Carpet gripper on top of the wall . Smeared with excrement - nothing like a good infection for the thieving scum
What are you going to do when the alarm goes off ?
Run out side and get stabbed .
Securing your workshop
- Thread starter martinlt1000
- Start date
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What are you going to do when the alarm goes off ?
Run out side and get stabbed .
MarkAW
Established Member
Sorry to hear that Martin. Hopefully you're covered with insurance?
I agree on the comments about CCTV. I have CCTV and pir floodlight on my drive, yet a few nights we've had some delinquents try car door handles all along the street including mine. Mask and hoody, so you can't make out many identifying features. Even coming back more than 1 night in a row!
It's really just making access a little harder time consuming and more visible. Overall reducing the appeal.
I have plans to hook up a smoke grenade (the sort you find at paintballing) to my workshop alarm, then the place would fill with smoke so they can't see what they're stealing! That would surprise and disorientate the buggers.
I agree on the comments about CCTV. I have CCTV and pir floodlight on my drive, yet a few nights we've had some delinquents try car door handles all along the street including mine. Mask and hoody, so you can't make out many identifying features. Even coming back more than 1 night in a row!
It's really just making access a little harder time consuming and more visible. Overall reducing the appeal.
I have plans to hook up a smoke grenade (the sort you find at paintballing) to my workshop alarm, then the place would fill with smoke so they can't see what they're stealing! That would surprise and disorientate the buggers.
Stanleymonkey
Established Member
Sorry to hear this - apart from the tools - it's a horrible feeling to have that someone has been in your garden.
I know the focus is on your tools - but please consider the house as well. They are likely to wander down and try the windows and door handles if they think you are out / working late.
If possible can you raise the height of the fence / wall between you and your neighbour? Add trellis panels to the top? He has to understand after two break ins.
There are some good battery operated PIR lights now.
Underfloor security bars - not sure if they have been mentioned. Chain things down to a steel pole that spans several joist under the floor - better for bikes and mowers etc.
Buy some old cabinets from a clearance shop - lock your tools away in those so they have a second thing to break into should they make it inside.
Shutter the windows if you haven't already.
I know the focus is on your tools - but please consider the house as well. They are likely to wander down and try the windows and door handles if they think you are out / working late.
If possible can you raise the height of the fence / wall between you and your neighbour? Add trellis panels to the top? He has to understand after two break ins.
There are some good battery operated PIR lights now.
Underfloor security bars - not sure if they have been mentioned. Chain things down to a steel pole that spans several joist under the floor - better for bikes and mowers etc.
Buy some old cabinets from a clearance shop - lock your tools away in those so they have a second thing to break into should they make it inside.
Shutter the windows if you haven't already.
Keith 66
Established Member
Anti climb paint is good on top of walls & anywhere that could get climbed. I had a workshop a few years ago that was very remote & slapped the stuff on all over the place. Its thick black tarry stuff that magically transfers itself to everything. A week after i applied it i came in one morning to find two great hand prints dragged down the wall, you could almost still hear them going "Argh ffs" as they tried to wipe it off!
I had a lucky escape recently - the kid next door (who is a right little scrote - I've tamed him by fixing his bike!) was out having a *** late at night and heard noises in my garden at my garage door, called out and heard someone run and jump over my fence. I'd always known the back door was the weak point on the workshop and was going to get around to sorting it at some point. It leapfrogged everything to the top of the list and as of last weekend I have a steel multipoint lock door. You can never make it perfect, but you can make it very difficult for them.
niemeyjt
Established Member
A noise bomb inside the shop connected to an alarm will also reduce time spent in there - as well as alerting neighbours
danst96
Established Member
Generally speaking, CCTV is a waste of money, thieves pay very little attention to it. In fact I read an interview of a bike thief who said he targeted areas that had CCTV because it means people let down their guard in other ways. I'd spend the money on a decent lock system, bracing and barring any area that could be entered in and certainly add lots of lighting. Maybe look into if there is a way of If one PIR is triggered it triggers all your lights and it turns your place into fort Knox. 1 it's going to scare the **** out of the thief and 2 potentially will help wake you up. You can adjust PIR sensitivity so it's not triggered by small animals and birds.
DBT85
Established Member
Cameras in addition everything else, however, do add to the deterrent and might give you a chance of identifying the little ****. They also give you the opportunity to set alerts up so that maybe you catch someone doing a recce.
