Home Safety Checklist For Asheville

Staying safe in your house should be your number one responsibility. But are you missing one or two useful safety items? Look over this home safety checklist for Asheville and discover where your living space can use some work.

This guide begins with a few whole-home safety techniques, and then we break it down on a room level. Then, contact (828) 202-7229 or fill out the form below to speak to a security professional.

Whole Home Safety Checklist for Asheville

While you should take a room-to-room method for home safety in Asheville, there are some methods that work for a lot of your rooms. These components can talk with one another through a smart hub, and can even respond to other components. You might also control all your home safety devices using a smartphone app, like ADT Control:

Monitored Home Security System: Each one of your windows and doors should have a sensor that alerts you and your family to forced entry. As the alarm trips, your monitoring center responds to the call and quickly sends emergency personnel.

Smart Bulbs For Most Rooms: Sure, you can schedule your smart lights so your home is more efficient. But smart lights can also help you stay safe during an emergency. Make your lights flip on when a security alarm triggers to shoo off intruders or illuminate the way out to a secure location.

Smart Thermostat: Likewise, a smart thermostat in Asheville should save you 10%-15% in energy spending. It also can start your exhaust fan when your alarms senses a fire.

Monitored Smoke Detectors: It’s code that you should have a fire alarm on each level of your house. You can improve your fire preparedness by installing a monitored fire detector that looks for excessive heat and smoke, and alerts your 24/7 monitoring experts when it detects a fire.

Smart Door Locks: Every entryway that needs a keyed lock can use a smart door lock. Now you may preset key codes to each family member and get texts to your smartphone when the locks are activated. Your doors can even automatically turn off, allowing you to quickly get out if you have a fire or dangerous situation.

Family Room Safety Checklist For Asheville

You’ll spend most of your time in the family room, so it’s the perfect area to kick off your home safety makeover. Popular items, like a big screen or stereo system, probably reside in your living room, making it an alluring space for thieves. Begin with installing a motion sensor or indoor camera in there, then continue on with the following ideas:

Motion Sensors: By putting in motion sensors, you’ll hear a shrieking noise anytime they sense unusual movement in your living room. The best devices are motion detectors that aren’t set off by a dog or cat or you’ll have an alert each time your cat comes in for a midnight stroll.
Security Camera: An indoor security camera offers a constant watch on your living room. Get real-time streams of your room so you can find out what’s downstairs without leaving your bed. Or talk with your kids in the living room by using the two-way talk feature.
Surge Protector/Outlet Maintenance: Make sure you protect all your electronics and quit overtaxing your circuits with a surge protector. For extra comfort, set up a smart plug with surge protection included.
Entertainment Center Secured To The Wall: If you have any small children, you’ll want to secure your bookshelves and entertainment center to a wall. This is extra important if your family room uses carpeting that can make heavy objects extra wobbly.
Enhanced Locks For Sliding Doors: If your living room uses a glass door that leads to a backyard, deck, or porch, you already can see that the door lock is usually thin. Put in a custom lock, like a metal bar or locks that secures the door to the top and bottom of the opening.

Kitchen Safety Checklist For Asheville

Your kitchen has plenty of items that can bring comfort and safety to your house. Many of these things should be simple to add and should be purchased from the a retail store:

Fire Extinguisher: Fire can come from from a neglected frying pan or an errant grease splatter. Always have a fire extinguisher at hand for any cooking emergencies.
Circuit Interrupter Box On Every Outlet: A circuit interrupter outlet should be standard anywhere there’s nearby water to prevent an electric shock. That means the outlets close to your sink and kitchen counter. For 30 years, it’s been standard to have one GFCI per circuit. But if you don’t want all your outlets to go dead when one outlet flips, you’re going to want to have an unchained GFCI per outlet.

Monitored CO Detector: A carbon monoxide detector is handy in kitchens that employ gas for the oven and stove. If your gas appliances spring a leak, the carbon monoxide detector will play a high-decibel sound and ping your monitoring center.
Disinfectant Wipes Or Spray: The largest safety problem in the kitchen is the invisible bacteria and contamination from blood from meat and other foods. Always keep antiviral wipes or a bleach spray to sanitize your surfaces when making a meal.
Freezer and Refrigerator Alarm: The items in the fridge need to stay at a cold temperature to be ready to eat. If you accidently leave the freezer or refrigerator door open, then an alarm beep will tell you to shut it securely. Some refrigerators already have this installed, older models do not, and you’ll have to pick up a fridge alarm from online.

Bathroom Safety Checklist For Asheville

Just because you may not have a lot of square footage in your bathroom doesn’t mean that there aren’t safety issues. From water problems to medicine care, here are a few safety tips for your bathroom:

Flood Sensors: A leaking toilet or bathtub can lead to a whole lot of damage. Find a leaking pipe with a flood detector and save a bunch of money from water damage.
Non-slip Bathroom Mats: A slip in the bathroom can be a painful occurrence, causing pulled muscles, gashed heads, or sprained ankles. You can avoid these problems with a textured bathroom mat for your wet feet.

Non-slip Bathtub Stickies: Like a tiled floor, a tub basin can be a slippery place to be on. Make sure every has some textured strips so your toes have a rough patch to grip.

Medicine Door Lock: If you have young kids or anyone with memory complications, you have to take additional precautions regarding prescription medicine. Hide away your pills and syrups by getting a medicine cabinet with a child-proof lock.

GFCI Circuits: While installing better outlets in the kitchen, you should also use a surge protecting circuit interrupter outlet on each bathroom receptacle. This will cut the electric current if water splashes on them or you have an unusual surge from a hair dryer or curling iron.

