Home Safety Checklist For Lancaster

Staying safe and secure in your home should be your largest concern. But are you forgetting some key safety items? Take this home safety checklist for Lancaster and discover where your house needs greater attention.

This guide begins with some whole-house safety ideas, and then we delve down room-by-room. Then, you can call (717) 256-1587 or complete the form below to speak to a security professional.

Essential Home Safety Checklist for Lancaster

While you will want to take a room-by-room process for home safety, there are a few items that work for a lot of your rooms. These items can sync with one another through a touchscreen hub, and can even respond to one another. You can also manage every one of your home safety equipment using a mobile app, such as ADT Control:

Monitored Home Security System: All your doors and windows should use a sensor that warns you to a break-in. After an alarm goes off, your monitoring team responds to the alert and quickly sends the police or fire department.

Smart Lighting For Every Major Room: Of course, you can program your smart bulbs so your house is more efficient. But they can also help you stay safe during an emergency. Have your downstairs lights come on when a sensor trips to shoo off robbers or illuminate your way to a outside area.

Smart Thermostat: Like your smart lights, a smart thermostat in Lancaster could save you between 10%-15% in gas and electric costs. Also, it can flip on an exhaust fan if you have a fire.

Monitored Fire Detectors: It’s code that you need to have a smoke detector on each floor. You can increase your fire preparedness by installing a monitored fire alarm that senses both heat and smoke, and notifies your 24-hour monitoring team when it detects a fire.

Smart Door Locks: Every entryway that utilizes a keyed lock can use a smart lock. Now you may program key codes to each family member and receive texts to your mobile device when your locks are activated. Your smart lock can even automatically turn off, letting you quickly leave during a fire or other emergency.

Living Room/Family Room Safety Checklist For Lancaster

You’ll spend most of your time in your living room, so it’s the most reasonable room to improve your home safety. Popular items, like a TV or video games, probably reside in your living room, making it a tempting space for thieves. Begin with placing a motion detector or security camera in your room, then try some of these ideas:

Motion Detectors: By hanging motion sensors, you’ll get a shrieking noise if they sense suspicious motion within your family room. You’ll want motion sensors that filter out a dog or cat or you’ll get a tripped alarm each time your dog roams by for a midnight stroll.
Indoor Security Camera: An indoor security camera offers an eye on your family room. Watch live feeds of your room so you can find out what’s going on without leaving your bed. Or speak with your kids in the room using the two-way talk feature.
Surge Protector/Cord Maintenance: Protect all your electronics and quit overburdening your outlets with a surge protector. For extra convenience, install a smart plug with surge protection in the unit.
Furniture Secured To The Wall: If you have any small children, you’ll need to bolt your bookshelves and entertainment center to a wall. This is especially important if your living room has rugs or carpet that can make heavy objects extra unbalanced.
Special Locks For Sliding Doors: If your family room has a sliding glass door that slides out to a patio, deck, or outside porch, you already can see that the latch is fairly worthless. Install a custom lock, like a bottom bar or locks that bolt to the bottom and top of the opening.

Kitchen Safety Checklist For Lancaster

The kitchen has many items that can provide safety and security to your house. Many of these items should be a snap to add and should be purchased from the grocery store:

Fire Extinguisher: Fire can happen from a neglected frying pan or a towel that’s too close to a burner. Always have a fire extinguisher at the ready for any kitchen emergencies.
GFCI Box On Every Outlet: A GFCI outlet should be used everywhere they’re close to water to ward off a deadly shock. That includes the plug outlets around your sink and kitchen counter. For 30 years, it’s been code to have one circuit interrupter outlet per dedicated circuit. But for simplicity’s sake, you’re going to want to install a separate GFCI for every outlet.

Monitored Carbon Monoxide Detector: A CO detector is recommended for kitchens that use natural gas for the stove and oven. If your gas lines spring a leak, the CO detector will cause a high-decibel sound and call your monitoring agent.
Clorox Wipes Or Spray: The most overlooked safety problem in the kitchen is actually bacteria and protein from raw meat and vegetables. Always have cleaning wipes or spray to sanitize your area when preparing food.
Refrigerator/Freezer Alarm: The items in your fridge need to remain at a cold temperature to stay ready to eat. If you accidently leave the refrigerator door open too long, then a small beep will remind you to shut it securely. Some fridges already have a pre-installed alarm, older models do not, and you’ll have to pick up a refrigerator alarm from the store.

Bathroom Safety Checklist For Lancaster

Just because there’s not a bunch of square footage in your bathroom doesn’t mean that there aren’t safety issues. From flood detectors to electric safety, here are some safety ideas for your bathroom:

Flood Sensors: A leaking sink or tub can cause extensive water damage. Discover pooling water early with a flood detector and save yourself from reflooring the entire bathroom.
No-slip Bath Mats: A fall in the bathroom can be a painful occurrence, causing cuts, bruises, or trips to the hospital. You can avoid these problems with a textured bath mat for after your bath or shower.

Textured Bathtub Stickers: Another water hazard, a tub can be a slick place to move in. Make sure every tub has some no-slip stickies so your feet have a bumpy patch for stability.

Medicine Door Latch: If you have young toddlers or anyone with memory difficulties, you have to take additional precautions regarding prescription medicine. Secure your bottles by using a medicine cabinet with a latch that locks.

Circuit Interrupter Outlet: While installing better outlets in the kitchen, you need to also use a surge protecting circuit interrupter outlet on each bathroom circuit. This will cut the electric current if they ever get wet or they experience a sudden jolt from an electric razor or hair dryer.

