Home Security Before Holiday Travel: A Westchester Checklist

Before you leave for a holiday trip, walk the whole house and lock and test every exterior door, every window and the garage. Bring in any spare key hidden outside, give one key to a neighbour you trust, and reset the smart lock and keypad codes you have handed out over the year. Fix any lock that does not fully engage a few days before you go, not the morning you leave. Most of this costs nothing and takes an evening.

Walk the house, door by door

Do this with the doors open first, then closed. A deadbolt that throws smoothly with the door open but drags or stops short with the door closed is not locking fully. The bolt is hitting the strike plate instead of sliding into it.

Start at the front door and go round the outside of the house in order, so nothing gets skipped:

The front door. Turn the deadbolt with the key from outside and the thumbturn from inside. It should go all the way without a shove on the door.
The everyday door. In many houses that is a mudroom, kitchen or side door, and it is the one most likely to have a tired lock.
The back and terrace doors. French doors need both leaves locked. The fixed leaf is usually held by bolts at the top and bottom of the door. Check that they are actually in their holes.
The basement door or walk-out. It is out of sight and often forgotten.
The door from the garage into the house. Treat it like a front door. More on the garage below.

If a deadbolt only locks when you lift or push the door, that is worth fixing before you go. It usually means the door has sagged or the strike has moved, and the fix is often an adjustment, not a new lock.

Windows and sliding doors

Every window on the ground floor and in the basement should be shut and latched. On older double-hung windows, the sash lock at the meeting rail should rotate fully closed and pull the two sashes snug. Upstairs windows above a porch roof or a deck count as ground floor for this purpose.

A sliding patio door needs more than its built-in latch. Put a bar or a cut length of wood in the bottom track so the door cannot slide even if the latch is beaten. Check that the door does not lift in its track when you push up on it from inside.

Do not lock any window in a way that would stop someone getting out in a fire. If anyone is staying in the house while you are away, they need to be able to open the bedroom windows from inside without a key.

The garage

Garages are where a lot of houses are weakest, and an empty house makes that worse.

Unplug the opener or use the lock button. Many wall consoles have a lock or vacation setting that disables the remotes. If yours does not, unplugging the motor unit does the same job. Leave the inside of the garage able to open by hand.
Do not leave a remote in a car at the station or the airport. A car parked for a week with a garage remote clipped to the visor and the registration in the glovebox tells a stranger where you live and how to get in. Take the remote with you or leave it in the house.
Change the keypad code if you have given it to contractors, dog walkers or relatives over the year.
Lock the side door and the door into the house. Both are often left on the latch because the garage door is assumed to be the barrier.

Spare keys and who has them

Before you go, bring in every key hidden outside. Under the mat, in a flowerpot, on top of the door frame and inside a fake rock are the places people look first, because those are the places people put them.

Give one key to a neighbour you trust and tell them how long you will be away. A neighbour with a key can let in a plumber if a pipe bursts, which in a Westchester winter is a real risk for a house left with the heat turned down.

Then think about who else holds a key: the cleaner, a past contractor, a dog walker, a relative who stayed last year. If you cannot account for every key, rekeying the exterior locks before the trip means only the keys you hand out will work. If you would rather replace the locks than rekey them, Larchmont Locksmith NY handles residential lock installation and repair, from a single deadbolt to every exterior door.

Smart locks and codes

A smart lock makes trip planning easier, as long as you manage the codes.

Delete codes you no longer need. Old codes for contractors and sitters tend to pile up in the app.
Give the house sitter or neighbour their own code, set to expire when you get home, rather than sharing yours.
Change the batteries before you leave. Most smart locks warn you when the batteries are low, but a warning on your phone in another time zone is not much help.
Keep a working physical key. If the lock or the app fails while you are away, the neighbour needs another way in.

Older doors often take smart locks differently, and our guide to smart locks on older Westchester doors covers thick doors, mortise locks and handlesets.

Make the house look lived in

Locks slow someone down. A house that looks occupied often means nobody tries.

Put lights on timers in two or three rooms, on different schedules.
Hold the mail. The Post Office offers a hold-mail service, and a neighbour can pick up packages from the step.
Arrange snow clearing if you will be away when snow is likely. A driveway nobody has cleared for days is a signal.
Keep the trip off social media until you are home.
Close the curtains on rooms that show valuables from the street, and leave the rest as they normally are.

Scarsdale's larger houses

Scarsdale is mostly large single-family houses, in Fox Meadow, Heathcote, Quaker Ridge and the streets around the village centre. A bigger house simply has more to check: more exterior doors, often a basement walk-out, sometimes a detached garage or pool house, and a longer list of people who have held a key over the years. Walk the outside of the house as well as the inside, because some doors are easier to judge from the yard.

If the walk-through turns up a deadbolt that will not throw, a strike plate held by short screws, or a door you cannot lock at all, get it fixed before you leave. Our Scarsdale locksmith page covers the village. If you come home to a forced door, call the police first, then see our checklist for changing locks after a break-in.

Frequently asked questions

Should I rekey my locks before a long trip?

Only if you have lost track of who holds a key. If several people have had keys over the year and you cannot account for them all, rekeying makes the old keys useless and lets you hand out new ones on purpose. If every key is accounted for, there is nothing to gain.

Is it safe to leave a spare key hidden outside while I am away?

No. Hidden spares are found by the people who look for them. Give a key to a neighbour you trust, or use a lockbox with a code you can change, and bring the hidden key inside.

Should I unplug the garage door opener?

If your wall console has no lock or vacation setting, unplugging the opener stops any remote from working while you are gone. Make sure the garage door is closed and locked first, and that whoever is checking on the house knows how to get in another way.

Can a locksmith come out before I leave?

Yes. We are open 24/7, and the average response is about 25 minutes. Service starts at $125, and the final price depends on the lock and the work, so ask for the total before work starts.

If the walk-through finds a lock that needs attention before your trip, call Larchmont Locksmith NY on (914) 255-6611.