Garage Security Systems

[Pharmteck]

How do you secure your garage?

Tonight I had a uneasy talk with a couple picking up a old dishwasher I had at the road for free. The lady asked me questions like what’s my age, what I did for work and told me that I must make good money because I have a nice house and nice Jeeps. It was a very uncomfortable conversation. I have been thinking about things like this for a month or two and now it’s in my face. In the past I have been leaving my good out in the open and un-locked. Tonight I pulled the keys out of the Jeeps and Hot Rod, and locked up the trailer and garage. I know that is a good start but what are other ways I can protect my goods. I have a garage that has 2 doors with electric openers, 2 windows at ground level and a man door with half glass. Not looking for Get a dog / Get a gun. BUT I appreciate your help.

Thanks

 

[gatewaysysop]

How do you secure your garage?

Tonight I had a uneasy talk with a couple picking up a old dishwasher I had at the road for free. The lady asked me questions like what’s my age, what I did for work and told me that I must make good money because I have a nice house and nice Jeeps. It was a very uncomfortable conversation. I have been thinking about things like this for a month or two and now it’s in my face. In the past I have been leaving my good out in the open and un-locked. Tonight I pulled the keys out of the Jeeps and Hot Rod, and locked up the trailer and garage. I know that is a good start but what are other ways I can protect my goods. I have a garage that has 2 doors with electric openers, 2 windows at ground level and a man door with half glass. Not looking for Get a dog / Get a gun. BUT I appreciate your help.

Thanks

Depends on the access to your garage and how often you want the doors open. If you don't open it frequently and can deal with the hassle, get a pair of matched-key padlocks with the long shackle and put one through each side of the track, as close on top of the rollers as possible. Mine have a convenient square hole in just the right spot when the door is down, gives less than an inch before it jams up completely and won't lift any further. You might want to unplug the opener when you're doing this to prevent mishaps and damage in case you forget about the locks or someone else hits the button on the wall.

On the doors, install something like the "strikemaster" to reinforce the jambs and upgrade to double-sided deadbolts if you have a half-glass door, so it's keyed on both sides. This stuff is cheap insurance compared to the risk. As I'm fond of saying, far more likely to be robbed than die in a fire because of some freak circumstance where you can't find the key to undo the deadbolt.

Not sure what to say on the windows. If you can, replace with glass brick or at least go double-paned. Better yet, get some bars or otherwise secure them.

I agree with not keeping the goods out in the open, making yourself appear a less desirable target is definitely the route to go. I often see people flaunting the stuff in their garage, doors up all day long, and always ask myself what percentage there is in making people aware, much less jealous, of what you have in there. Nothing good can come of it, but many bad things can.

 

[countryroad82]

I have a truck horn (been on the lookout for a train horn or whistle) hooked to my door with a popoff valve on a chain. Air is ran from my compressoraround the wall. If you open the door and don't pull the chain........... you get the mortal **** scared out of you for one, number two I know someone is up there that doesn't know how to disarm it. Only a handfull of people know that exists and that is how I like to keep it. When I built my garage I angled the driveway where you have to turn in my brothers or mine to go up to it. I am also saving for survalance equipment that will record the inside and out. Don't forget the gate at the top of the driveway also. I live in a pretty rural area and don't get many visiters but even these things will only slow a thief down.

 

[rquackenbush]

Our recent home purchase came with an ADT system. The previous owner had the garage wired in. You can set it so it has a door chime alert inside the main house. Of course, you can arm it so that all hell breaks loose if someone enters the garage without disarming the system first.

That, combined with some bright security lighting is a good start.

 

[DoyleDee]

Dogs.... and a big fenced yard. That is what I use.
I'm out in a rural area and if you try and watch my house, I know it.. people walking by-- I know it, riding horses, driving by slow...etc etc.. My dogs are the best alarm.

 

[AndyL]

Foscam wireless ip cameras... so handy, emails me when people are where they shouldn't be, I can connect to them and pan/tilt and have a look around as I see fit...

The cheap knockoffs aren't too bad either...

