Seven things worth checking before you sign
Every storage facility in the valley describes itself as secure. These are the things that tell you whether it is true.
1. Is the fence continuous, and is it a fence?
Walk or drive the perimeter. You are looking for a line with no gaps, no collapsed section behind the back row, and no point where a neighbouring property gives easy access.
Chain-link with a hole in it is decoration. This is the single most common gap between what a facility says and what it has, because fences fail quietly at the back where nobody walks.
2. Does the gate record who comes in?
A gate that opens with a code assigned to you is doing something useful: it creates a log. A gate that opens with a code everybody shares does not.
Ask directly: is my gate code mine, and is entry logged? If the answer is vague, that tells you what you need.
3. Cameras, or signs about cameras?
Count the cameras and look at where they point. Coverage of the gate and the main drive is the minimum. Coverage that reaches down the rows is better.
Then ask the question that matters: how long is footage kept, and who can pull it? A camera feeding a screen nobody records is a prop. Ours run 24 hours at both locations, which is the part we would want to know as a customer.
4. Lighting, at the hour you will actually be there
Most storage visits happen after work. A lot get shortened because the drive is dark and nobody wants to be there.
If you can, drive past in the evening. Lighting that covers the aisles rather than just the office is a good sign, and it is expensive enough that a facility with it has spent money on the property generally.
5. The condition of everything else
Doors that roll smoothly, concrete without standing water, no weeds along the buildings, no abandoned units full of somebody else’s rubbish.
None of that is security on paper and all of it predicts security in practice. A property that is maintained is a property somebody is looking at every day.
6. Your lock, not theirs
You should supply and keep the only key. A disc lock beats a padlock because there is nothing for bolt cutters to grip.
If a facility keeps a copy of your key for convenience, that is a real downgrade in your control over the unit — and worth knowing before rather than after.
7. Whether anyone answers the phone
This is the check people skip and it is the one that predicts the rest. Call the number during office hours before you visit. If a person picks up and can answer a specific question about a specific unit, the facility is being run by someone.
Security is not a product you install once. It is somebody noticing that a light is out, a gate is slow, or a unit has been open three days. That only happens where there are people. It is most of what being family-run actually buys you.
Come and run the checklist on us
Walk in during office hours and look at all seven. We would rather you checked.
Rent online, any hour
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