Shed and Garage Security: Alarms From £10, the Hinge Trick Burglars Love — and What Police Actually Recommend

Add up what lives in the average shed — power tools, bikes, mowers, ladders — and it's often the least protected four figures on the property. Burglars know it: the shed is quieter than the house, darker, and usually secured by hardware a screwdriver defeats in seconds. The fix is neither expensive nor complicated; most of it comes straight from police crime-prevention guidance. Here's the priority order.

Step 1: Fix the door — including the part everyone forgets

Police guidance is blunt about shed doors: fit a hasp and staple with a quality padlock, with no exposed screws — and then look at the hinges, which are often removable with a screwdriver regardless of how good the padlock is. The proper job:

1. Replace every screw in the hasp with hardened steel bolts passing completely through the door and frame, backed inside with large steel washers and locking nuts — unremovable from outside.
2. Do the same for the hinges, or at minimum swap their screws for coach bolts.
3. Choose a closed-shackle padlock (the shackle barely exposed) so bolt croppers have nothing to grip.

Total cost in hardware: from about £30. Time: an hour. Result: an attack that took seconds now takes noisy minutes — which is usually the whole game.

Step 2: Windows, sightlines and the ladder you left out

• Mesh or grille the windows: Shed windows exist for light, not ventilation — fixed wire mesh or grilles (police-recommended) stop both entry and shopping. Frosted film or a simple curtain stops the pre-visit browse.
• Cover the valuables: If the mower and bikes are visible from the path, you're advertising. An old sheet is genuine security equipment.
• Don't equip the burglar: Ladders, wheelie bins and tools left outside are exactly what's used to get into the house — police guidance calls this out specifically. Chain the ladder to a wall anchor inside the shed.
• Anchor the good stuff: Inside, a ground anchor and chain through bike frames and tool cases means even a defeated door yields nothing portable.

Step 3: Make it loud — alarms from £10

The shed's darkness works both ways: any noise there is unexpected, which makes even simple alarms disproportionately effective.

For a shed holding serious tool value, folding it into the household system is the grown-up option — the same decision logic as monitored vs bells-only alarms for the house. A camera covering the garden approach adds evidence and deterrence, within the rules on home CCTV — and video doorbells and DIY kits can cover shed and side gate on the same app.

Garages: the same logic, two extra points

Up-and-over garage doors deserve their own attention — aftermarket garage door defenders (a ground-mounted lock blocking the door) fix the classic weakness, and any connecting door from garage to house should be treated as an external door with proper locks. If the garage holds the second car's keys or the household's tool trailer, it graduates from shed logic to professional alarm territory.

The bottom line

Through-bolt the hasp and hinges, mesh the window, chain the ladder, add a £10 siren — a weekend and under £50 turns the property's softest target into its loudest one. For workshops holding serious value, extend the household alarm and check the insurance small print. Find vetted security installers near you here.

Frequently asked questions