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There are millions of reports of breaking and entries in the United States alone every year. Burglars are opportunists. If they see a chance to profit, they will take it without any hesitation at all. This is nothing new. People have been stealing from homes ever since the concept of homes had been established. Today there are tens of millions of households all over the continental US which are vulnerable to outside attacks. These houses are not secured and are in danger of getting robbed.
Normally, amateur burglars and thieves will not notice any entry points that aren’t secure, but thieves who have been stealing all their lives know about easy points of entry that they can use. If there is even a chance that any single component of your house is insecure, a thief sees it as an opportunity, and he or she will take it no matter what.
Thousands of break-ins occur every year due to a lack of home window security or simple carelessness by the owners of the houses. In total, there is approximately 20 billion dollars’ worth of loss that Americans have to suffer to make up for the lost revenue due to this problem.
What are the Primary Points of Entry for Burglars?
Every house has its weaknesses. While it is true that not all houses are similar and most houses are completely different than their counterparts, the primary feature that defines a house’s security is how secure its doors and windows are. A house has at most 3 doors that are obvious points of entry and give access from outside. However, this is not the primary point of entry that burglars use.
Thieves have a habit of using windows to enter houses. Nearly every household in the United States has windows, and if they are not secured, opportunists will always take this chance to try and make a quick buck.
As a homeowner, you are probably wondering how to secure your windows. Good thinking, but before that, you need to understand exactly what dangers lie ahead if your doors or windows aren’t properly secured.
Studies show that 30% of all home break-ins occur through the door and window entry points. The chances of a man or woman entering the house through these points get even higher if these doors and windows are left unlocked. To see how to secure windows from burglars, read further.
How to Secure Doors?
Doors are easy to secure. All you need to do is lock them and make sure that they have solid hinge support so that it does not get knocked off whenever a thief tries to enter through it illegally. For most people, doors do not pose a big risk since no professional thief will try to rob a house by entering through the front door. It does not happen that often. It is more likely that a thief might try to rob your house by entering through the windows because these are some of the places in your entire house structure that are the most insecure.
The Threat of Insecure Windows
Windows are easily penetrable, which is why they are the ideal choice for thousands of robbers since they can be broken quite easily without any significant damage to the thief’s body. The glass used in most windows is extremely delicate when compared to industrial-grade glass sections.
If an owner leaves the windows insecure, then they are at risk of being robbed. Normally, thieves do not check to see if the window is unlocked or not. They simply see an opportunity and take it, hoping that you have not locked your house window. This way, they can easily run off with your valuables without alerting you about their presence even a little bit.
There is no doubt that the threat of being robbed by burglars is real, and as discussed above, over 30% of robberies are committed when burglars enter houses through small access points such as windows. Therefore, as a responsible homeowner, you should know how to secure your windows without using any major hardware.
Why Avoid Using Bars to Secure Your Windows?
You have probably seen many houses where people use solid metal bars to secure their windows and other smaller access points. Technically, you could do this, but there is a significant downside to adding bars to your windows, and it has nothing to do with the aesthetic design of your house. Yes, your house does look significantly less appealing if it is designed to look like a prison, but this is not the primary reason why you should avoid using solid metal bars to secure windows.
Say, for example, you are in an emergency, and your house is on fire. In most fires, the stairs are easily consumed by the flames, and it is nearly impossible for those living in the upper bedrooms to exit the house. Their only option is to jump out of the window. But if the windows are reinforced with solid steel bars, then you will not be able to go through them, and you risk serious burns or even death by going down the stairs and to the door in hopes that it might not be engulfed totally in flames.
In this case, you might end up turning your own house into a kind of prison for yourself. Not to mention, the concept of actual metal bars securing the windows of any room can harm the mental health of any human being.
How to Secure Windows Without Bars?
Your windows are an entry point for thieves, but they are also an exit point for you in the case of an emergency, which is why you should secure your windows using different methods. These methods are those that do not involve you adding permanent obstacles which will no doubt hinder a thief’s ability to enter the house but might also prevent you from leaving the house when necessary.
