Home Safety Checklist For Rochester

Being safe in your home should be your topmost priority. But are you forgetting one or two key safety items? Look over this home safety checklist for Rochester and find out where your home needs some work.

This guide starts with a few whole-house safety techniques, and then we delve down on a room level. Then, you can call (507) 218-4806 or complete the form below for more information.

Essential Home Safety Checklist for Rochester

While you should employ a room-by-room method for home safety, there are some things that work for the entire house approach. These devices can sync with one another through a smart hub, and oftentimes respond to other components. You can also control all your home safety components with a smartphone app, such as ADT Control:

Monitored Home Security System: Each one of your entryways should have a sensor that alerts your family to forced entry. When your alarm trips, your monitoring team picks up the alert and quickly contacts the police or fire department.

Smart Lights For Every Major Room: Sure, you can schedule your smart lights so your home is more eco-conscience. But smart lights can also help you keep safe throughout an emergency. Have your lights flip on when a sensor triggers to scare off robbers or illuminate your way to a safe place.

Smart Thermostat: Like your smart lights, a smart thermostat in Rochester should save you up to 15% in utility spending. But it also can turn on the exhaust fan during a fire.

Monitored Smoke Detectors: At the very least, you have a fire detector on each floor. You can improve your fire game by hanging a monitored fire detector that looks for both heat and smoke, and alerts your 24/7 monitoring team when it thinks that there’s a fire.

Smart Lock For Every Door: Every door that needs a keyed lock can upgrade to a smart door lock. Now you can program key codes to family and friends and get notifications to your phone when the locks are activated. Your doors can even automatically open, letting you quickly flee the house if you have a fire or other emergency.

Living Room/Family Room Safety Checklist For Rochester

You’ll hang out most in the family room, so it can be the perfect area to start your home safety renovation. Electronics, like your TV or video game console, usually are located in your family room, making it a popular area for thieves. Begin with hanging a motion sensor or security camera by the doorway, then continue on with the following safety protocols:

Motion Detectors: By installing motion sensors, you’ll have a shrieking noise whenever they sense unexpected motion within your living room. The best devices are motion sensors that ignore a dog or cat or you’ll get your sirens go off each time your cat comes in for a drink of water.
Indoor Security Camera: An indoor security camera puts a visual on your family room. View real-time feeds of your room so you can find out what’s happening from the mobile app. Or speak with your kids in the living room with the two-way talk feature.
Surge Protector/Outlet Maintenance: Protect all your electronics and stop overtaxing your outlets with a surge protector. For extra energy-efficiency, set up a smart plug with surge protection in the unit.
Heavy Furniture Bolted To The Wall: If you have curious kids, you’ll want to bolt your entertainment center or other heavy furniture to a wall. This is especially crucial if your living room has rugs or carpet that might make objects extra unstable.
Special Locks For Sliding Doors: If your living room uses a sliding glass door that opens to a deck, patio, or screened-in porch, you probably can see that the lock is usually thin. Use an enhanced lock, like a bottom bar or locks that secures the door to the bottom and top of the door frame.

Kitchen Safety Checklist For Rochester

The kitchen has plenty of items that can add safety and security to your house. Many of these things are also simple to add and can be bought from the Target or Walmart:

Fire Extinguisher: Fire can come from from a neglected skillet or an errant grease splatter. Always have a fire extinguisher at hand for any stove or oven emergencies.
Circuit Interrupter Box On Every Outlet: A circuit interrupter outlet should be standard anywhere they’re by running water to prevent a deadly shock. That includes the plug outlets by your sink and kitchen counter. For 30 years, it’s been standard to have one GFCI per circuit. But for simplicity’s sake, try to have a separate GFCI for every outlet.

Monitored Carbon Monoxide Detector: A carbon monoxide detector is recommended for spaces that have natural gas for the stove and oven. If your gas lines spring a leak, the carbon monoxide detector will cause a loud, buzzing sound and call your monitoring expert.
Clorox Wipes Or Spray: The most overlooked safety hazard in the kitchen is the invisible bacteria and cross-contamination from raw meat and other foods. Always have cleaning wipes or an antibacterial spray to clean your area before and after cooking.
Refrigerator Alarm: The items in your fridge should remain at a chilly temperature to stay ready to use. If you leave the refrigerator door ajar, then a small beep will remind you to close the door. Some refrigerators come with an alarm, some do not, and you’ll have to get a fridge alarm from the hardware store.

Bathroom Safety Checklist For Rochester

Just because you may not have a bunch of space in your bathroom doesn’t mean that there aren’t safety issues. From flood detectors to medicine care, here are five safety tips for your bathroom:

Flood Sensors: A leaking toilet or bathtub can create a whole lot of damage. Find out early about pooling water with a flood detector and save yourself from reflooring the entire bathroom.
Textured Bath Mats: A fall in the bathroom can be devastating, causing bumps, gashed heads, or trips to the hospital. You can steer clear from these issues with a non-slip bath mat for while you towel off.

No-slip Bathtub Strips: Another water hazard, a tub basin can be a slick area to move in. It’s a good idea that every bathtub has some textured stickies so your toes have a rough patch to grip.

Medicine Door Latch: If you have young toddlers or someone with memory complications, you have to take additional attention regarding medicine. Safeguard your pills and syrups by getting a medicine cabinet with a locking latch.

Circuit Interrupter Outlet: While installing better outlets in the kitchen, you should also use a surge protecting GFCI outlet on each bathroom outlet. This will cut the electric current if they ever get wet or they experience a sudden surge from an electric razor or hair dryer.

