How to Protect Your Newly Built Home During Construction

a house being built on a construction site — Featured Partner Post

If you’re struggling to find the home of your dreams, sometimes the next best option is to build one yourself. While this approach allows you to design your perfect home from the ground up, it does mean you’ll have a lot of different things to consider.

Architects, contractors, and building materials will likely occupy much of your thinking, but doing so should never see you neglect security. Your property will be vulnerable while it is being constructed, so we’ve listed some key tips that you can use to keep it safe. Read on to check them out!

Protect Your Newly Built Home

Building a new home is a significant financial investment, so it is imperative that the construction site of your new home is protected from potential risks. The main reasons for wanting to protect your newly built home include:

Financial Protection: The cost of construction materials and labor is substantial. By safeguarding your home, you ensure that you don’t incur extra expenses due to damages or theft.
Timely Completion: Damages or issues during construction can lead to delays.
Quality Assurance: Protecting your home from the elements, especially, ensures that the materials maintain their quality.
Safety Concerns: An unprotected construction site can pose safety risks to workers and anyone visiting the site.
Peace of Mind: Knowing that your under-construction home is secure gives you peace of mind.

Table of Contents

1. Put Up Barriers

As your house is being constructed, the property may be unsecured and, as a result, could be targeted by criminals looking to steal materials and tools or vandals simply looking to cause trouble.

If your property is targeted, there could be significant damage. This could prove extremely costly and may also delay schedules and see you waiting longer to move into your dream home.

One of the most effective ways of protecting your home while it is being built is to put up barriers around the perimeter.

A concrete barrier with fence attachment is the ideal solution, this provides a sturdy base that is difficult to move and a high fence section that cannot be scaled. Install barriers and keep your property safe while it’s being built.

2. Use Covers

As well as being vulnerable to attack from thieves and vandals, your home will also be exposed to the elements when it is under construction. Heavy wind, rain, or snow could cause serious damage and could derail the entire project.

Effective methods for weatherproofing include:

Tarps and Weather-Resistant Barriers: Cover exposed sections of the construction, especially wooden frames or unfinished roofs, with tarps or specialized barriers. These repel water, ensuring the underlying materials remain dry.
Temporary Roofs: For extended projects, consider setting up temporary roofs to protect the site from rainfall and snow.
Waterproofing Membranes: Apply these to foundations and other underground structures to prevent water ingress.
Sealants: Use sealants around openings, joints, or gaps to prevent water penetration.
Drainage: Ensure proper site drainage to prevent water accumulation. This includes grading the site away from the construction and using sump pumps if necessary.
Windbreaks: Use temporary fencing or screens to protect the site from strong winds, which can blow debris around and pose a risk.

3. Keep It Illuminated

Another effective approach to protecting your home as it is being built is to keep it well-illuminated. After work stops for the day and the site lies empty, criminals will seize this opportunity to enter and steal valuables.

Installing lights can help to deter criminal activity. It can make the site look as if it is still occupied and ensure criminals don’t have the cover of darkness to operate under.

You can choose from various kinds of lights such as;

Floodlights: Powerful and capable of illuminating large areas, floodlights can be installed on poles or mounted on walls to provide broad coverage.
Motion-Activated Lights: These lights only turn on when motion is detected, serving the dual purpose of saving energy and startling potential intruders.
Solar-Powered Lights: An eco-friendly option, these lights charge during the day and illuminate the site at night without consuming any electricity.
Portable Work Lights: Typically used during late working hours, these can be strategically placed in key areas needing illumination.

4. Install CCTV

If you want to take the security of your site to the next level, you should consider installing CCTV. This can be the best deterrent; thieves will think twice about targeting a property that is covered with cameras.

The best part is you don’t even have to use real CCTV. Even the presence of fake CCTV cameras can be enough to discourage criminals, who would rather move on than risk potentially being identified.

There are several types of security cameras and motion sensors to choose from. Wired and wireless cameras can be integrated with smart systems to alert you immediately, think about installing night vision cameras if you are particularly worried about the site at night.

Ultrasonic and microwave sensors help to detect movement within their range and can again be connected to smart systems so you can be alerted if anything is moving in the night!

5. Safeguarding Materials and Equipment

One of the main reasons theft happens on a house-building site is the valuable tools that can be left behind. I should know, this happened to us whilst we were renovating! Our builders left the tools in our kitchen overnight and thieves broke in and stole several bits of kit.

The best way to prevent this is to store the tools off-site, either the builders take their tools with them or store them off-site in secure containers. You could also look at renting a storage unit or look at specialized construction storage containers or sheds that can stay on-site for easy access but with extra security.

Lockboxes are also a good idea for tools and smaller materials. They are easily transportable and are typically made of steel or heavy-duty material with locking mechanisms.

Protecting your home during construction isn’t merely a matter of securing investments; it’s about ensuring the seamless progression and ultimate success of the project.

Using the tips in the guide above should help to keep your site secure and you’ll be moving into the house of your dreams before you know it!

How to Protect Your Newly Built Home During Construction