Home Safety Checklist For Gaithersburg

Being safe in your home should be your number one responsibility. But are you missing some useful safety items? Take this home safety checklist for Gaithersburg and find out where your house requires an update.

This guide starts with a few whole-house safety ideas, and then we delve down on a room level. Then, call (301) 278-8866 or fill out the form below to get your home ready.

Essential Home Safety Checklist for Gaithersburg

While you should employ a individual room method for home safety in Gaithersburg, there are some things that work for a lot of your rooms. These components can sync together through a wireless hub, and can even work off one another. You can also manage every one of your home safety devices with a mobile security app, like ADT Control:

Monitored Home Security System: Each one of your windows and doors should employ a sensor that alerts you and your family to forced entry. After the alarm trips, your monitoring agent answers the alert and immediately sends the police or fire department.

Smart Bulbs For Each Room: Sure, you can schedule your smart lights to make your home more energy-efficient. But they can also help you remain safe in an emergency. Have your downstairs lights flip on when an alarm triggers to scare off robbers or brighten your way to a safe area.

Smart Thermostat: Like your smart lights, a smart thermostat in Gaithersburg could save you up to 15% in gas and electric costs. Also, it can start your exhaust fan when your alarms senses a fire.

Monitored Fire Detectors: It’s code that you should have a fire detector on each level of your house. You can improve your fire readiness by utilizing a monitored fire detector that detects both smoke and heat, and notifies your round-the-clock monitoring experts when it senses a fire.

Smart Door Locks: Every door that utilizes a deadbolt can be made safer with a smart door lock. Now you can program codes to family and friends and receive texts to your phone when the locks are used. Your locks can even automatically open, helping you to quickly get out during a fire or dangerous situation.

Family Room/Living Room Safety Checklist For Gaithersburg

You’ll spend a lot of time in the living room, so it’s the best place to optimize your home safety. Popular items, like a TV or video game console, typically reside in your family room, making it an alluring room for robbers. Start with placing a motion sensor or security camera in your room, then continue on with the following ideas:

Motion Sensors: By installing motion sensors, you’ll hear a shrieking siren anytime they detect suspicious motion in your living room. Look for motion sensors that ignore pet movements or you’ll see a tripped alarm every time your pet comes in for a midnight stroll.
Security Camera: An indoor security camera puts a constant watch on your living room. Watch real-time streams of everything so you can see what’s going on without leaving your bed. Or talk with your family in the living room using the two-way talk feature.
Surge Protector/Cord Maintenance: Protect expensive electronics and quit overburdening your electric system with a surge protector. For extra convenience, set up a smart plug with a surge protector built-in.
Entertainment Center Attached To The Wall: If you have babies or toddlers, you’ll want to secure your bookshelves and entertainment center to a wall. This is especially important if your family room uses rugs or carpet that might make heavy objects extra unbalanced.
Enhanced Locks For Glass Doors: If your family room uses a sliding glass door that opens to a backyard, deck, or outside porch, you already can see that the latch is pretty flimsy. Put in a custom lock, like a bottom bar or small locks that are located on the top and bottom of the door frame.

Kitchen Safety Checklist For Gaithersburg

The kitchen has many items that should add safety to your house. Most of these items should be a snap to add and should be purchased from the Target or Walmart:

Fire Extinguisher: Fire can happen from a neglected skillet or a towel that’s too close to a burner. Always keep a fire extinguisher at the ready for any cooking mishaps.
Circuit Interrupter Box On Each Outlet: A circuit interrupter outlet should be standard on outlets where they’re by running water to lessen the chance of a deadly shock. That includes the outlets close to your sink and kitchen counter. Since the late ‘80s, it’s been required to have one GFCI per circuit. But all your plugs will go if one outlet sees a surge, so you’ll want to install an unchained GFCI on each outlet.

Monitored CO Detector: A carbon monoxide detector is handy in the kitchen if you use natural gas for the oven and stove. If your gas burners malfunction, the CO detector will emit a loud, buzzing siren and call your monitoring expert.
Clorox Wipes Or Spray: The most overlooked safety hazard in the kitchen is actually bacteria and protein from raw meat and vegetables. Always have disinfectant wipes or a bleach spray to clean your counters when cooking.
Freezer and Refrigerator Alarm: The food items in the refrigerator have to remain at a chilly temperature to be safe to consume. If you accidently leave the freezer or refrigerator door open too long, then a constant beep will tell you to close the door. Some refrigerators already have this installed, some don’t, and you’ll have to buy a fridge alarm from the hardware store.

Bathroom Safety Checklist For Gaithersburg

Just because you don’t a bunch of square footage in your bathroom, you will still have safety issues. From water problems to anti-surge outlets, here are some safety improvements for your bathroom:

Flood Sensors: A leaking sink or bathtub can lead to a whole lot of water damage. Find out early about pooling water with a flood detector and save the time and money from renovations.
No-slip Bath Mats: A slip in the bathroom can be a painful occurrence, causing cuts, sore joints, or trips to the hospital. Make sure you steer clear from these issues with a textured bath mat for while you towel off.

Textured Bathtub Strips: Another water hazard, a tub can be a slick surface to stand in. It’s a good idea that every bathtub has some textured strips so your feet and toes have a rough patch for stability.

Medicine Door Lock: If you have young toddlers or anyone with memory complications, you should take additional care regarding prescription medicine. Safeguard your prescriptions by installing a medicine cabinet with a locking latch.

GFCI Circuits: Similarly to the kitchen, you need to also use a surge protecting circuit interrupter outlet on every bathroom outlet. These will cut the current if they ever get wet or they experience a sudden spike from an electric razor or hair dryer.

