It’s important to feel safe in your DC metro area home, but burglaries are always a possibility. Did you know that about one in four burglars enters a building through a ground-floor window? As one of the most vulnerable places in your home, your windows certainly deserve attention if you’re looking to increase home security. With these tips, you’ll enjoy the peace of mind that comes from having a safer home.
Nearly one-third of burglars enter homes effortlessly by opening an unlocked window or door. To make these openings more secure, adopt the habit of locking your windows and doors every time you close them. If the original window locks seem flimsy to you, consider installing secondary locks to make you feel safer.
When a burglar discovers a locked window, the next step is to attempt to break it. However, impact-resistant security glass is much harder to break than ordinary windows. The panes are fused together with two or more layers of laminating material called polyvinyl butyral (PVB).
This makes your windows incredibly resilient against efforts to break them, including throwing bricks and swinging crowbars. Security glass even doubles as protection against severe weather, including hurricanes!
When you have bars on your windows, it’s impossible for burglars to squeeze through them and enter your home. You can install bars and grilles on the interior or exterior of each window in different designs and colors to prevent them from making your home look like a prison.
Remember, for fire safety reasons, you shouldn’t bar every window in your home. Consider putting them on just ground-floor windows so occupants can escape out of second-story windows if there’s an emergency.
A security screen is similar to an insect screen that keeps bugs out, but it’s made of steel, so the mesh is much stronger and more difficult to cut through with a knife. Security screens increase the time it takes for a burglar to break into your home. Research shows that if a building takes longer than four or five minutes to break into, the burglar will give up rather than stick around and increase the risk of being caught.
You can mimic the laminated characteristic of security glass by installing an after-market window film. This helps the glass stay together when a burglar attempts to shatter it. It also creates a glare or tint from the outside that makes it difficult for prying eyes to see into your home directly. If burglars can’t see inside to spot something worth stealing, your home is safer against break-ins.
At Quality Window & Door, we take home security very seriously. That’s why we carry windows with security glass. If you’re interested in installing these security upgrades in your DC-area home, please stop by one of our local showrooms in Maryland and Northern Virginia. We’ll answer all your remaining questions about window security features and recommend products that will benefit you the most.
Visit us today or contact us online to request a free service estimate.
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