 

[kb2tha]

Only a handfull of people know that exists and that is how I like to keep it. [/QUOTE]

That's some pretty funny chit right there on a public forum.

 

[NUTTSGT]

This has been discussed many times before and everybody always adds more great ideas when the topic comes up. First, I suggest searching and see what you find. Then walk around your property and think like a thief. Where can you get in, how can you get in, will anybody see me from here? What can you do to make it harder from those break ins and what can you do to alert "somebody" that some one is breaking in.

Anything from removing keys and locking doors to longer screws in the striker plates and hinges help.

 

[1967marti]

I have the same issue, with a fastback and tons of machine tools/parts in one shop i worry alot too.
I may have gone a little far but i framed in ans stucco-ed over the man door and side window. Only way in or out is through the two main "barn doors".
Limit the entry points helps keep the costs down and allows you to build a stronger single entry/exit point.
get a real/fake camera (one with a cable that runs inside the outside wall (so it looks more real) and put it up high and pointed towards the driveway and maybe another one or two pointed at the door.
If someone thinks you have cameras they are waaaaay less likley to try and break in.
Park a car in front of the closed garage door, that way they can't ram it with another car and do a "smash and grab"
Get some motion security lights too, the bigger and brighter the better!

 

[kesslerbmw]

Foscam wireless ip cameras... so handy, emails me when people are where they shouldn't be, I can connect to them and pan/tilt and have a look around as I see fit...

The cheap knockoffs aren't too bad either...

Those look like pretty cool camera's, I'm hoping to put up a system at my office this summer, and then do a system at my house after I get the garage/ shop setup.

 

[racerbob4]

You can order a fake camera set-up from Pedachtree -1-800-241-4623 They look very realsitic.

 

[Spencyg]

#1: Don't give too much information about yourself on forums like this. I'm amazed when people here have a full build thread showing all their goodies, and then indicate the town they live in, have vehicle tags shown, etc. A smart thief would just be on the prowl on places like GJ for ritzy garages within close proximity. I don't have a build thread here for a very good reason.

#2. Keep your doors closed

#3. If you have windows on parts of the garage which are not clearly visible to the street, blank them or bar them. Period.

#4. Always be well lit above the access points to the garage

#5. Reinforced Striker Plates, and always use a deadbolt both on the side entry door, and on your primary overhead doors

#6. Don't envite people in who you don't know

#7. Don't be blabbing out in the world about your new Snap-On tool chest or the fancy MIG you just picked up.

#8. Big Dog and an oversized dog chain. Even if you don't have a dog, get an oversized dog chain and drape it around the entry to your shop. It looks like you have a dog inside waiting to pounce, even if you don't.


I've never had a problem because I follow the above rules.

 

[Milton Shaw]

My shop windows are 12 feet of the ground. Doors have alarms and also have motion sensors inside both garages. I keep doors closed unless I am going in or out of them. I have had stolen from vehicles but not from the house. I am looking at security cameras for outside of the house to cover cars,suv's trucks. Non used man door is barred from inside and cannot be opened from outside without torch and don't think that would work since its a commercial fireproof medal door.

 

[mpire]

You can get a cheap door chime at harbor freight for 5 or 10 bucks. When someone walks into the garage it will chime in the house.

Also, I have a camera in my garage watching my cars and stuff. It has night vision so I can check on my cars from my phone when I am in bed and have a nightmare.

Kind of like a baby monitor.

I also have the usual alarm ****, but so does everyone else on the planet.

Make sure you have slide bolts on the door tracks. They are cheap, and I always lock mine down when I am going to be away for more than just the day.

Plus my neighbors watch my house and will generally call me if anything looks fishy. I am just about always home because I work here, so someone robbing me will probably get shot if they are dumb enough to set foot in my home.

Oh yeah, one more think. **** block your cars. So if you have to leave your valuable **** out in the driveway over night, put your crappy beater car across the back of the nice cars so they can't get a tow truck under the good ones very easily. I had a friend who's car was stolen right out of her driveway while she was sleeping just a few weeks ago. Her man was working on a project in the garage and so it was left outside.

