I need some home security tips.

[AllAbtSlfDef]

I live in a nice area. I have firearms. I sleep with an AC, and 3 fans running in my room. I sleep with the door shut. We have our baby monitor in on as well. The baby has a fan going too. So to say there is some noise in my room at night is an understatement. Its very comfortable and I don't mind the noise.

My concern is that because we are on the 2nd floor, and I have the noise going I will not be able to hear someone coming in the house. There is more than one entrance. My parents and my wife,child and I all share a house. There are a lot of people in the house, I am usually the one that checks on noises. My father will join me should I ask. BUT does anyone have any ideas on how to keep the entrances monitored w/o spending a ton of money on an adt system or something.

Any ideas???

Jason

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[charlie1826]

My first thought would be to get a second baby monitor to put in a central area downstairs. Then you should be able to hear a window break, the door open, people walking around, etc...
What kind of floors do you have in your house? Hardwood is good to hear people on. I mostly have carpet but its about impossible to walk up my front porch without being heard all the way to the master bedroom.
Other than that I would say invest in good locks on all the doors and the windows. The harder it is to break in the longer and louder the BGs will be, also they may just give up and look for an easier target.
Just my initial thoughts.

[AllAbtSlfDef]

We live in an old farm house. Its got wood floors, but we have Rubber/linoleum in most of the down stairs and pergo style in the other area. We have carpet on the steps an in the upstairs. The landing at the top of the very steep steps is not really big and the entrances to all the bedrooms are right there. Crossfire could be an issue.

I have thought of the baby monitor too.

[Beretta]

Maybe something like this? Should work indoors too right? Just a thought.Wireless Driveway Alert System

[charlie1826]

We live in an old farm house. Its got wood floors, but we have Rubber/linoleum in most of the down stairs and pergo style in the other area. We have carpet on the steps an in the upstairs. The landing at the top of the very steep steps is not really big and the entrances to all the bedrooms are right there. Crossfire could be an issue.

I have thought of the baby monitor too.

Even the linoleum should be loud enough to hear people walking on with a baby monitor. The crossfire issue is definitely a problem, but I don't know how to get around that besides countering the threat before they make it that far.
Also I don't know why I didn't think of it before, but how about a 4 legged announcement system? Most dogs are not trained as "guard" dogs but if nothing else they will let you know something is up. My dogs would probably help me if they knew I was in trouble but if they just see a stranger in the house they probably won't attack; but they will let me know someone is there. It has the added benefit that a lot of BGs don't want to mess with dogs and will head the other direction.

[radshooter]

How about getting a dog (or 2 or 3). They make a great roving security system.

[Tala]

Get a loud dog and make it sleep downstairs.
Mine won't attack anyone unless they touch her first, but she raises cain if somebody so much as steps on the front porch - wood floors carry a lot of vibration.

[radshooter]

How about getting a dog (or 2 or 3). They make a great roving security system.

I need to learn to type faster on this phone. Charlie1826 beat me to tbe punch.

[Ricebrnr]

First make sure all avenues of entry are secure, then you can worry less about noises.

Make sure ALL entry doors are at least heavy wood and/or preferably steel clad.

Replace ALL the screws in every entry door with ones at least 3 inches long. This includes the ones in the striker plate and lockset.

Prune shrubs away from windows so you can't hide behind them and/or plant cactii or other nuisance plants there instead.

Get inexpensive "Alarm Company" stickers for those windows and real and/or fake glass breakage sensors.

Make sure those windows are locked every night and consider installing limiters so they can't be openned big enough for a person to squeeze through.

If your a/c units are window mounted, make sure they are well secured so they can't be pulled out or pushed in.

Make sure any ladders or other climbable things are secured.

Make it so in order to get in they have to make unmistakable noise.

Not quite what you asked but I think you are putting the cart before the horse.

[retsupt99]

Hands down, a good dog is worth his/her weight in gold when it come to security and a friend to the kids.

[Hopyard]

I bought an el-cheapo driveway alarm a couple months back and really like what I have been able to accomplish with it. In fact, with a little additional work you can put several up outside in an array that will alert to anyone approaching the house. Or you can array them downstairs as an internal intruder alert.

The big advantage of the driveway alert, even for indoors, is that you don't get startled by a loud alarm noise that continues until you turn it off. You just get a couple of beeps, which alert, but don't distract.

Dogs, if you can manage to feed one or two, are always a good alert system.

[AllAbtSlfDef]

I have two killer weiner dogs. They bark at things very well but they will also bark at each other lol I really like the ideas keep them coming.

[Thumper]

If a dog isn't an option, zone security is with a motion detector or two! A separate downstairs alarm system.

[bsms]

Just add a story on the dog side: My 85 year old aunt has a 5 lb UNK dog from the pound. Last winter, a girl came to her door at 1030 PM in Nov 'selling' something. My aunt refused. A minute later, her UNK dog went nuts.

She grabbed a revolver (good), opened her door (bad), and the girl + a guy in a ski mask were striding up her walk. She raised the revolver (good) weaver stance (OK) and the two turned and sprinted away before she got a shot off (OK). The cops never found them, and told her in the future to keep the door shut.

But she figures their little mutt saved her - without the dog going nuts, she wouldn't have grabbed the revolver in time.

I've got a 3 dog alert system, with 3 levels - 1) Family member/roll over unless they head for the kitchen, 2) not totally suspicious noise/go on alert but don't make noise because we might be getting something from Amazon.com, and 3) go bananas because something odd is happening - tarantula in the kitchen (once), rattlesnake in the living room (once), neighbor's house on fire (once).

My daughter has a weiner dog. Very loud, but too many false alarms...

[Joeface]

Don't forget they now make baby monitors with video and IR lighting for night vision.