Garage security ideas

[jay clock]

I am now the proud tenant of a council garage. I live in a relatively low crime provincial town, although bike thefts from garages are not unknown. Garage is 1960s single skin brick with classic thin metal up and over door. About a mile from me in a peaceful 1960s/70s estate.

Plan is (ideally) to store a load of bikes there - a couple worth £100-200, my summer road bike (RRP 2600 paid 1600) and possibly tourer (£2k new approx). Really looking for ideas of how to secure them, without damaging the fabric of the garage. Am thinking that if I daisy chain the bikes at crossbar level with some medium cost U locks, at least it makes it really fiddly to nick stuff if they do get in? I am thinking that the weakest link is how to attach bikes to the building

Any specific ideas on floor anchors. I cannot dig it up to instal a floor anchor so screwing bolts into the wall is about as good as it gets

 

[Jerry Westerby]

How about setting an anchor in a large concrete block which rests on the floor?

 

[ufkacbln]

"Layering"

You need to make. It as difficult as possible

With three bikes:

Single cable lock between all three and the walll anchor
With 1as the inner and 3 the outer....


Lock 1 to 3
Lock 2 to 1
Lock 3 to the walll anchor

This way it is difficult to get tools to the locks and no bile is vulnerable

Apart from the one locking 3 to the Wall anchor they can all be cheap locks

Also fit a garage defender as it means the door has to be forced off which is noisy and attracts attention

 

[slowmotion]

You could use epoxy or polyester resin to fix anchors to a concrete floor. If you want to alarm the place, use some of these....
http://www.henrykrank.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2964

 

[robgul]

Have a look at http://securityforbikes.com/ - Stephen is a really helpful chap if you give him a call (members that frequent the other place, yacf, may remember his wife a.k.a. docsquid being a keen cyclist)

My own bike storage, in the integral garage of a 20 year old 3 storey town house is pressed metal hooks screwed on the wall with eyebolts bolted to the back wall and individual heavy-duty pvc coated cables, one per bike, each with a good padlock.

Have to say I would worry about the £2k bikes in garage (presumably) remote from the house.

Rob

 

[numbnuts]

These for the door
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Garage-Do...156083?hash=item4d28647d33:g:65AAAOSwnDxUb1qj
These for the walls
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HEAVY-DUT...hash=item4175ef2157:m:mImBW20_hEboGvxacPhaLoA
If you ask the said council you maybe able to fit a door defender you will need a good cordless drill, why I say ask
at this time I’m having my council garage refurbished new door, roof ect they said I'm not allowed to drill any holes in the new door, but will allow me to drill the concrete floor to fit a door defender as they are only 8mm holes hope this helps
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BLACK-gar...hash=item3a83edd4e9:m:m_Pd3PWQI7yLCiS3hYPuABQ

 

[jay clock]

all good ideas. Will look through all those links. I have ordered a Defender but in two minds as it will be the only on of twenty in the row which might suggest it has stuff worth nicking

And @robgul I am with you on the £2k bikes, but thinking about sandwiching them between the crapper ones

 

[Pale Rider]

I'm all in favour of abiding by the tenancy agreement, but fitting a ground anchor seems reasonable to me in the circumstances.

There's unlikely to be any adverse consequences, unless some unkind soul sees you do it and dobs you in with the council.

Alternatively, I take it you have a bit of space to work with, so you could plonk something biggish and heavy in the garage and fix the bikes to that.

A dense concrete lintel would be impossible for one or even two people to shift, and be too unwieldy with bikes attached to load into most vehicles.

Weight isn't a problem for your security devices, so I would look at a beefy chains.

Oxford is a good make, although a chain is a chain so something generic would do and probably be cheaper.

http://www.oxford-shop.co.uk/cat256_1.htm

 

[Crackle]

Two wall anchors, one each side and two Abus chains with three locks using the same key. One lock on each wall anchor and one in the middle. You can unlock from any point then to get to the bike you need. Plus U locks to string a few bikes together.

I've got the Abus Anchor WA50 and Abus chains covered in material, they come in different lengths and strengths so you need to measure and pick the right length. At the wall anchor end, I just push the chain through and put the lock on. The lock is too big to go back through the anchor.

 

[NorthernDave]

Personally I would be very wary about having bikes of that value stored remotely from the house in somewhere as intrinsically insecure as a local authority garage, no matter how well you are able to secure them inside. Unfortunately that's speaking from experience.
But if that's your decision, I'd recommend getting as many layers of security as possible, especially to the door as those up and over doors are a real weakness.

Bear in mind too that there are likely to be hours at a time, day and night, when there is going to be no-one about to interrupt any nefarious activities. A cheap shed alarm might be worth getting - even if there is no-one about to hear it it will make it uncomfortable for them to stay in the same confined space.

It's worth approaching them to see if they'll make an exception for a floor anchor if you agree to 'make good' should you end the tenancy?

Finally - make sure that your insurance will cover the bikes in the new garage.

 

[raleighnut]

Bolt a couple of these to the floor,

http://www.googleadservices.com/pag...ahUKEwiiyqCbze7PAhXFDMAKHYjGCcEQwg8IMQ&adurl=

 

[Drago]

Trip mines with blank ammo.

 

[Noru]

If you can't fit a ground anchor you could make something heavy/immovable to chain your bikes to.

I was planning on but haven't got round to getting of the those half whiskey barrels from a garden centre, drilling two holes in the side wide enough for a large chain to fit through and joining them with a drainage pipe. Then half filling the barrel with concrete, giving a heavy anchor to pass your chain through without needing to drill the walls/floor for a ground anchor.

I was also going to get a heavy duty Almax chain for it too.

 

[ufkacbln]

Again making it difficult......

If you are not allowed to fit a ground anchor then a large paving slab or one of those ubiquitous bucket shaped lumps of concrete you see lying around will take the anchor and prevent the bike(s) being carried away easily

 

[fossyant]

I have the door bolts that numbnuts links to. Also an additional 2 locks, one bottom and one top. Again all the above suggestions are ideal. 3x2 (600x900) flags are almost impossible to move if you use one as a ground anchor if you cant drill the floor