A camera alone is indeed not much use.
A camera alone is indeed not much use.
martinlt1000
Member
The problem with the wall height is that my land is about 1.5m lower than my neighbours. Which means the wall would be about 4m high in some sections and block loads of light coming into our garden.
HappyHacker
Established Member
Sorry to hear about the break in.
I have marked most of my portable tools with my post code engraved in large letters into the plastic and metal parts and any batteries using a dremal type tool. Makes them less valuable to the scroats and easy to identify if found.
This is in addition to large locks on the doors with reinforcement of the lock positions on the up and over doors. Nothing will stop them they want to get in but making it more difficult and time consuming does put them off. Lots of good ideas above, I draw the line at exposed live wires though, they would probably get me.
There was a program on the telly some years ago where a reformed burglar broke into houses, with the owners permission, while being filmed for the TV. In one house apart from taking all the valuables he broke into the garage found a nice convertible car, found the keys, put the car top down, loaded all the valuable stuff into the car put the pet dog into the car and drove off! Even though the house owners had given permission, most were very upset to see the mess and how easy it was.
My final line of defence is that my workshop is such a tip that they will have to spend some time trying to find the tools, as I usually do, and if not very careful they will trip over one of the piles off stuff on the floor
I do wonder why we have to go to such lengths to protect our property from the low life scum that make their living messing up other people lives.
I have marked most of my portable tools with my post code engraved in large letters into the plastic and metal parts and any batteries using a dremal type tool. Makes them less valuable to the scroats and easy to identify if found.
This is in addition to large locks on the doors with reinforcement of the lock positions on the up and over doors. Nothing will stop them they want to get in but making it more difficult and time consuming does put them off. Lots of good ideas above, I draw the line at exposed live wires though, they would probably get me.
There was a program on the telly some years ago where a reformed burglar broke into houses, with the owners permission, while being filmed for the TV. In one house apart from taking all the valuables he broke into the garage found a nice convertible car, found the keys, put the car top down, loaded all the valuable stuff into the car put the pet dog into the car and drove off! Even though the house owners had given permission, most were very upset to see the mess and how easy it was.
My final line of defence is that my workshop is such a tip that they will have to spend some time trying to find the tools, as I usually do, and if not very careful they will trip over one of the piles off stuff on the floor
I do wonder why we have to go to such lengths to protect our property from the low life scum that make their living messing up other people lives.
Chippysu
Established Member
There's so much scum out there, really feel for you. I have Hubble cameras that work from Internet, so even when I'm on holiday, (you remember those days!) I can just check in on things. They alert me on my phone noise, movement. The sensitivity can be set so you don't get the bloomin spider that kept telling me he was spinning his web alert! Also got Ring door bell, this captures anyone hanging around maybe casing the place. I have a lovely clear video of a guy nosing in our back garden (before our gate was replaced,) a couple of years ago. My dream would be handle attached to 24v lorry battery but apparently it's illegal!
Hey ho. Also with the Hubble (got in Costco but Argos do them,) they have a microphone, so if someone got in you can frighten the bejusus out of them & tell them the police are on the way!Cozzer
Established Member
A good few years ago some friends of mine ran a small jewellery making business in a remote craft centre. It wasn't long before they got 'turned over', so obviously beefed up their security afterwards.
They purchased an alarm system with a siren, which was encased in a steel mesh, well up an outside wall.
I was there when first installed and tested - God, was it loud!
A few weeks went by, and then I heard they'd been hit again....and the siren? Had it failed?
Nope.
They'd got up to it courtesy of a pair of ladders, and sprayed expanding foam inside.
The alarm went off when they broke in, and nobody heard a damn thing....
They purchased an alarm system with a siren, which was encased in a steel mesh, well up an outside wall.
I was there when first installed and tested - God, was it loud!
A few weeks went by, and then I heard they'd been hit again....and the siren? Had it failed?
Nope.
They'd got up to it courtesy of a pair of ladders, and sprayed expanding foam inside.