Child’s Bedroom Safety Checklist For Rochester

Your child’s bedroom should counterbalance safety with simplicity. If their window shades or other items are safe but difficult to operate, then your kids may get around the device with risky methods -- like scale a chest of drawers -- to open them. Try these straightforward, yet safe, ideas:

No Cord Window Coverings: Safety professionals have identified window treatment cords a hidden problem for both children and pets. Use motorized treatments that your child can easily open and close with a remote. Or go state-of-the-art and pair your shades to your ADT smart hub so they can raise automatically when the sun comes up, and close at night for added darkness.

Tableside Security Camera: An indoor security camera placed on your child’s dresser can act as an HD baby monitor that you can see from a mobile device. And if they want something, they can hit the 2-way talk button included on the camera.

Plug Covers: While each outlet should have protective covers on them when you have little children, this is doubly urgent in a child’s bedroom. It’s the main place in your home where your children will most likely hang out by themselves without constant additional supervision.

Window Fire Ladder: If you use bedrooms on above the first floor, then you will want to put in a window fire ladder. These should let a child leave the house when the stairway or downstairs are blocked off with fire. Remember to go over how to unfurl them one or two times a year.

Toy Chest Or Low Bookshelves: It’s strange to view a toy box as a safety component, but you’ll understand if you’ve ever walked on a Lego in your socked feet. A uncluttered floor means a quick way out when there’s a safety or security event.

Main Bedroom Safety Checklist For Rochester

The master bedroom should be a refuge, so let your safety items give you peace of mind when there's an emergency. After all, being startled awake by a wailing buzzer can be disorienting.

Smart Hub Touchscreen: Having a touchscreen on your nightstand helps you know what’s happening without leaving your bed. You could also log into your ADT mobile app but, the touchscreen can be easier to manage to use when you’re coming out of sleep and disoriented.

Phone Charging Area: We rely on our cell phones for so many things now alarms, web browsers, games, and sometimes even phones. But, a depleted device can cut us off from reaching help if there’s a problem. So, a charging cord or station becomes an important part of your nightstand.

Smart Lights Or Nightlights: A tiny light can calm you when you’re startled awake from an alarm or other sounds. If you can’t fall asleep with a nightlight, use smart lights in your fixtures. Then you can control light anytime with a push of a button or vocal command.
Fireproof Safe: Store your vital paperwork like birth certificates, medical information, or banking information in a fireproof lockbox. Your safe can be a large one that is located in a corner or a small handheld lockbox that you can snatch as you escape during a fire or break-in.

Heat Sensor: The drawback with a master bedroom is that they can run too warm or be cold since they are far away from the thermostat. A temperature sensor will talk to your smart thermostat so you should have a pleasant, peaceful sleep at just the right temperature.

Basement/Garage Safety Checklist For Rochester

Most safety needs in the garage or basement have to do with your water or HVAC system. Discovering issues before they start can prevent larger problems in the future. So, as you take a look around your storage areas, take note of these crucial items:

Water Sensor Or Sump Pump Alarm: Placing a flood sensor in back of your water heater or sump pump drain can stop you from discovering a mess when you walk into your garage or basement. Do you really want to waste your night getting rid of standing water?

CO Alarm: It’s nice to have a CO detector in areas where a CO leak can happen. If you have a gas furnace, you’ll want to install a detector in the same room as your unit.
Remote Water Shutoff Valve: If your flood alarm finds a hot water heater leak or a broken pipe, then you will have to cut off the main water pipe immediately. With a WiFi shutoff valve, you can block water flow from any mobile device. That’s perfect when you’re on vacation and get a water leak notification on your phone.
Garage Door Sensor: Leaving the garage door open leads to all sorts of problems. You can waste heat or air through that large opening, and all sorts of animals or thieves can just walk in. A sensor will alert you to a forgotten garage door and lets you close it through the app.
Heat Sensor: A heat alarm in your basement or garage is a definite if you wonder about freezing pipes. The heat in these rooms can be surprisingly different than your main rooms of the home, so you will want to maintain a closer eye on them through the ADT mobile app.

Home Perimeter Safety Checklist for Rochester

Your foliage, drive, and front walk are just as imperative to defend as the interior of your house. Use this checklist to defend your perimeter:

Doorbell Camera: See who’s knocking on the front door before you open it and welcome visitors. See deliveries and record video clips if they are taken.

Outdoor Security Camera: You can hang outdoor cameras to notify you about suspicious lurkers in your yard. These cameras are nice in places where you might not have a window -- like around a cellar or by the garage door.

Low Shrubs: Tall shrubs can offer some privacy, but they also hinder you seeing into the outside. Don’t provide potential burglars a dark shadow to hide. Plus, large bushes, shrubs or trees too close to your home can jam up gutters and invite pests.
ADT Signage: One of the biggest disincentives for home intrusion is alerting potential burglars that you have a state-of-the-art home security system. An ADT yard stick by the stoop and a window decal will alert lurkers that they should move on to an easier house.

Motion Triggered Outside Lighting: Light is the largest deterrent to people who sneak around in the dark. Motion-controlled lighting on your porch, garage, or deck can frighten lurkers away. Flood lights also help you get inside when you arrive to the house late after work.

Call Secure24 Alarm Systems To Help You With Your Home Safety Checklist for Rochester

While Secure24 Alarm Systems can’t install every item on your Rochester home safety checklist, we can install a customized security system. With easy-to-use devices and ADT monitoring, we can install the perfect system for your family’s needs. Just phone (507) 218-4806 and talk to a professional or send in the form below. Or customize your own system with our Security System Designer.