How to keep your home safe while you’re on vacation.

When leaving the house for a vacation, its is best to check the security and maintenance of the whole household. One should plan the safety of the house, protecting it from burglars, trespassers, vandalism and fire accidents. For one’s home safekeeping, conduct simple yet effective precautionary measures which will ensure that the house is still in one piece when one’s back from the vacation.

When leaving for the weekend or weeklong vacations remember these simple tips that will save the house from any danger. These tips will help one feel at ease while having that dream vacation.

SECURITY PRECAUTIONS

First things first, to protect the house from unwanted guests, do a security check around the household. Remember that the house is susceptible to burglars, trespassers and vandalism. An empty house is an open house for those uninvited.

Check first all door and window locks, one can also ask help from locksmiths to do this. Upon leaving, check all locks if they are properly secured. Double check backdoors, backyard gate locks and garage doors, and close all window treatments (curtains, blinds, shutters, etc.) which will hide everything in the house from anybody’s view. Remember to put all valuable belongings in a safe or any place that is inaccessible to others.
Keep one to two lights turned on outside the house, preferably on the front door and the garage door. Change the bulbs of the light fixtures for brighter illumination.

One of the best defenses of all is a home security system, its is advisable to install one, if the house does not have any. Most security systems are comprised of door and window alarms, a password activated system and a warning system that has the ability to alert the local police once an illegal entry is detected.

For an existing system, try to test the alarms if it is still working properly or call the manufacturer and let them do a system check-up.
Neighbors can also help, ask one or two of them to watch over the house. Give them the contact numbers of the hotel or place one is staying in and ask them to call whenever there is a problem. In this way checking up on the house is easy.

Call the local police and ask for the schedule of the nightly rounds and inform them that the house is empty and ask if they can frequent the rounds in the neighborhood.

MAINTENANCE CHECK-UP

The most important thing to check is the electrical wiring and gas tank/pipes. If not properly inspected this will cause unwanted accidents. A fire mishap is the incident that every homeowner fears and preventing it from happening is by simply following these precautionary measures.

First, make sure that all electrical appliances are unplugged or better yet switch off the electricity in some part of the house. This can be found in the main switch where it can cut-off the electricity in parts or the whole house. But don’t turn off all of it, leave some connections for the lights that will be left turned on.

Keep materials like lead-base paint, paint thinners and other flammable materials away and put it in a safe place from heat-causing appliances and electrical lines.
Turn off the gas tank, check for leaks on the pipes and make sure that the tank valve is turned off tight.
Planning Safe Room for your house.