10 Shed Security Ideas To Make Your Shed Burglar Proof

Ah, the shed. A British institution. Sheds offer a dry roof for many pastimes, but they aren’t very secure from thieves.

Due to their low security, sheds are prime targets for thieves and burglars. Here are some shed security ideas to help make your shed less of an easy target, protecting your valuables inside.

It’s impossible to completely burglar proof a shed, but you can get pretty darn close for not a huge amount of money. Remember, the main goal should be to make your shed slow and difficult to get into, meaning a vast majority of burglars will move on.

1. Secure the Windows In Your Shed For Privacy and Security

In an ideal world, it would be great to have some really nice, bright windows in your shed to make it a nice place to be. The downside to this luxury is that it makes your shed a lot easier to break into. That, and the fact that burglars can easily look into your shed and see if it’s worth breaking into.

If you’re being serious about securing your shed, it may be worth boarding the windows if you have any. One alternative option, which still lets some light in, is to install metal bars over the windows. This will make it much harder for a burglar to smash a window, and then reach in and grab things.

Another option which is becoming increasingly popular is to fit a shed shutter to your shed’s windows. This means that when you’re in there tinkering with things you can let light in, but still secure it pretty well at night.

2. Hide Any Tools And Gear When You Aren’t Home

This is really easy to overlook – leaving tools outside such as a bicycle pump or saw and forgetting to put them back in the shed when you’re done acts as a subtle advertisement to burglars that you probably have things worth stealing in your shed.

Even very small things, such as a nozzle for a pressure washer should not be overlooked. If you have a pressure washer nozzle, burglars will take a bet that there is a nice pressure washer stored in your shed as well.

3. Secure Your Entire Property With Fences And Gates

Chances are, your shed is in your garden. Keeping burglars out of your garden altogether using tall fences and a locked gate will discourage nosey burglars from peering in and taking a look around. Also, leaving your gate unlocked is a good advertisement to burglars that you might be a bit relaxed with the rest of your security too.

If you are a keen gardener, consider growing some tall hedges in areas where the nosier type of passerby may attempt to peer over.

4. Try To Be Subtle On Social Media

If you have a really nice bike, or you’re working on a DIY project, it’ can be ‘s okay to be proud! Just be careful how much information you put out there, as if the wrong person sees that you have an expensive bike on Facebook, it won’t be long before it goes missing. One of the best ideas for how to secure a shed is to simply avoid attention. The less people who know that you have nice things, the better.

Alright, now that we have covered the ways to make your shed less of a target, let’s take a look at some ways of actually securing the shed itself. If you have a wooden or metal shed, you’re more in luck than if you are storing your valuables in a plastic shed. Metal sheds are typically quite secure right out of the box, and although wooden sheds are vulnerable, they are also very easy to upgrade and add all sorts of beefy security measures to.

6. Get Security Lights For Your Shed

Installing a good set of security lights is a great measure, not only for your shed but your entire property. Burglars typically prefer to work in the dark, without people being able to see what they are doing so lighting them up with some motion-triggered LED lights will likely scare them off and make them move on.

I would personally opt for security lights which are connected to the mains, because although solar powered lights do exist, they aren’t very reliable from what I have found. Great British weather just doesn’t necessarily suit these things, so play it safe and get some mains connected security lights instead.

7. Get A Secure Padlock

Most padlocks that people buy are typically under a fiver, and you get what you pay for with locks. A standard generic lock that you buy in a pack of three is not only incredibly easy to pick, can likely be cut through with a pair of bolt cutters by a child.

One fantastic option when it comes to a very secure lock is the Abus Granit line, specifically the ABUS 37RK/80mm Granit Plus. To read more about my thoughts in this lock, read my shed security article here.

Right, now that you have a fantastic lock, you need to make sure you are attaching it to something strong too. Typically shed padlock bolts are very low quality and just about anyone with a bit of elbow grease can either remove or break them.

8. Replace Your Normal Bolts With Carriage Bolts

If you don’t know what a carriage bolt is, it’s just a bolt with a smooth head, meaning it’s impossible to unscrew. If your padlock bolts or door hinges are fitted using normal screws or bolts, I highly recommend you replace them with carriage bolts. After all, what’s the point in getting a great lock if a burglar can simply take the door off it’s hinges with little more than a screwdriver anyway?

These are very inexpensive, and you can pick a decent set of them up from any DIY shop or eBay. Here’s a set of 10 for less than £10.

9. Upgrade Your Shed’s Door Hinges

It’s the same story as with the standard padlock bolts fitted to most sheds. Usually the standard door hinges are very low budget and often attached to the outside! If your hinges are weak and aren’t fitted using carriage bolts, then this gives burglars the luxury of either kicking the door in easily, or just unscrewing the hinges. Make your door much more stable by using long shed door hinges and bolts with smooth heads. This will make breaking through the door by brute force a lot more difficult.

10. Install A Security Camera

Security cameras aren’t necessarily the cheapest or easiest to install out of the shed security ideas I have already listed, but they certainly are effective. Believe it or not, criminals don’t typically like to be filmed whilst committing crimes, so a motion triggered security camera paired with powerful motion sensitive lights is not their best friend.

If you’re on a bit of a budget or you can’t get power down to your shed, there are quite a few convincing security cameras that can act as a pretty good deterrent too. Just make sure you find one with lights are a bare minimum, and of course make sure it isn’t obvious that it isn’t wired up to anything.

Conclusion – There Are Loads Of Ideas You Can Use To Secure Your Shed

Regardless of the size or material your shed is constructed from, hopefully some of these ideas for improving your shed’s security and protecting against burglars will be useful. Remember, if a burglar has to take a long time to break in, make a lot of noise, or use a lot of tools, then they are highly likely to move on to an easier target. It’s all about making the risk to reward not in their favour.