Children’s Bedroom Safety Checklist For Lancaster

Your kid’s bedroom should counterbalance safety with simplicity. If their window treatments or other items are safe but hard to operate, then your child may perform dangerous methods -- like scale a bookshelf -- to use them. Try these simple, and safe, ideas:

No Cord Window Treatments: Safety professionals have designated cords from shades and blinds a hidden danger for both children and pets. Put in motorized blinds or shades that your child can easily open and close via remote. Or go state-of-the-art and link your shades to your ADT smart hub so they can raise automatically at dawn, and go down at bedtime for an easier sleep.

Indoor Security Camera: An indoor security camera sitting on your toddler’s desk or dresser can double as a baby monitor that you can view with your phone. And if they need you, they can use the two-way talk button on the camera.

Outlet Plug Covers: While each outlet should use covers on them for your little children, this is doubly needed in their bedroom. It’s the one room in your house where your toddler will most likely play by themselves without consistent parental supervision.

Window Fire Ladder: If you use bedrooms on the second story, then you will want to install a window escape ladder. These can help a child escape when the stairway or ground floor are blocked off with fire. Make sure to rehearse how to unfurl them at least twice a year.

Toy Box Or Low Bookshelves: It’s interesting to view a toy chest as a safety item, but you’ll get it if you’ve ever walked on an action figure in your stocking feet. A clutter-free floor means a quick escape during a fire or break-in.

Main Bedroom Safety Checklist For Lancaster

Your bedroom should be an oasis, so let your safety components give you peace of mind if you have an emergency event. After all, being jerked awake by a wailing alarm can be disorienting.

Home Security Touchscreen: Having a touchscreen on your nightstand helps you know what’s going on without leaving your bed. You could always log into your ADT phone app. However, the touchscreen can be faster to use when you’re coming out of sleep and disoriented.

Personal Charging Area: We use our cell phones for so much now alarms, web browsers, game machines, and sometimes even phones. The only problem is that an uncharged phone will cut us off from the outside world if something goes wrong. To make sure your phone always works, a an easy-to-use charging station becomes should be used nightly.

Nightlight/Smart Lights: A plug-in light can calm you when you’re bolted awake from a siren or unexpected noises. If you can’t fall asleep with a small nightlight, install a smart bulb in your bedroom. Then you can get light anytime with a push of a button or vocal command.
Fireproof Lockbox: Stash your essential documents like social security cards, medical information, or a bankbook in a fireproof lockbox. Your lockbox can be a bigger one that sits in your closet or a small portable lockbox that you can grab as you escape during a fire or other emergency.

Heat Sensor: The problem with bedrooms is that they tend to run too stuffy or be chilly since they are far away from the thermostat. A heat sensor will communicate to your smart thermostat so you will have a comfortable, peaceful sleep at a wonderful climate.

Basement/Garage Safety Checklist For Lancaster

Most safety problems in the garage or basement deal with your water or heating system. Discovering hazards early can stop more devastating emergencies later on. So, as you look around your garage or basement, take note of these critical items:

Water Detector Or Sump Pump Alarm: Putting a flood alarm by your water heater and sump pump drain can stop you from wading into a lake when you step into your garage or basement. It’s sure better than rummaging through a heap of destroyed storage boxes.

CO Alarm: It’s nice to hang a carbon monoxide alarm in areas where a natural gas leak can spring up. If you employ gas heating, try to put an alarm in the same room as your HVAC unit.
WiFi Water Shutoff Valve: If your water alarm finds a hot water heater leak or a broken pipe, then you will have to cut off the primary water valve at once. With a WiFi shutoff valve, you can block water flow from any mobile device. That’s perfect when you’re out of town and get an emergency leak text on your phone.
Garage Door Sensor: Leaving the garage door open leads to all types of issues. You can lose HVAC energy through that large opening, and all sorts of animals or intruders can just saunder in. A remote sensor will text you about a forgotten garage door and lets you lower it remotely.
Temperature Sensor: A heat sensor in your garage or basement is a definite if you wonder about freezing pipes. The heat in these rooms can be drastically different than your main rooms of the house, so you may want to keep a closer eye on the temperature by using your mobile app.

Outside Safety Checklist for Lancaster

Your yard, driveway, and front step are just as important to defend as the rest of your house. Try the items on this checklist to make your outside safe:

Doorbell Security Camera: See who’s knocking on the door before you answer it and welcome visitors. See deliveries and record video clips if they vanish off the step.

Outdoor Camera: You can hang outdoor cameras to guard against unusual activity in your back yard. These cameras are nice in places where you may not have a window -- like around a cellar or by the garage door.

Low Shrubbery: High bushes can offer some serenity, but they also block your line of sight of the outside. Don’t provide potential burglars a place to hide. Plus, high bushes or greenery around your house can jam up gutters and summon pests.
ADT Signs And Decals: One of the most popular discouragements for home intrusion is advertising to potential burglars that you have a state-of-the-art ADT security system. An ADT yard stick by the main walk and a window sticker will tell ne'er-do-wells that they should shove off to an easier score.

Motion Controlled Outside Light Fixtures: Light is the biggest obstacle to people who lurk in the shadows. Motion-controlled lights on your deck, patio, or garage can frighten lurkers away. Lights also help you see the walk when you arrive back home late at night.

Use Secure24 Alarm Systems To Help You Finish Your Home Safety Checklist for Lancaster

While Secure24 Alarm Systems can’t help you with non-security devices on your Lancaster home safety checklist, we can bring you a powerful home security. With everything from alarms to thermostats, we can install the best system for your family’s needs. Simply contact (717) 256-1587 to get started or send in the form below. Or customize your own solution with our Security System Designer.