If you are wondering how to secure windows without bars, there are many ways people can do this using simple but effective methods. Some of these methods are described below:
Locking the Windows
The most important and frankly most basic thing that any homeowner can do is lock the windows every day before going to bed or whenever they will not be inside the house. It should come without surprise that every household should lock their windows regularly, but for some reason, 60% of homes do not lock their windows whenever they go out or when they are sleeping at night.
Most thieves take advantage of such situations. They can easily break into the house, get whatever valuables they can find, and leave through the same window. So as a start, you can burglar proof your house by simply locking the windows. You will not believe how effective this is. Most amateurs will give up immediately when the window they try to access is locked from the inside.
What Types of Locks Should Be Used?
When it comes to window protection from burglars, many people agree that the type of locks used has a great effect on the burglar’s ability to access the house through the window. If you secure your house from burglary using simple locks, then there is a good chance that professional thieves might be able to bypass these locks and rob your house. This is why you should make sure that your house has basement window locks that cannot be tampered with from the outside, for example.
It is good practice to use two window locks, one for each vertical line for a square window. This way, the window is a lot more difficult to open and hinders the burglar’s ability to access the house.
Adding Protective Layers to the Window Glass
Even with quality locks on windows, determined thieves have still been able to get into the house. This is because the glass used in most windows is not designed to withstand any force. This is why many people apply a thin protective layer to the glass itself such that the layer adds an extra bit of rigidity to the glass. The glass used in many houses is cheap and is fitted to the frame permanently in most cases. This is why many prefer to add a protective film over the glass instead of replacing the glass altogether, which is way more expensive.
The protective layer that is usually added to the glass is normally a film with a shatter-proof ability and makes sure that in the event a thief tries to break the glass to get inside, it will not shatter, and the film will hold it together.
Installing a Reflective Glass
Use reflective glass is one of the best answers on how to secure your windows. If the burglar cannot see the inside of the house, then he or she might not risk their lives by entering a house where there might not even be any valuables to steal.
The reflective glass acts as a preventative, and it essentially forces burglars to skip houses with these features since they cannot see the inner layout of the house, and they do not know for sure if the items inside such a house are worth stealing.
Motion Sensors
Another way on how to prevent break ins through windows is if you have first floor apartment window security or full house window security is to add motion sensors along with the frame of the window. These sensors can be activated before the house’s owners go to sleep or if they go out. If a thief tries to enter through the window, then he or she might get spooked away if the sensors activate a deterrent. 2 types of deterrents can be used for window protection from burglars, and they are
- Lights
If you use lights as the actuator for the sensor, then the lights will be activated if a burglar gets close enough to your window. This way, the robber will be spooked off since he or she might think that someone is home and they will not risk their lives by going into such households.
- Alarms
The most basic actuator for securing windows without bars is the use of motion sensors to activate an alarm whenever a robber tries to access the window of your house. The sudden alarm will be too much for an amateur to handle and every professional robber will not risk their lives and will immediately exit the premises before the police show up.
All these sensors and actuators can be deactivated once an owner is awake and at home.
Window Obstacles
A simple way if you’re asking how to protect your windows from break in is adding shrubs with thorns under the windows or any other similar obstacle that is not obvious at first sight and one that a burglar might ignore when trying to access the window. This way, when the burglar does get too close to the window, he or she will encounter such obstacles that will discourage them if they are smart enough to understand that other difficult situations may lie ahead if they don’t leave.
Conclusion
There are many reasons why the methods mentioned above should be used. Your house is your safe place. It is your home. If it is not secure and anyone can access it, then you cannot call it a home for yourself. Similarly, if you secure your house using solid metal bars, then you are only creating a prison for yourself, in which case you are also giving up your right to call it home.
You should use the above-mentioned methods to achieve burglar proof windows and doors to ensure that you have a safe home where you can rest and go whenever you are under stress knowing that your precious valuables are safe. Your home is your safe space, and you should do whatever it takes to keep it safe.
