Stainless steel main gate

It is common for linked house owners to change their basic iron gates installed by the developer to better and more stylish steel or wrought iron gates during house renovation.

If you plan to install a steel main gate, opt for the stainless steel material to prevent it from rusting. The normal grade of stainless steel used for making gates is 304, and this kind of stainless steel is non-magnetic in nature. Therefore, you can check for it by using a magnet, although this simple method of checking is not fool proof.

When I installed my stainless steel main gate, here are the few preferred features:

• Pattern of the grille rods should be plain and simple. I have chosen the simplest smooth rods without pattern or carving, because its price is cheaper, and it is easier to clean and polish.
• Make the bottom part of the gate to have grilles put closely together, to prevent cats and dogs from outside entering into the house, and also to prevent your pets from escaping away from your house.
• Make a door in one of the gates for easy access, especially if you plan to install autogate system.

You can see the stainless steel main gate of my house from the photo in my other post - Car compass on dashboard. That picture was taken when the car is parked in the carpoach of my house.

Roof security

Roof security is an option provided by my developer when we purchased the house. It is inexpensive and the measure is pretty simple.

When the developer builds the roof top, they'll put additional frames on it so that a normal human body cannot simply go through the gap in between the frames. This can also be done by 3rd party contractor after the house is built, in case your developer doesn't provide this kind of option.

This measure, working together with the motion detector of the home alarm system, should provide some basic protection against roof intrusion.

Home alarm system

If you plan to install home alarm system, it is wise to have your contractor to lay down all the related cabling and conceal them in the wall, before you move in.

The alarm system should connect to every single grilles, windows and doors of the house perimeter. You might also want to install motion detectors on top of the ceiling underneath the roof top, and also in area inside your house where nobody will probably walk pass at night. Your motion detector will probably damaged by high temperature in short period of time, unless you installed the turbine ventilators to cool down your roof top.

You should plan for the location of the control panels, normally near the entrance and also inside your bedroom. You must also plan for the location of the siren units, and have the units located both outside your house and also inside your house (which the burglar cannot disable before entering your house and find it). You must also plan for the location to hide the alarm central unit. If you want the alarm system to alert you via telephone, call police automatically, or enable you to control it remotely using your handphone, you should have your telephone line linked to this central unit too.

Then you must plan to divide your house into different monitoring zones for the alarm. Normally, 4 zones is enough for single storey houses, 8 zones is suitable for double storey, and 12 zones is required for bungalow.

You should install vibrating sensor for the grilles, magnetic sensor for windows and doors, motion detector for roof area and living room. Your alarm should be triggerred if any one of the wiring to the vibrating sensors is cut off.

For additional home security, you might also want to install monitoring camera in your house.