I have very little $$ but want to secure my house windows to prevent burglaries. Any sugges. besides alarms?

Question

I thought of putting wood panels on inside of window with hinges on one side and locks on the other. I would not cover the top(highest) part of window, that way sunshine can still come in. Someone here at work suggested flexible plastic? something like that......anymore low cost suggestions would be appreciated. thanks.

Answer 1

1. Plant under your windows plants with lots of thorns, like Japanese barberry and holly with those thorns on the leaves. They are standard shrubs at most garden centers and cost around $4 for a 1 gallon shrub. They grow slowly, but get to be waist-high after about 5 years. Let me tell you, nobody wants to get too close to a Japanese Barberry, let alone try to get past one to break through a window. Plant roses for really cheap around your house under windows, and no one will fight the thorns.
2. Get a dog. Dogs are still the best theft deterrents in my crazy gang-banger neighborhood where I live. I walk my dogs every day, the gang-bangers see me walking those dogs, they literally cross the street to avoid the dogs when they see me coming. A big dog can do a lot of damage to gardens, but if you contain both dog and garden with good fencing, both can get along. And oh yeah, dogs don't like to fight Japanese Barberry, rose bushes, or Holly shrubs either.
3. Get a homeowner's insurance policy. We pay about $12 a month for ours in case the gang-bangers do get stupid and break in and steal our stuff. Make sure you list each and every item of value you own, including serial numbers of all electronics, take pictures of your valuable jewelry, antiques, and house wares, and upload all information to an online storage place so if your papers get stolen you can still access your inventory online. Be sure and catalog all your CD's, DVD's, and books as well. Most items will be replaced if you have an accurate list of each item, most insurance companies will honor your listed inventory. If you have a lot of stuff, list it anyway, or better yet, give most of it away and reduce your worry of it getting stolen.
4. Stop living in fear. If fear of these items being stolen is ruining your life, consider selling antiques, valuable decorative items, coin and stamp collections, and all your extra electronic items, and reduce the amount of your belongings, and convert that money to certificates of deposit. It's possible to live with a simple laptop, bookcase, sofa, table and chairs, bed, and refrigerator and stove and still be happy. By reducing the value of the object, your fear of the object getting lost, stolen, or broken will be reduced.
Good luck to you.

Answer 2

The sad truth is that anything short of securely attached iron bars will only slow down an intruder; locks only deter the honest.

With that said, your idea is a fairly inexpensive idea. However, your weak points would be the hinges and the lock latches. It might be better if you make it like the bracing system used to secure the doors on medieval castles.

Cut a single inch thick piece of plywood to fit snugly inside the interior window frame. Then attach four brackets along a parallel line; two secured using four to six inch lagbolts into the framework around the window and two about six inches in from opposite edges of the plywood. Then simply slip a 2x4 long enough to span across the four brackets into place. If you wanted really good security, you could have brackets on the top and bottom portions of each panel.

It's not an unbreachable system, but only someone really wanting to gain access is going to attempt to break through. And it can be easily stored when not in use.

Answer 3

Easiest way is to put a wooden stick or metal rod in the top window - at an angle - corner to corner. It keeps the bottom window from being opened from the outside, but allows you to escape quickly if there is a fire. This, however, won't help if you are worried about glass being broken to gain entry, just a window being opened.

Answer 4

You need to make sure you're balancing the need to keep others out of your home with the need for you/yours being able to exit your home quickly & easily in case of fire or other disastrous event.

That said... you can combine a number of low-cost crime prevention techniques to make your home very unattractive to burglars.

First off, consult your local police regarding the amount of property crime in your neighborhood. Are burglaries very prevalent? Do they happen more often during the day, when folks are typically at work and homes are empty? Or are night time burglaries more common? Are the night time burglaries "cat" burglaries (the perpetrator gets in while the family is sleeping and robs the home without waking the family) or "invasion" burglaries (where the perpetrator *BURSTS!* into the home and robs it while holding the family at bay w/ a weapon)?

Secondly, many police departments offer a "Home Safety" audit... an officer comes to your home and goes through it, room-by-room, advising you on the best way to secure your home AND your valuables. For instance, do you have a list of serial numbers and pictures of your valuables? Is it located on your likely-to-be-stolen computer... or did you email it to your sister? :-)

And don't forget, you probably don't have to secure ALL your windows to maximize your safety... windows that face the street or close neighbors are rarely targeted by burglars... they want as much privacy as possible to do their work. This means you may only need to protect the windows at the back of your home, or windows sheltered by a porch or heavy foliage.

Speaking of which... keeping foliage trimmed low, using outdoor lights, making your home look occupied (lights and a radio/TV on timers, keeping your answering machine volume too low to be heard outside and not letting mail/newspapers languish), not putting your valuables on display in uncurtained rooms and keeping doors/windows (routinely) locked is still the BEST protection from burglars.

Taking all of the above into consideration, you can...

      >> To secure ground floor windows where glass breakage isn't a concern... with the window in the "closed" position, drill a hole through both the right and left sides of the window frame where the bottom window frame meets the top window frame. Make the hole large enough to accommodate a 3.5" (16-penny) nail and deep enough to slide the nail in and leave only about 1/2" exposed (for easy removal in case you need to open the window).

If you might want to use this window for fresh air ventilation, you can open the window ~ 8" and drill two more holes (left & right) to accommodate the same nails... slip the nails out of the closed window, open the window ~ 8" and re-insert the nails.

That window WON'T open without breaking the glass if they're pinned with nails... and most burglars would rather find an open or easily jimmied window than break YOUR windows.

      >> To secure a window a lil' more rigorously, without blocking it altogether, think about installing a child safety gate (like these: http://www.window-bars.com/cgi-local/SoftCart.exe/online-store/scstore/p-1021111BB.html?E+scstore) on your most vulnerable windows. While meant to keep kidlets from falling out windows, they're also very effective against all but the most determined burglars and they cost ~ $60/window.

Yes, the safety gates do the same job as blocking the windows with pieces of wood, but they're a) far more attractive, b) let you use the window, c) don't block your view (or the sunshine!), and d) allow the use of normal curtains/window treatments.

      >> On windows where glass breakage might be a concern, you can consider replacing the glass with a sheet of polycarbonate (aka lexan)... prices vary depending on thickness & size, but a quick search of eBay brought up these listings: http://popular.ebay.com/ns/Business-Industrial-K-Z/LEXAN+POLYCARBONATE.html. Polycarbonate is a very strong acrylic that won't shatter (it actually bends, ever so slightly) even when hammered.

Hope this helps,
      TX Griff

Answer 5

if your windows slide open...you can drill a small hole where the two windows overlap and insert a nail to lock the two panels together. this is not seen from the outside and a good deterrent. but as they say...locks are only for honest ppl. also a broom stick from the edge of the window to the frame works nicely and is not noticable. hope that helps.

Answer 6

A lamp in front of every window. If someone busts through the window they will knock over the lamp and the light will show clearly who they are.

Answer 7

u can drill a hole into the soild part of the widow frame & place a nail in to the hole of both parts of the window, but make sure u can take the nail out fast if u have to open that window