Everyone deserves to feel safe inside the confines of their own home. Safety, along with comfort, are some of the most important aspects of homeownership. A recent survey revealed that these two are the leading motivations for homeowners to enact improvement projects.
According to a nationwide survey, approximately 83 percent of homeowners claimed they wanted to remodel because they want to increase the comfort of their homes. A further 62 percent of respondents revealed they were going to start home improvement projects to increase the safety of their properties.
If you want to make your home a safer place for you and your family, here are five home improvement ideas you should consider.
- Fix the Floors
Falls and trips are some of the most prevalent sources of injuries around a house. Although tripping hazards like carpets and extension cords are to blame for some of these accidents, the quality of your floors are also major factors.
Uneven floors can cause people to become unbalanced and fall over more often. Meanwhile, if you choose cheap flooring materials, they can warp at the slightest provocation. This means loose floorboards or tiles and you can look forward to a lot more scrapes and bruises. If you do want to remodel your home, look for reliable suppliers of engineered wood flooring, tiles and linoleum. Only with quality materials can you ensure your flooring is up to snuff on safety.
- Manage Your Shrubs
Your yard and the plants that grow in it can be the pride of your home, especially if they’re tall and flowering shrubs. However, these types of plants can present a danger to yourself. Criminals like burglars can use excessively large shrubs to hide behind while they go about their illicit businesses.
Shrubs and plants, without proper management, can grow tall enough to hide your windows and doors form the street. This provides burglars with adequate cover to break in. If you want to keep your home safe, you can trim your shrubs and hedges to a reasonable height that doesn’t obstruct views. Or you can plant smaller specimens on your flower beds to keep things attractive but safe.
- Bring the Lights
Another thing that could make things easier for criminals for attempting to break into your home is lack of direct light sources outdoors. Criminals prefer working under cover of darkness because it means people like your neighbors or patrolling police won’t be able to see them.
Make your home safer against these types of intruders, you can install lights outside your home. The type and strength of these lights depends on local ordinances and your preferences. Floodlights can be very harsh and you should talk to your neighbors before installing them. Find the appropriate type of lights for your property and rig them up, so they provide illumination to all access points of your home like doors and windows.
- Trim Your Trees
Yet another feature of your yard that can present unforeseen dangers are the trees on your property. Although they’re innocuous when they’re small and still growing, larger trees can be a burden to homeowners.
The amount of leaf litter they deposit on your yard can become the home of pests and even dangerous animals like snakes. When they grow even taller, they can be even more dangerous. Strong winds from storms can tear down branches that can pose significant threats to your home or pedestrians. If a large tree dies, not only will the danger of falling branches increase, it can also become a fire hazard.
You should always find time to assess the health and size of all trees in your yard. If any of them have become too large or too unhealthy to manage, you should call a service to remove the tree as soon as possible.
- Upgrade Windows
Too many homeowners fixate on improving the security of their doors by upgrading locks and installing alarms near these entrances. However, you should also pay attention to the state of your windows.
Aside from improving their window locks and installing requisite alarms, you should also improve their materials. Shatterproof glass can make it harder for criminals to break into your home. Window latches and sliding locks can also stop people from opening the windows all the way when you prop them yup for more air. Paying attention to your windows is crucial in ensuring your home is safe from all intruders.
Your home shouldn’t just be appealing, attractive and comfortable, it should also be safe. No man is safer than in their own castle and although your home doesn’t need walls and moats, these home remodeling tips can be the next best thing.
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