
Click to expand...
I live in a two up two down semi-detached that is effectively in layout upstairs and downstairs like a terraced house.

They say best security is to push out to your boundaries. That is to have a first line of defence as far out from your property as you can get. So for a terrace they may mean a front door that has as visible two five lever mortice locks at normal position and one lower down where a foot might kick. Even also on the hinge side studs that are called "hinge bolts" and when the door is shut engage with holes in the jamb, and of course a jamb that is strong and strongly mounted to the frame of the brickwork it sits inside.

The front facing ground floor windows should be checked if double glazed to be sure that levering off the front facing glass surrounds are levered off that the glass pane cannot then be lifted out. Older type double glazed windows sometimes were constructed so. Any locks to the handles should have their keys out of sight and, indeed, don't leave a front door key in plain sight. Don't give burglars that break in easy found keys that then let them unlock a door and so merely have to walk out!

PIR sensors of course on those rooms that would give access to the house from outside. You could go further and put that visible metal strip on the windows to those rooms. The sort that if the window is broken or removed is cut and sets off the alarm. I hear that the "Ring" type of doorbell with a camera can deter as it records those who would use a bogus enquiry knock at the door trying to see of the property is unoccupied.

In my house the two internal doors (from the front room and from the back kitchen) have "trips" on them so that even if you break into a front room or the back kitchen when you open those doors it sets off the alarm. Also set any alarm to immediate activation. I was told this by my old FEO. If a burglar breaks in to premises where guns are stored we want immediate alarm activation. Not a ten or twenty minute delayed activation.

Buy plug in timers as winter draws close and nights get longer to light lamps in upstairs rooms to come on when normal "bedtime" might be. And drawn blinds are less obvious a tell tale in the day that nobody is at home than drawn curtains still closed at mid-day! The upstairs room where my gun cabinet is located has a PIR. And downstairs in the front window is an obvious motion activated video camera that monitors the front door of the house.

If you have a side passage to enter any back garden or backyard put a gate on it and on that gate a padlock. This and much of the visisble measures are really designed to make those with wicked intent pass your place by and seek easier pickings. A "shoal of fish" defence almost. Predators seek easy prey.

One last tip. Folk will know you have guns if you take such guns from your car to your house in plain sight of neighbours and passing pedestrians and motorists. So maybe have a guncase for a taken down gun rather than a full length gunslip. Nothing screams gun better than a gunslip!

And, yes, my door to the built in cupboard that occupies the space over the stairwell (in which is the gun cabinet) has a simple wardrobe type lock installed on the back of it.
 
Safe in the bedroom is fine, in fact why not. You just have to be ultra stealthy not to wake the OH!

Two considerations to the OP’s question - the legal requirements and then your own personal security standards.

To cover all the bases a monitored alarm (Ring for example if you’re already going with a door bell) plus a couple of strategically placed cameras and outdoor lighting. All really easy to install and can be done with battery packs, solar panels or hard wired. I would recommend a back up 5g router or “unbreakable broadband’ in case WiFi drops out for any period of time too.
 
A simple thing I have done is a ring camera in the gun room / gun cupboard etc - the cameras notify me when the room is opened - it’s the simplest CCTV : notifiable alarm i could sort as my set up is temporary in my current house.

We have a house alarm but I would choose a professionally installed CcTv system these days as they will notify you so work just like an alarm.

Had very good use with Reo link cameras - and also use Ring cameras / doorbell which is good but have had more items fail or stop working.
 
I bought some cheap WiFi cameras from Amazon for monitoring the garden. I had one left over, so I set it up in the cupboard where the cabinets are. Any time the cupboard gets opened I get an alert on my phone within seconds and the video kicks in, which then gets stored in the Cloud.

Had a call recently from my FEO as my ticket is in for renewal. He asked if anything had changed at home and I mentioned the camera. He seemed more than happy! The police didn’t ask for, recommend or even suggest I get a camera, but given that they are cheap as chips these days it just seemed like an obvious thing to do.
 
enfieldspares said:
I live in a two up two down semi-detached that is effectively in layout upstairs and downstairs like a terraced house.

