To ensure your Melbourne home is safe and secure, Teaslec has provided some useful tips that can be cleverly incorporated into your home design. Our simple guide will help you reduce the likelihood of accidents around the home and improve protection against home invasion. We encourage you to take them into consideration when planning your next home build or renovation.
Kitchen design safety
• Keep cables, leads and conduit out of trafficable areas to avoid possible damage and remove damaged ones.
• Install pendant lamps for lighting but be sure to get them on flexible cords so people can raise or lower them when needed.
• Place power points out of children’s sight and near electrical appliances to avoid overuse of extension leads.
• Use a switched fuse connection unit mounted above the worktop to get to sockets of appliances fitted under the worktop.
• Do not place appliances near sources of water/doors and under windows.
• Make sure to have a competent person install larger power sockets if you have to you additional appliances.
• Have safety switch on power supply.
Some simple kitchen tips for Melbourners
• Do not try to repair an appliance when it is still plugged in.
• Keep liquids away from electrical appliances.
• Do not switch any electrical equipment while your hands are wet.
• Clean up your refrigerator and freezer at least once a year to make sure that these appliances work properly.
• Regularly check your plug sockets if they are overloaded with too many electrical appliances to avoid overheating.
• Do not use unauthorised appliances which may cause the circuit overloading.
• Make sure that you clean your oven and grill to remove fat and grease (a factor causing fire)
Bathroom safety
• Design night light or movement sensitive light switch for better access to the toilet at night.
• Comply with Australian standards that specify minimum distances between water sources and power points.
• Place electrical shaver points/plug sockets in a safe distance from the bath or shower to avoid water splashes.
• If you have an electric heater, place it far from the sink, bath or shower and use switch outside the bathroom to control it.
• Ensure that hot and cold water taps have different colours/symbols to avoid confusion.
• Have a competent person conduct regular maintenance for your bathroom.
• Install a tempering valve or an outlet shut-off valve in your existing system to reduce the flow of water.
Fire risk and prevention
• Use fire resistant materials, linings and finishes.
• Install smoke alarms and check on a regular basis for batteries.
• Equip fire extinguishers at home.
• Choose furnishings and floor coverings that limit the fire outbreak.
• Consider having a sprinkler system at home.
Wiring and electrical
• Plan enough power outlets for your house in order to avoid any inconvenience.
• Install earth leakage devices and circuit breakers to all power outlets.
• Design enough power points and circuits to minimise probabilities of circuit overloading and cords across walkways.
• Install safety switches on indoor and outdoor circuits.
Home security
Burglaries; as a matter of fact, can happen in just a blink of an eye. Only an open window or an unlocked door or gate, a burglar will take that opportunity and break into your house. So an appropriate design of individual houses and their relationship to another and to the surrounding neighbourhood play an important part in preventing crime. In this case, Melbourners can apply “crime prevention through environmental design” in designing their houses.
• Natural territorial reinforcement: outdoor spaces should be designed to promote sense of ownership. For example, in apartments, residents can use buildings, fences, pavement, lighting and landscape to show their ownership and need to feel that public spaces like elevators and halls are their property. When people are proud of what they own and attempt to protect their belongings, crime is less likely to occur.
• Natural surveillance: it is concerned with designing the placement/design of windows, landscape, fences, windows and security lighting system to maximise the visibility of the space and routines of individuals and neighbourhoods.
• Natural access control: use barriers including picket type fences, brick walls, locking gate between front and backyards, or a hedge. It helps to set boundaries between public and private space and limits the likelihood of crime at the same time.
• Target hardening: improve security standards involved with installing locks, security screens, improving quality of doors/windows/door frames.
Some general home security tips
• Install an intruder alarm system.
• Design or change arrangement of your home to limit dark corners, narrow pedestrian walkways and hidden spots.
• Design balconies and windows in a way that limits outside observation.
• Ensure that doors and windows are made from solid materials (burglar-resistant glass) and fitted with quality deadlocking devices.
• Make sure that roofing tiles cannot be easily removed from the outside.
• Get rid of tree branches that can be possible ladders to upper storeys.
• External storage areas & laundries must be observable from inside.
• Have property boundaries by using gardens, fences, and lawn strips.
• Install low/open fences or walls to improve observation from the house; at the same time, make sure that trees will not hide your sight from building entrances, windows and other areas that are likely to be broken into.
• Keep your home security wires hidden.
• Entrances are completely private and equipped with illuminated lights.
• Activate security lights/sensor lighting/timed lighting and make sure that it can be controlled from your house.
Want to have the best security for your house in Melbourne? At Teaslec, we have a team of competent technicians who have experience in installing home security system. Call us on 1300 044 121 and we will advise you the best possible solution for your house security.