I have nothing to do with it, but I just detailed the car a week or so before it got stolen and it was such a clean low mileage car the whole thing is giving me nightmares.

She is still dealing with the insurance company. What a nightmare!

 

[Falcon67]

We have a monitored alarm on the house with two motion detectors in the garage. Also, we have motion lights and signs noting the alarm capabilities. I plan to add a night vision wireless cam and some Z-wave controlled lighting out there in case the alarm goes off at night. Every house on the block is wired up now.

Just remember, it's really only about "running from the bear" - if you run faster than the other guy, you're not the snack. You make your place less attractive by some - any - means and chances are good the bad ju-ju will move a few doors down. Other than that, if they want in they are coming in and nothing but blast walls and guard towers would stop that.

 

[fishbomb]

cctv surveillance systems can be a great investment, you can get a pretty good set up for only a couple hundred, its worth the cost to protect your collection. i install these systems in nh. when trying to prevent theft you want the best physical description for the police. pm me if you want detailed advice on placement and equipment needed.

 

[Syndicate]

OMG!!!!!! OMG!!!!! OMG!!!!SALES RULE #1. Never, and I mean NEVER let any joker off the street that you DO NOT KNOW CHIT ABOUT, come to your personal domain to pick up or take free goods!!!

CL and Nifty Nickel ads are full of prowlers. If u have an item for sale, meet them at a public place. Take another friend. I also recommend a dog. The dog will let you know when things are not right, just in case you can not tell. If you have a free item, I suggest either goodwill or your local church. They will come and pick it up and give you a tax write off in many cases.

RED FLAGS>> If they ask what you do? WTF you ask that for, you aren't a maytag rep are you?? That has no bearing whatsoever on a free item. My what a nice house you have?? Yea and its full of Pit bulls and smith and wessons now get the F*&K outta here!

Do not divulge any info like that. Not gonna make or break a sale. You are right to be concerned with the couple asking as to your goods.

Cameras> Too many makes and models not to have them. They are cheap enough for just about any budget, and will give you piece of mind. However I would like to point out, that if someone wants in bad enough, they will get in. Locking doors, taking keys out, disconnecting batteries or a kill switch, will give you enough time usually to get notified something is wrong.

Dogs. Even the smallest dog, will bark when noise or unwanted guests are around. They can smell and hear 100 X more than we can, and my rule is if any of my dogs do not like you, you can not even come in for a beer! Saved my A$$ more than once.

You have to face reality here. There are good and bad and ugly people in this world. It is up to you to decipher which and who they are, and in some cases you have about 30 seconds to make that judgement. Your first instincts will almost always serve you well, and I recommend always following your gut instinct.

 

[mpire]

They have a garage sale/yard sale day a couple times a year.

They open the neighborhood gates and let anyone in.

All the trash comes out and its a zoo.

I always lock everything down like the zombies are coming.

My house looks completely uninhabited on those days.

We have a goodwill collections store (they don't sell anything there) right down the street less than a mile, I don't see why they don't take their **** there and just leave it.

 

[51Leadsled]

You can order a fake camera set-up from Pedachtree -1-800-241-4623 They look very realsitic.

Be careful with these, if a guest at your house has a perception they are safer because of your cameras, and act on it, leave their keys in the car of leave it on unlocked it could come back to haunt you. There has been a lot of this with commercial accounts, no reason to thing it could not happen at a private home.

 

[51Leadsled]

You can't out run a bear, or stop a thief! But you don't have to out run the bear, hunt with someone you can out run!
You don't have to stop a thief, make your house a harder target than your neighbors. Going to sell something, list a neighboring town or use the local police department for an address. When they ask are your dogs friendly, no they are not, and their behind on their rabies shots. If they ask what you do, just say I am wait to hear back form the parol board. You can ask them, "Do you how hard it is to get a job after a conviction for a violent crime!"
Free stuff, give to a local charity or leave it some hwere else to pick up.

