When it comes to securing their houses, many homeowners focus mainly on creating door security. After all, doors represent the easiest and least conspicuous means of entering any home. Given the choice, many reason, most burglars would select breaking through a door over climbing through a window. However, certain circumstances can actually make windows a more attractive option. Weaker locks, poor landscaping choices, and minimally-effective security systems can all lead to poor window security. In this post, we share some valuable tips for securing rooms with windows.
First, we’ll share some easy-to-follow tips that you can take to create this security. From there, we’ll move on to sharing some ways that you can remove the desire to approach your windows in the first place. Then, we’ll shift our focus to some security system-related methods of securing rooms with windows. These will include adding some common security system sensors, as well as some lesser-known alarm contacts that you may not even know about! Now, let’s dive in with some best practices for adding window security.
Exercising Common-Sense Window Security
When it comes to lock and frame security, both your windows and doors will experience steady deterioration over time. However, doors generally get more attention when they reach a point where they need repairs or new hardware. After all, we use our doors to enter our homes every day. On the other hand, windows remain somewhat “out of sight and out of mind.” This rings especially true for our most vulnerable windows! The more secluded and unseen these windows remain to us, the more appealing they get for a thief. For these reasons, we recommend regularly checking on your window’s frame and locking devices. Keeping up with needed repairs can go a long way towards securing rooms with windows.
Homeowners value features that add privacy to their yards such as fences and shrubbery. Unfortunately, burglars value these features as much as homeowners.
Additionally, consider adding secondary locking devices to windows that rarely get used. Many hardware stores and locksmith shops — such as ourselves — offer these devices. Some of these locks hold your window firmly in place to make it difficult to open them at all. Other designs feature mechanisms that hold your window down below a certain height. This makes it possible to open your window for air, while creating resistance to anyone attempting to climb through. Now, let’s check out some steps you can take to make your windows a less likely point of entry for criminals.
Making Your Windows a Less Attractive Entry Point
Making some smart choices with how you present your windows to passersby can help deter anyone with ill intentions. For starters, maintain the area around your home in a way that creates as much visibility as possible. Keep plants and shrubs trimmed well below the height of your windows. If you do have gardens around your windows, plant thorn-bearing plants to make sneaking around in them a less attractive option. Installing motion-detecting perimiter lights (or even lights that stay on permanently depending on their proximity to bedrooms) for added visibility at night can take away the ability to use dead spots in your yard to assess your windows’ security and attempt a break-in.
Additionally, make sure any fencing you install doesn’t create a safe haven for criminals. Using chain-link fencing instead of tall wooden fences can keep anyone snooping through the yard visible to neighbors and passersby alike. Breaking in through windows often takes some time and effort. Ensuring that burglars will not stay hidden for long can make them feel like they won’t have enough time to do so. Now, let’s look at some window-specific alarm equipment that you can install to create a notification if a burglar attempts to break in through a window.
Alarm Contacts for Securing Rooms with Windows
When desiging a security system, many alarm customers focus on staying cost effective. For example, installing sensors on every perimeter door, as well as a few motion detectors for general area security, suffices for many. Unfortunately, this approach often lets thieves enter your home well before creating any type of alarm activation. Therefore, we recommend taking a more comprehensive approach to complete home security. This rings especially true when it comes to securing rooms with windows. In this section, we’ll review some of the most important security equipment you can install to address this concern.
Traditional Window Sensors
As we pointed out earlier, door contacts (also called “sensors”) and motion detectors create basic security for our alarm customers. A door sensor generally sits on the door itself, with a magnet on the door frame. Once the door opens, the magnet and the contact itself separate from each other. In turn, the breaking of the magnetic seal between the two components oof the sensor activates the alarm system. We can use this same type of contact to create window security as well! Placing a sensor on a window with a corresponding magnet on the window’s frame can alert you to anyone opening your windows from outside.
Window sensors, such as this wireless model by Interlogix, activate when the magnet (on the left) separates from the sensor itself (on the right).
We also offer slight variations of this contact. For example, some sensors have buttons that sit in a frame, allowing a closed window to hold the button in place. Upon the window’s opening, the button pops up and trips the alarm. No matter what type of contact we install, they all do a great job alerting you to someone opening a window when your system is armed. Furthermore, our monitored security systems also call our central station upon activation. If needed, our central station alerts the authorities and creates a police dispatch. Obviously, these factors all make installing contacts on windows an effective security measure. However, we also offer other means of securing areas with windows. Next up, let’s look at the types of sensors we use to make this happen!
“Specialty” Sensors to Add Window Security
In addition to window sensors, we also install other types of alarm equipment to “watch” over areas with windows. For starters, glass break detectors rank among the most effective. These unique sensors can detect the sound and impact of breaking glass in your home. One detector can generally catch breaking glass up to 20 feet away. Therefore, installing them in the center of a room with many windows can effectively help secure the entire area. We often install these detectors in rooms with picture windows or sliding glass doors, both of which allow burglars to gain entry by breaking glass and walking right in. Additionally, since these sensors activate upon the breaking of glass, they usually create a siren response before a burglar enters your home, rather than after!
Additionally, we also install window security screens for customers looking for the best window security available. Despite their less-known status, security screens can provide a great first defense against intruders. In order to break in through a window, burglars must first remove or cut through any screen blocking their way. Monitored window screens will create an alarm response as soon as either one of these events happens. Whether burglars carefully remove the screen or cut through it, their actions will immediately set your alarm’s siren and central station response in action. Adding either of these security sensor options will greatly increase your overall window security!
Putting it All Together
We hope that this post helps with your efforts in securing rooms with windows. Additionally, we invite you to contact us with any questions the material in this post raises for you. We will happily answer any and all security-related inquiries that you may have. Moreover, we also encourage you to take advantage of our free site survey program. We offer complimentary security audits and equipment quotes to both new and existing customers alike. We also extend this offer to customers in both residential and commercial aplications.
While on site, we can address any of your existing security concerns. Furthermore, we can also make our own suggestions after assessing your property and looking at it through the eyes of a criminal. Over our 34-plus years in business, we’ve helped over a thousand customers secure their home. We’d love to help you as well! Together, we can help you create a complete security plan to keep your home, your valuables, and your family as safe and secure as possible.