A garden office is an outside building in the ground of your property that gives your home some extra space. These buildings are often used as professional workspaces or home offices. These buildings give your home extra floor space and help to separate work from domestic activities – all the more important with a work from home lifestyle.

The trouble is that garden offices introduce a new security threat to your home. If you thought that securing your primary residence was enough you now have to think about somewhere that is more isolated but contains expensive items. Luckily, securing your garden office is easier than you might think, the tips below should help you make it intruder-proof.

Secure valuables

One of the things that makes a garden office a prime target for intruders is the valuables kept there, coupled with the perceived ease of entry and lack of security. You wouldn’t leave valuables in your car on the street, so why your garden office.

Chances are your garden office will contain laptops, computers, printers, and other expensive office items. Along with security make sure these items are out of sight of windows and ideally secured in safes and secure rooms.

Use an alarm

An alarm is one excellent way to alert you and your family about an intruder over at the garden office. Most people have a Security alarm that is wired to the home and goes off in the same way as a standard alarm. This will usually frighten off intruders and alert you to their presence.

You can opt for an alarm like this or a silent alarm if you prefer. A silent alarm will alert you and the police to the presence of an intruder increasing the chances of them being caught in the act.

Install double glazing

When intruders break into your garden office to steal your money or equipment they tend to enter through the windows. After checking the security of the building they will probably use a towel or thick glove to break the window glass and reach the door handle.

This is much harder to achieve if you have double or triple glazed windows in your garden office. The intruder may not be able to break the glass and will find it more difficult to get through it as well. Thicker windows also provide your garden office with better insulation.

Take out insurance

Sometimes your security measures don’t want and your garden office gets burgled. That’s not ideal, especially if they have taken computers and laptops with important business data on them. Still, you can soften the blow if you have insurance.

A suitable insurance policy for your garden office will mean you get your stolen items returned quickly and you can get busy organising better Security measures for the future, like alarms, thicker windows, and cameras.

Security doors

When thinking about security measures most people think about windows first, after all, it’s the window that tends to be broken to access the door; but doors can also be a security threat and if you install the right kind they also provide you with added security.

Doors that open outwards are a security risk, which means intruders can more easily attack the hinges and lift off the door, doors that open inwards are more difficult to attack. Also, make sure your doors don’t have any windows.

Garden office angle

You can do yourself a big favour in terms of your garden office security simply based on the angle to choose to build your office in the garden. If the office is built out of sight of the primary residence it gives intruders more opportunity to attach to the office without being seen.

It’s a better idea to angle your garden office towards the home so that you can easily see it from your window. This will also be obvious to intruders who are less likely to spend time breaking into the building.

Security cameras

One very effective way to discourage intruders from breaking into your garden office is to set up security cameras. Again, these can be obvious cameras or discrete ones that cannot be seen. Either way, it’s a good idea to put signs up around the property as an additional deterrent.

You can buy a dedicated security camera for this purpose but if you want one that is more cloaked then consider a field camera. These are camouflaged and contain long-life batteries that allow them to monitor the area convert for months on end.