 

[Binrat]

i gave up on dogs, both my neighbors have dogs. They bark when the wind blows... i've learned to tune them out. however if all the motion lights come on outside, it's time to take a look. I've been very lucky, too trustful, and lax in my security.. now i must lock it all down. Nice thing is when standing at my gate, you really cant tell it the pit bull is in my yard or the neighbors.

 

[Zick]

They have a garage sale/yard sale day a couple times a year.

They open the neighborhood gates and let anyone in.

All the trash comes out and its a zoo.

I always lock everything down like the zombies are coming.

My house looks completely uninhabited on those days.

We have a goodwill collections store (they don't sell anything there) right down the street less than a mile, I don't see why they don't take their **** there and just leave it.

That's funny, zombies don't want your stuff. They want your brains!

 

[mpire]

That's funny, zombies don't want your stuff. They want your brains!

We all know zombies are a pseudonym.

 

[rodknocker]

The cheapest security= Baby Monitors

 

[LovelyE30]

I went with some CCTV vandal-proof/nightvision cameras, a few motion detectors with a big air raid siren if someone comes close, some card/fingerprint access system (HID Global). Opening the door requires that the card scanned matches the fingerprints or the iris of the card holder. Also have 3 bollards for the main garage door and 2 for the other garage doors. Thing is though, they're inside, not outside, so let's say some dude thinks he can beat the clock and them out, or drive through my garage door with his half ton pick up and get away with any of my cars, though luck for him. The bollards are connected to my alarm system, so they go up when I put the alarm. I've also got partial disarming, so the bollards stay up but I can still enter and exit the building.

Gotta love the BOLLARDS!

 

[plung]

Driveway alert for the driveway entry.

 

[TC007]

BF Dog

Big locks on garage doors

In house chime if garage door opens

Thinking about an internet CCTV system too!

 

[mpire]

I wonder how much bollards would cost to put in my driveway.

 

[LovelyE30]

I wonder how much bollards would cost to put in my driveway.

Well, mine are in reinforced concrete, covered with a stainless steel and the mechanism in the ground is surrounded by reinforced concrete also. What makes the bollards go up and down is just like a big camshaft in a box, with reinforced concrete poured all around. The system cost me quite a lot but totally worth it. Custom built though. Keep in mind that I've got 5 garage doors, and I also put an extra bollard in front of the regular door, so that's 16 bollards in total.

I'd say if you don't go over the top and only get like one per parking space, you would probably be running for about 4-5 grand a pop. Things cost a lot more where I live though. If a city can afford so many bollards, they can't be that expensive I'm lead to believe.

If you have like one or two toys, you could also just cage them, from the floor to the ceiling, with reinforced bolts in the concrete floor. That's what I would do if I didn't have as many toys.

 

[mpire]

I figure I would only need one or two at the end of the driveway.

Then I could put a half height wall on either side of the driveway and wait for the wife to run into it.

 

[countryroad82]

Only a handfull of people know that exists and that is how I like to keep it.

That's some pretty funny chit right there on a public forum.[/QUOTE]

I was wondering if anyone would call me on that the way I figure not many people could figure out the backroads and such to find me, I'm in the sticks

 

[RangerDaleXp]

Well, securing things has been my business for 28 years. My garage is integrated into my home alarm system. All points of entry have contacts and there are several tri-Tech motion detectors that watches over the interior spaces. This system communicates over phone line as well as long range radio. If there is an alarm, the problem is transmitted by phone as well as long range radio to two separate central stations. I also have it set up to transmit a text message to my cell phone. The property is also watched over with a CCTV system.

Although this can be pricey for the normal person, I am in the business and do have very special pricing on equipment and services.

 

[Fifty Six MGA]

Anyone have any thoughts on the various options for alarm/monitor systems? Is it worth paying for a monitored company? We live in a suburb of LA, crime stats aren't bad, but we're definitely around other folks. My garage faces the street, not much I can do about that. I've thought abotu buying a camera system and installing it, but I'm also wondering about going with a security service... This would be for the house and (detached) garage.

