Benefits of Security Grilles

In our world of today crime is a major problem, theft, burglaries and robberies are becoming more and more common. People see this as a way to get quick and easy money. Homes, schools and offices are probably the most targeted premises. This is because they all contain items which thieves and burglars will be looking to steal, such as computers/laptops, televisions, projectors, anything that is easy for them to escape with and can be sold on quickly.

There are many ways to try and protect your home or work place from being burgled. You could fence off the perimeter, install CCTV cameras, install a burglar alarm, have mirrored glass or a mirrored film put on the windows. There is also the option to have physical security equipment installed, examples of this are concertina grilles, steel security doors, burglar bars, roller shutters and anti vandal screening.

The most common way a burglar will enter your property is through the door or window. They will smash the glass or in some cases if the window is glazed from the outside they will remove the beading and lift out the whole sheet of glass. To try and prevent this you could have mirrored glass or mirrored film on the existing glass, which would make it difficult for any potential burglar to see what is on the other side. However this would not stop them from breaking in if they still wanted to.

The best and most effective way to try to stop someone from breaking in would be to have some sort of physical security on the window. You could have roller shutters, concertina grilles or burglar bars on the outside but anything fitted externally is vulnerable to attack. A potential burglar would have as much time as they need to attack the equipment and lever it off the wall. This is because the alarm (if one is installed) would not detect the burglar until the glass is smashed and by this time they would already be through the grille and into the building. So it is always best to install the security equipment internally. Again you could have roller shutters, burglar bars or concertina grilles on the inside.

Roller shutters are often perceived as the strongest form of security, however in reality it very much depends on the type of shutter installed, the problem internally is that they are not very pleasing on the eye. They can be made from aluminium or steel and can be manual or electrically powered.

There are different types of burglar bars that you can get, removable bars where you use a key to unlock the bars. The problem with this type of equipment is that they are not very convenient to use because each bar has to be removed separately. The strongest way of securing a window is by using solid steel bars, they are not very pretty to look at and look like prison bars that is why they are usually restricted to windows where appearance is not important such as toilet or storeroom windows in commercial premises.

One of the best way of securing a window, door or most other openings is with a concertina security grille fitted internally in the reveal of the opening. This is because when they are fitted internally a burglar would have to break the glass before attacking the grille, which is very difficult when there is sharp glass everywhere. If the building has an alarm fitted the sensors or PIR’s should always be pointed at the window or door this way as soon as someone starts attacking them the alarm will go off. So the would be intruder will panic and have very little time to try and attack the grille.

Unlike the bars, grilles have a more pleasing design, with cross pieces and curved lattices. They also retract back to quite a neat stack so when open they often tuck away out of sight behind curtains or blinds. You can choose to have the grille as a pair with a smaller stack at either end of the opening, or as a one way grille with a larger stack just at the one end. The grilles come standard in a white powder coat finish but variety of colours are available at a small extra cost if you don’t want white. There are different strength grilles that are available.

There is the basic bottom of the range grille, which is more commonly used in domestic properties. Then there are the insurance specification grilles, which a lot of insurance companies specify that you must have. These are mainly on commercial premises though. There are also some really heavy duty grilles which are normally used if you have no choice but to fit a grille externally. There are also expander grilles which stretch out on wheels. These are not the strongest grilles around but are often used as a barrier to prevent people from walking into areas that they should not be in like warehouses and quarantine zones in factories. So overall the best and most effective way of securing an opening is by installing a concertina security grille.