Kid’s Bedroom Safety Checklist For Gaithersburg

A child’s bedroom should balance safety with accessibility. If their window coverings or other items are safe but tricky to operate, then your children may perform risky activities -- like scale a dresser -- to touch them. Here are 5 simple, yet safe, ideas:

Cordless Window Treatments: Safety experts have long called corded window treatments a secret hazard for kids and pets. Use motorized treatments that your child can easily open and close through a remote. Or go state-of-the-art and link your motorized treatments to your ADT security system so they rise without anyone’s help when the sun comes up, and go down at night for added darkness.

Tableside Security Camera: A camera placed on your toddler’s desk can act like a high tech baby monitor that you can see from a smartphone. And when they want something, they can push the intercom talk feature included on the camera.

Outlet Covers: While each outlet should have outlet safety caps on them for your little children, this is doubly urgent in their bedroom. It’s the one place in your house where your toddler will most likely hang out by themselves without parental supervision.

Window Escape Ladder: If you have bedrooms on the second story, then you will want to put in a window fire ladder. These should let a young one leave the house when the stairway or lower levels are on fire. Make sure to go over how to employ the ladder a few times a year.

Toy Chest Or Low Bookshelves: It’s strange to think about a toy box as a safety device, but you’ll get it if you’ve ever walked on an action figure in your stocking feet. A clutter-free floor gives your child a quick retreat when there’s a safety or security event.

Main Bedroom Safety Checklist For Gaithersburg

The master bedroom should be a refuge, so let your safety components make you more responsive when you have an emergency event. After all, being jerked awake by a wailing alarm can be quite a shock.

Security System Touchscreen: Having a touchscreen on your dresser helps you know what’s what that noise was without jumping out of bed. You could always use your ADT phone app. However, the large touchscreen can be better to use when you’re bleary-eyed and disoriented.

Phone Charging Station: We rely on our smartphones for so much now alarm clocks, internet searches, game machines, and sometimes even phones. However, a dead cell in the middle of the night cuts us off from reaching help if something goes wrong. To keep it nice and ready, a an easy-to-use charging station is an important part of your nightstand.

Nightlights Or Voice Activated Smart Lights: A small light can be a beacon when you’re jolted awake from a fire alarm or unexpected sounds. If you won’t drift off to sleep with a nightlight, install smart bulbs in your fixtures. Then you can get light on-demand with a push of a button or voice direction.
Fireproof Lockbox: Stash your essential paperwork like insurance cards, passports, or a bankbook in a fireproof lockbox. Your safe can be a bigger one that sits out of the way or a small handheld lockbox that you can grab on your way out during a fire or other emergency.

Temperature Sensor: The problem with bedrooms is that they might run too warm or be chilly because they sit across the house from the thermostat. A heat sensor will talk to your smart thermostat so you should have a nice, relaxing sleep at a wonderful climate.

Basement/Garage Safety Checklist For Gaithersburg

Most safety needs in the garage or basement have to do with your water heater or heating system. Seeing hazards before they start can prevent bigger emergencies in the future. So, as you take a look around your storage areas, take note of these critical items:

Flood Sensor Or Sump Pump Alarm: Placing a flood sensor in back of your water heater or sump pump drain can stop you from wading into a lake when you step into your garage or basement. Do you really want to waste your night bailing out water?

CO Detector: It’s smart to hang a carbon monoxide detector in areas where a natural gas leak can happen. If you use gas heating, try to hang an alarm in the same place as your HVAC unit.
Wireless Water Shutoff Valve: If your flood detector finds a plumbing leak or a burst pipe, then you need to shut off the primary water valve quickly. With a wireless shutoff valve, you can turn off your water flow from your phone. That’s nice when you’re out of town and get a water leak text on your smartphone.
Garage Door Sensor: Leaving the garage open brings about all sorts of problems. You can lose a bunch of heat through that gaping hole, and critters or intruders can just wander in. A sensor will text you about a forgotten garage door and lets you close it remotely.
Heat Sensor: A heat alarm in your garage or basement is a definite if you fret about frozen pipes. The heat in these areas can be drastically different than the rest of the home, so you may want to maintain a closer eye on them through the ADT mobile app.

Outside Perimeter Safety Checklist for Gaithersburg

Your landscaping, drive, and front walk are just as imperative to defend as the interior of your home. Use this checklist to make your outside safe:

Doorbell Camera: See who’s at the the front step before you open it and welcome guests. View package deliveries and record video clips if they disappear.

Outdoor Camera: You can install outdoor cameras to notify you about suspicious lurkers in your yard. These cameras come in handy in areas where you might not have a view -- like a side yard or by the garage door.

Low Shrubs: Tall bushes can offer some serenity, but they also hinder you seeing into the outside. Don’t provide potential burglars a dark shadow to hide. Plus, tall bushes or trees too close to your house can obstruct gutters and bring in bugs.
ADT Signage: One of the biggest deterrents for a thief is advertising to would-be rogues that you own a monitored security system. An ADT yard stick by the front door and a window cling will alert people that they should shove off to an easier target.

Motion Activated Outside Light Fixtures: Light is the largest deterrent to those who sneak around in the unlit places. Motion-activated lights on your porch, garage, or deck can frighten possible intruders away. They also help you see the walk when you get home on those dark, winter nights.

Call Secure24 Alarm Systems To Help Complete Your Home Safety Checklist for Gaithersburg

While Secure24 Alarm Systems can’t deliver non-security devices on your Gaithersburg home safety checklist, we can offer a customized security system. With everything from alarms to thermostats, we can install the perfect system for your house’s needs. Just call (301) 278-8866 and talk to a professional or send in the form below. Or customize your own ADT system with our Security System Designer.