 

[RangerDaleXp]

Anyone have any thoughts on the various options for alarm/monitor systems? Is it worth paying for a monitored company? We live in a suburb of LA, crime stats aren't bad, but we're definitely around other folks. My garage faces the street, not much I can do about that. I've thought abotu buying a camera system and installing it, but I'm also wondering about going with a security service... This would be for the house and (detached) garage.

Most good systems can be set up so you have different partitions. It is like having two or more separate alarm systems but all on one account. As for monitoring, there are many companies that will do it for around $14 a month. I get it for less then $5 a month on a land line account. stay away from big companies? I have not used them but there is a company called Lonestar that is cheap for monitoring. I would not use them for anything else but for monitoring they should be OK. For the cheaper homeowner end pannels, I would recomend DSC and then Honneywell. For high end it would be Radionics/Bosch Security.......

 

[Air_Cooled_Nut]

I went with some CCTV vandal-proof/nightvision cameras, a few motion detectors with a big air raid siren if someone comes close, some card/fingerprint access system (HID Global). Opening the door requires that the card scanned matches the fingerprints or the iris of the card holder. Also have 3 bollards for the main garage door and 2 for the other garage doors...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWnfeDtnuds

This alone tells me you've got a very expensive house and toys You just broke Spencyg's #1 rule

 

[Air_Cooled_Nut]

OMG!!!!!! OMG!!!!! OMG!!!!SALES RULE #1. Never, and I mean NEVER let any joker off the street that you DO NOT KNOW CHIT ABOUT, come to your personal domain to pick up or take free goods!!!

CL and Nifty Nickel ads are full of prowlers. If u have an item for sale, meet them at a public place. Take another friend. I also recommend a dog. The dog will let you know when things are not right, just in case you can not tell. If you have a free item, I suggest either goodwill or your local church. They will come and pick it up and give you a tax write off in many cases.

RED FLAGS>> If they ask what you do? WTF you ask that for, you aren't a maytag rep are you?? That has no bearing whatsoever on a free item. My what a nice house you have?? Yea and its full of Pit bulls and smith and wessons now get the F*&K outta here!

Do not divulge any info like that. Not gonna make or break a sale. You are right to be concerned with the couple asking as to your goods.

Great advice. However, some people just have NO CLASS and will ask clueless questions. Unfortunately, these are also the same people most likely to pollute the gene pool

...

Dogs. Even the smallest dog, will bark when noise or unwanted guests are around. They can smell and hear 100 X more than we can, and my rule is if any of my dogs do not like you, you can not even come in for a beer! Saved my A$$ more than once...

I know a LOT of people tout dogs as great alarms but most people don't know how to train nor treat a dog. It's sad. A dog that barks all the time is a "cry wolf" and gets ignored.

 

[Air_Cooled_Nut]

http://simplisafe.com/
A common subject. Several people have recommended SimpliSafe so I decided to give it a whirl. Reader's Digest version: I'm keeping it!!

You can have it monitored if you want. I have motion sensors in my shop and shed and they are over 50 feet away from the monitoring station in the house and they WORK! I've walked into my shop on several occasions, forgetting about the alarm system being on, and my wife comes out with my pistol asking if everything is okay I can definitely recommend this system. I like it better than the expensive ADT system I used to have.

Just my $0.02.

 

[LovelyE30]

This alone tells me you've got a very expensive house and toys You just broke Spencyg's #1 rule

I ain't got no pictures up and haven't said where I live. None of those two will happen.

This might help, though. http://www.bollards.ca/All-Retractable/R-8421-Bollard

 

[justin85]

Also, we have motion lights and signs noting the alarm capabilities.

Never understood the signs. Why do I want to advertise my alarm system? If they know you have it, they can plan for it. If they don't know you have it, it will be one extra surprise. A lot of alarm systems are not protected from a destructive event to the panel, I'd rather not give them a heads up to be looking for it, or my phone/internet lines before entry.

 

[mpire]

So they sell manual bollards for $560.

Discounts for buying more.

Seriously considering these now.

Pull up manually to enable. Key lock to disable.