Children’s Bedroom Safety Checklist For Asheville

Your child’s bedroom should counterbalance safety with accessibility. If their window treatments or other things are safe but difficult to manage, then your child may get around the device with unsafe methods -- like climb a dresser -- to open them. Here are some straightforward, yet safe, ideas:

Cordless Window Treatments: Safety agencies have designated corded window treatments a secret hazard for both children and pets. Use motorized shades that your child can easily manage with a remote control. Or better yet, connect your shades to your ADT security system so they can raise on a schedule at dawn, and close at bedtime for added darkness.

Indoor Security Camera: An indoor security camera placed on your child’s dresser can act as an HD baby monitor that you can view from your phone. And when they need something, they can use the 2-way talk feature included on the camera.

Outlet Plug Covers: While every outlet should use protective covers on them to protect your young children, this is doubly urgent in a child’s bedroom. It’s the one room in your home where your toddler will most likely hang out alone without consistent adult supervision.

Window Fire Ladder: If you use bedrooms on above the first story, then you should put in a window fire ladder. These will help your children get out of their room when the stairway or ground floor are engulfed in smoke and fire. Remember to practice how to use the ladder at least twice a year.

Toy Box Or Low Bookshelves: It’s weird to view a toy box as a safety device, but you’ll get it if you’ve ever stepped on an action figure in your bare feet. A uncluttered floor means a quick way out when there’s a safety or security event.

Main Bedroom Safety Checklist For Asheville

Your main bedroom should be a refuge, so let your safety devices make life easier if you experience an emergency. After all, being startled awake by a high-decibel buzzer can be quite a shock.

Home Security Touchscreen: Having a touchscreen on your dresser gives you a sense of what’s going on without jumping out of bed. You could always log into your ADT smartphone app but, the large touchscreen can be better to use when you’re yawning and disoriented.

Device Charging Area: We use our cell phones for so much now GPS, news readers, social media, and maybe even phones. However, a dead phone will cut us off from reaching help if during an emergency. To keep it nice and ready, a charging station or cord is should be used nightly.

Nightlights Or Voice Activated Smart Lights: A tiny light helps ground you when you’re startled awake from a siren or other loud noises. If you can’t fall asleep with an outlet light, use smart bulbs in your fixtures. Then you can control light simply with a button push or voice direction.
Fireproof Safe: Store your essential papers like social security cards, passports, or a bankbook in a fireproof safe. Your safe can be a bigger one that camps out in a corner or a small portable safe that you can snatch as you escape during a fire or break-in.

Heat Sensor: The issue with a master bedroom is that they tend to be too warm or be chilly since they sit across the house from the thermostat. A temperature sensor can talk to your smart thermostat so you can have a comfortable, relaxing sleep at just the right temperature.

Garage/Basement Safety Checklist For Asheville

Most safety problems in the garage or basement have to do with your pipes or furnace. Discovering issues at the source can prevent more devastating disasters in the future. So, as you look around your garage or basement, pay attention to these critical items:

Water Detector Or Sump Pump Alarm: Installing a flood sensor next to your water heater and sump pump drain can save you from discovering a lake when you go into your basement or garage. It’s sure better than rummaging through a heap of soggy storage boxes.

CO Detector: It’s beneficial to install a carbon monoxide alarm in a place where a CO leak can spring up. If you have gas heating, you should install a detector in the same area as your HVAC unit.
WiFi Water Shutoff Valve: If your water detector finds a hot water leak or a burst pipe, then you will have to cut off the main water line immediately. With a remote shutoff valve, you can turn off your water flow from any mobile device. That’s nice when you’re visiting relatives and receive a flood sensor notification on your phone.
Garage Door Sensor: Leaving the garage door open leads to all sorts of headaches. You can lose HVAC energy through that open door, and all sorts of animals or intruders can just wander in. A remote sensor will text you about a forgotten garage door and lets you lower it remotely.
Temperature Sensor: A temperature sensor in your garage or basement is handy if you worry about freezing pipes. The temperature in these rooms can be drastically different than the rest of the home, so you may need to have a close look on the temperature by using your security mobile app.

Outside Safety Checklist for Asheville

Your yard, driveway, and front porch are just as imperative to secure as the rest of your home. Use this checklist to make your outside safe:

Doorbell Camera: See who’s knocking on the door before you answer it and chat with visitors. Get a visual on package deliveries and record video clips if they are taken.

Outdoor Camera: You can install outdoor cameras to alert you to suspicious activity in your yard. These security cameras are especially useful in places where you might not have a window -- like around a cellar or by the garage.

Window Height Shrubs: Tall bushes can create some serenity, but they also obscure your view of the outside. Don’t provide potential thieves an area to hide. Plus, high bushes, shrubs or greenery around your home can clog gutters and invite bugs.
ADT Signs And Decals: One of the most popular disincentives for a thief is telling potential intruders that you have a monitored home security system. An ADT yard sign by the stoop and a window decal will alert lurkers that they should keep walking to an easier score.

Motion Controlled Outside Lighting: Light is the greatest enemy to people who skulk in the shadows. Motion-controlled flood lights on your deck, patio, or garage can frighten possible intruders away. Flood lights also help you get inside when you come home late after work.

Use Secure24 Alarm Systems To Help Complete Your Home Safety Checklist for Asheville

While Secure24 Alarm Systems can’t install non-security devices on your Asheville home safety checklist, we can install a customized security system. With everything from alarms to thermostats, we can customize the perfect system for your home’s needs. Simply contact (828) 202-7229 and talk to a professional or fill out the form below. Or customize your own ADT system with our Security System Designer.