They say best security is to push out to your boundaries. That is to have a first line of defence as far out from your property as you can get. So for a terrace they may mean a front door that has as visible two five lever mortice locks at normal position and one lower down where a foot might kick. Even also on the hinge side studs that are called "hinge bolts" and when the door is shut engage with holes in the jamb, and of course a jamb that is strong and strongly mounted to the frame of the brickwork it sits inside.

The front facing ground floor windows should be checked if double glazed to be sure that levering off the front facing glass surrounds are levered off that the glass pane cannot then be lifted out. Older type double glazed windows sometimes were constructed so. Any locks to the handles should have their keys out of sight and, indeed, don't leave a front door key in plain sight. Don't give burglars that break in easy found keys that then let them unlock a door and so merely have to walk out!

PIR sensors of course on those rooms that would give access to the house from outside. You could go further and put that visible metal strip on the windows to those rooms. The sort that if the window is broken or removed is cut and sets off the alarm. I hear that the "Ring" type of doorbell with a camera can deter as it records those who would use a bogus enquiry knock at the door trying to see of the property is unoccupied.

In my house the two internal doors (from the front room and from the back kitchen) have "trips" on them so that even if you break into a front room or the back kitchen when you open those doors it sets off the alarm. Also set any alarm to immediate activation. I was told this by my old FEO. If a burglar breaks in to premises where guns are stored we want immediate alarm activation. Not a ten or twenty minute delayed activation.

Buy plug in timers as winter draws close and nights get longer to light lamps in upstairs rooms to come on when normal "bedtime" might be. And drawn blinds are less obvious a tell tale in the day that nobody is at home than drawn curtains still closed at mid-day! The upstairs room where my gun cabinet is located has a PIR. And downstairs in the front window is an obvious motion activated video camera that monitors the front door of the house.

If you have a side passage to enter any back garden or backyard put a gate on it and on that gate a padlock. This and much of the visisble measures are really designed to make those with wicked intent pass your place by and seek easier pickings. A "shoal of fish" defence almost. Predators seek easy prey.

One last tip. Folk will know you have guns if you take such guns from your car to your house in plain sight of neighbours and passing pedestrians and motorists. So maybe have a guncase for a taken down gun rather than a full length gunslip. Nothing screams gun better than a gunslip!

And, yes, my door to the built in cupboard that occupies the space over the stairwell (in which is the gun cabinet) has a simple wardrobe type lock installed on the back of it.
Click to expand...

All good advice.

With the WiFi plugs and bulbs that are available these days you can set them up using the accompanying App so that they turn on & off at random during set time periods. Stops the old burglar’s ploy of watching a house for two or three nights in a row to see if the lights go on and off at the same time each evening - a sure sign that one of the old plug-in timers is being used.
 
I have 2 safes, 1 upstairs and one down stairs so when i get in at the small hours i dont get ear ache.
 
JTO said:
A Yale wireless alarm system is easy to install and will ring your phone if triggered.
Click to expand...
Tried one of those and it was awful. Unreliable in the extreme.
A system using a proper mains powered control box with remote arming box and detectors is the way forward.
Pyronix is a great example.
 
Really appreciate all the responses chaps!

Re. the cabinet location etc - without going into specifics, just me living at the house (at least for now) so no worries of waking up SWMBO at 5am 😄 It's a very small property so really limited on location options, but this is more a walk-in closet than just a wardrobe so ideal for cabinet and shooting gear - the benefit is that it's completely out of sight to visitors, tradespeople etc.

Physical perimeter I think is secure - low foot-traffic road, gate and pathway down to the front door rather than being right on the road / footpath, rear garden is accessed via private lane and effectively 'enclosed' by neighbours, so the house itself is quite well 'tucked in'.

I think some combination of alarm and camera setup might be worthwhile, I'm on the fence sometimes about having that kind of of security 'visible' - I completely get the idea of making the house look visibly secure to deter opportunists, but at the same time seeing a small row of cottages where only one has visible CCTV cameras to me screams "valuables be kept here!" 😄
 
^ this

I have a comprehensive security system
My gamekeeper mate just keeps his single glazed windows shut when he’s out.
 
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