The alarm went off when they broke in, and nobody heard a damn thing....
stevek
Established Member
I would like a simple alarm for my shed but they are not so easy to find a decent one, the little keypad one from Amazon was a hopless piece of junk which went back. When I had a bike I heard of lots of people useing a baby alarm in the garage, they are wireless and the noise or any soft speaking will be picked up, perhaps its possible with modern ones to be able to talk back through it,,would that scare them off?? And I know you can buy a camera which is motion activated and certainly allows you to see and tell the theives that they have been recorded and that the police have been called via your mobile phone. If you look on ebay there is quite a number of heavyweight door security bars, they slot into the frame on both sides and are secured by big padlocks, not too expensive either. Hopefully most shed thieves are not professionals and even simple things might put them off,,,I hope!
bp122
Expert at Jibber-Jabber
That is awful to hear, mate. No one should have to go through this.
I feel so enraged.
I wrote a long paragraph here about how you can use violence against those who truly deserve it, but then I realised I was getting angrier just writing the damn thing.
All I can say is I wish none of you go through this ever again!
We talk about workshop safety and blade guards etc all day, why can't be there a way the thieves just fall on a table saw when it is running without a blade guard?
Oh wait, I'm hulking out again (not getting bigger or anything, just getting angrier but still pathetically weak!)
I feel so enraged.
I wrote a long paragraph here about how you can use violence against those who truly deserve it, but then I realised I was getting angrier just writing the damn thing.
All I can say is I wish none of you go through this ever again!
We talk about workshop safety and blade guards etc all day, why can't be there a way the thieves just fall on a table saw when it is running without a blade guard?
Oh wait, I'm hulking out again (not getting bigger or anything, just getting angrier but still pathetically weak!)
Best thing is an alarm that will go off before they get to the building. I have beams and slot pirs. Can't get within six to eight feet of the building without all hell breaking loose, whole set up cost about £100. Ditch the rubbish siren that comes with most of them, I have mine wired to a 300db airhorn. Just make sure you set carefully up to avoid false alarms, otherwise you will be unpopular with the neighbours.
bp122
Expert at Jibber-Jabber
Cool. Our neighbour's cats go all over and around my garage, would that set the sirens off?
As an aside you can use a baby monitor inside the building so even if you have the not very loud standard siren you will be able to hear it through the baby monitor at your bedside. Make sure your alarm has a visible blinking light or whatever outside to warn the scroats it's alarmed. And don't have the alarm siren outside where they can get at it or they will simply fill it with expanding foam to knock it out.
That took me back many years, someone I knew suspected that someone had been looking at his shed and garden machinery overnight and found some boot prints where they had come over the fence, his solution was a couple of bits of wood with nails and covered in excrement placed in the area.
Nothing for a few months and then one night the whole neighbourhood was woken up by a blood curdling scream, yes they had come back and found the nails.
Another method of security, or another approach that has often been used is to make the items worthless to anyone but yourself. Many hire firms used to etch their names into hire tools to make them more reconisable. A firm I worked for had their mobile IT all branded with the company logo, basically like they branded cattle. So make yourself a small branding tool and put your mark on them along with say smartwater and they become valueless to all others.
Back to your doors, thinking back to my shed door I fitted these, https://www.amazon.co.uk/Asec-HS182...ocphy=9046727&hvtargid=pla-314066269362&psc=1
They are fitted on the inside so cannot be easily got at and work very well, I brought mine from a local locksmith but believe they are all basically the same.
Similar problem in that I have a couple of small dogs. The beams are set about 4 foot off the ground. The slot pir, also called curtain pirs, sense over a narrow horizontal plane. Again mounted about 4 foot up so the dogs are underneath the sensing area. Cats might be a nuisance to the pir, but the beam sensors have to be broken directly so shouldn't be too difficult to set them up so the cats can't break the beam. You can make your own slot type pir sensors. If you get a standard sensor designed to control lights, 12v input/output. Get some plastic 25mm pipe conduit couplers. These fit neatly around the sensor lens. Now hear up one end of the coupler with a hot air gun and squash it flat into a fishtail shape. Put a piece of wood or metal in between the sides to determine the width of your slot. Now you can place it over your sensor and you have a narrow sensing area. Varying the length of the tube will vary the sensing area. You can test it by just rigging it up so it activates a bulb so you can judge the sensing area you have and adjust your mask accordingly.
DBT85
Established Member
I've wondered about a loud as hell horn that simply operates on the door opening. Needs to be unlocked with a beeper like your car before you open the door.
Deafen the *****.
Deafen the *****.
