Burglar Alarm vs Locks Priority | Spend in the Right Order
Alarms react to a break-in. Locks prevent one. A locksmith explains the sensible order of spending for Richmond homeowners before any subscription kicks in.
Most alarm companies have the sales pitch backwards. They'll get a monitoring subscription on your house before anyone has checked whether your front door cylinder would survive a ten-second snatch with a pair of pliers.
That's not cynicism. It's just how the incentives work.
What an Alarm Actually Does
A burglar alarm detects an intrusion that is already happening. The siren goes off, a monitoring centre calls you (or the police, if you're on a response contract), and someone, eventually, turns up. In the meantime, a confident burglar has three to eight minutes before there's any meaningful intervention. Research from the Home Office's crime science unit consistently puts the average residential burglary at under five minutes. The alarm is a consequence manager, not a barrier.
A lock, fitted correctly to a reinforced door, stops the intrusion starting.
That distinction matters enormously when you're deciding where to spend first.
The Order That Actually Makes Sense
Here's how I'd prioritise spending for a typical Richmond semi or terrace, say a TW9 or TW10 property with a uPVC front door and a glazed back door:
| Priority | Action | Approximate cost | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Replace standard cylinder with TS007 3-star anti-snap (Ultion, Avocet ABS, or Mul-T-Lock) | £80 to £140 fitted | Stops snap attacks cold. No alarm catches this in time. |
| 2 | Check door lock mechanism is BS3621 or BS8621 compliant | £0 if already fitted, £120 to £200 if not | Deadlocking under insurance minimums matters for claims |
| 3 | Decent window locks, especially ground floor | £30 to £80 per window | 23% of burglaries enter via a window (ONS 2023) |
| 4 | External lighting with PIR | £40 to £150 | Passive deterrent, no subscription |
| 5 | Burglar alarm | £400 to £1,200+ installed | Now it adds genuine value on top of a hardened shell |
Step five isn't useless. An NSI or SSAIB-graded alarm with a police response contract on a properly secured house is a good layer. But sold as step one to a house with a £12 brass cylinder from a builder's merchant? You've paid for a very loud noise.
The Obvious Objection
Alarms deter burglars before they even try. True, to a point. A bell box on a soffit does make some opportunists move on. A Sold Secure-rated cylinder hidden inside a door furniture plate deters them too, silently, and it doesn't need a two-year contract. A Richmond Hill or Petersham house with good lighting, a TS007 cylinder, and no visible weak points is a harder proposition than a house with a bell box and a factory-fit cylinder you could snap with a screwdriver.
Deterrence works at both ends of the chain. Locks just happen to deter at a lower running cost.
The Fair Caveat
If you've already sorted your physical security and you want an alarm, get one. For a landlord with properties in Ham or North Sheen where you're not on site, remote monitoring has genuine value for fire and flood detection alone. And some insurers in the TW postcodes do require a monitored alarm for certain policy levels. Check your schedule before dismissing it entirely.
But if someone's quoting you £60 a month before they've even looked at your door, ask them to walk around the outside with you first.
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If you're not sure what you've actually got on your doors, Rapid Response covers Richmond and all the TW postcodes, usually on site within 30 minutes. We'll tell you honestly what you need, and what you don't. Call us before signing anything with a monthly direct debit attached.
Priya Nair, Security and standards specialist
Priya is the one who reads the test reports. She handles the survey work, the insurance questions and anything where the British Standard actually matters, and she will happily explain why the number on the box is not the number that counts.
Need a locksmith in Richmond?
We answer the phone day or night. Quote on the call, fixed at the door.
020 3376 9314