This month, we wanted to offer some of our security recommendations for patio furniture and discuss why and how you can protect your Lazy Susan outdoor furniture from burglars. We have never spent as much on garden improvement thanks to the pandemic, and at Lazy Susan, we have experienced record-breaking year-over-year sales. The unscrupulous will attempt to take advantage as there will be more garden furniture items in our yards, and yards are sometimes considered as an easy mark.
Frequently, this involves more than just the destruction of the content.
In addition to the concept of someone on our property, especially if you are at home asleep at the time, they frequently do damage to your property in order to take these (often bulky) objects. But, our gardens frequently contain pricey objects that are simple to steal, making them ideal targets that can be accessed with little danger. Hence, if we want to keep them secure, it is imperative that we take precautions to protect them and confirm that our insurance policies cover us.
Why protecting outdoor furniture is crucial
9 out of 10 home burglaries are burglaries from our gardens, and there are on average 11,500 burglaries from our gardens, garages, and sheds each week. And those figures are going up! According to a recent research by Aviva, 11% of all UK house insurance claims at this time last year involved thefts from gardens. Compared to the prior year, when that number was merely 3%, this is a significant gain.
We’re also investing more money than ever before in our gardens.
The HTA estimates that we spend £7.5 billion annually on “garden goods” in the UK alone. Big-ticket products include things like patio heaters, garden furniture, and BBQs. When you consider the high cost of the items we put in sheds, such as gardening equipment, bicycles, and other items, you can understand why thieves would try to take advantage and why the startling statistic of 90% of all residential thefts occurring from gardens is so high.
Even things that seem impossible to steal, like the aforementioned jacuzzi or a giant planter filled to the brim (adding soil and plants, if we may) are all fair game. These goods are in high demand and have a high value at auction. We’ve seen numerous newspaper articles online that feature CCTV footage of burglars packing a vehicle with everything from a helpless homeowner’s lawn. The theft of plants has increased recently, according to a recent report in The Telegraph, which stated:
How to secure your outdoor furniture
We invested more time and money on our gardens than ever before as a result of the outbreak. At Lazy Susan, we have also observed record sales, and we frequently spend thousands of pounds on these things to transform our gardens into the ideal setting for those special moments. Since the goods we keep in our outside spaces are frequently expensive, most home insurance policies include coverage for theft and unintentional damage. You must, however, be aware of the type and extent of your insurance coverage.
Insurance companies frequently only provide coverage up to a certain amount as part of basic home plans. But does that cover what you have in hand? If not, you might need to pay for more garden/outdoor coverage and strengthen that insurance. Of course, there are also a number of easy and reasonably priced things we can take to increase security and (hopefully) stop the theft before it even happens. Of course, the simplest solution to safeguard our gardens is to limit opportunities and make it as challenging as possible for any would-be thieves to gain access to or take those coveted items:
Make access to your outdoor furniture challenging with gates, fence, and bushes
One of the best deterrents is a closed gate, a sturdy fence or hedge (or a mix of both) towards the back of your home, where many expensive objects like garden furniture are kept. The Met Police offers some excellent advice in their post on how to secure your home and defend your garden, where they suggest planting amazing natural barriers like Berberis and Osmanthus.
Yet, a good fence is frequently a quicker (and more economical) option. If you choose to go in this direction, it won’t take long to put up a strong, secure one. If you believe that the back of your property is easily accessible (you back into, for instance, open terrain), you might also think using anti-climb paint and/or fence security spikes.
1. Security lights for gardens
Outdoor security lights is a further very cost-effective and efficient solution to safeguard your landscape. Security lighting with motion detection will dissuade and, at the at least, maybe alert you to any would-be garden burglars. But, we would suggest you to combine it with another means of security, such as an alarm system or CCTV.
Our guide to garden lighting emphasizes lighting for aesthetic reasons more than security, but it also includes vital technical and safety advice about the best products and how to install them. We believe that the key to effective garden security lighting is to make sure the system includes motion detection and that it is installed to illuminate any dark regions or corners of your yard as well as trouble areas (such a shed or patio).
It is always worth the cost to cost up and checking against your policy. A good security system (where you pair security lighting with CCTV and/or an intruder alarm) could actually save you money by lowering your insurance premiums.
2. Purchase an outdoor alarm system
When we’re talking about alarm systems, it seems like most modern homes have them installed. Whether or not we utilize them is a topic for an other blog post, though. While most homes have alarm systems, many of us don’t have alarm systems installed in our garages, sheds, summer homes, barns, patios, etc. And it makes sense to do so given the large selection of simple-to-install, cost-effective wireless systems currently available on the market.
They are not only very simple to install but also quite reliable. Contemporary outdoor and garden alarm systems are wireless, battery-powered, remote-controlled, and even modular, allowing you to expand or modify them to best suit your requirements.
3. Observe your outdoor furniture with CCTV
The use of CCTV is another alternative that is very simple to install but very successful in the fight against criminals, much like an outdoor alarm system and security lighting. Furthermore, many of the more efficient systems are fully integrated, making it easy to connect and manage them all with a single app. Similar to alarms, contemporary CCTV is currently inexpensive, quick to install (batteries not required, wireless, no electrician needed), and connected via WiFi or Bluetooth, making it simple to watch and record using your phone, tablet, or computer.
Today, several of the top tech companies also provide home security systems. CCTV is being installed in an increasing number of UK homes and gardens, from Amazon’s Blink and Google’s Nest to home security provider Ring. You may have noticed Arlo’s most recent TV commercials for their selection of wireless security cameras, floodlights, and doorbells. Arlo is another company that provides a total solution.
Several members of the Lazy Susan Team have Amazon’s Blink Outdoor HD Security Cameras (seen below) installed in the front and back of their homes’ gardens, as we’ve previously discussed on this site. I built it even though it’s difficult to get to my own backyard because I wanted the piece of mind more than anything else. It uses just two AA lithium batteries and connects to both our Alexa and my phone via their app.
