Living in a Ground Floor Flat: 5 Security Measures that Work With Your Budget

Living in a ground floor flat can be scary at times, especially if you live in an area with a lot of crime. Unfortunately, monitored security systems require a monthly fee, making them cost-prohibitive for many people, but there are a number of security measures you can invest in that don't involve recurring bills.

If you want to protect your ground floor flat without ruining your budget, here are five items you should consider:

1. Security Screens

Security screens feature thick steel mesh that cannot easily be cut, ripped or penetrated. These screens can be bought in a range of sizes to easily fit any window, and they come with latches so that the screens cannot be removed from the outside. If you live on the ground floor, security screens help to make your windows impenetrable.

2. DIY Window Bars

You can make DIY window bars to augment the security offered by your security screens, or you can use them on their own. To make DIY window bars, simply use a bit of wood to make a frame that fits just inside your windows.

Drill holes into the top and bottom pieces of wood. Slip several PVC pipes through those holes so they run vertically across the frame. Fill the PVC pipes with expanding foam to give them extra weight and paint them gray or black so they look like metal bars.

Slip the frames into your windows, and secure them to the walls with pieces of metal so they are immoveable.

3. Motion-detector Light

Thieves like to skulk in the shadows, and if you install a motion-detector light on your patio or near your largest window, you eliminate your shadows and their hiding spots. When the light goes on, most thieves will be deterred and run. If you like, you can even get motion detectors that initiate sound rather than light.

4. Fake Dog

Even if your apartment building doesn't allow dogs, you can create a fake dog. Choose barking as the sound associated with your motion detector, and even if you don't have one motion-detected barking, consider putting a water bowl and a leash on your patio. Alternatively, just hang a 'beware of dog' sign in your window behind your security screen.

5. Security Camera

A security camera threatens every criminal with the risk of being caught. You can hang a camera behind your security screens so they are poised to record footage from outside, or you can hang one over your patio door. So that you can monitor it at all times, connect the feed to an app on your phone.

Learn more about your security options by contacting resources like Bonds Security Products.

Share