Dear Jim,
Just one caution amid all the excellent advice on hardening a house against intruders–be sure it’s possible to get out from the inside easily in event of a fire or other disaster. Shutters, or latchable
bars are better for this than those mounted solidly into the structure. Alternately, consider paying for ballistic glass. – Michael Z. Williamson
Mr. Rawles,
Thanks for your time and efforts – SurvivalBlog has been a great help to me and I am planning to mail a 10 Cent Challenge contribution to support your work. In the meantime, I thought I would comment on a recent series of postings about “Home Invasion Robbery Countermeasures” with some of the changes I’ve recently made.
The home we recently purchased was a brick ranch, but it had a number of architectural weaknesses: Double-hung windows with standard weak latches, doors with weak strike plates, no deadbolts, a flimsy garage door,and two sliding-glass doors. Although we are in a rural, peaceful location, I have taken several measures to increase the home security that may be helpful to others.
The flimsy garage door has been replaced by a windowless insulated door with internal and exterior steel panels.
Each of the exterior doors have had a security storm door with laminated glass and a 3-point latching system installed (Larson brand from Lowe’s). The storm doors allow opening the entry door and being able to view the surroundings before unlocking and opening the security door.
I’ve purchased “Strikemaster II” door strike’s to install on the exterior doors along with good locks and deadbolts so that even if the security storm doors are breached the steel entry doors are reinforced. I’m also adding a “Strikemaster II” and deadbolt for the door leading from the garage to the house.
To reinforce the windows, I’ve had them laminated with an 8mil security laminate film and an attachment glazing system to anchor the laminated glass to the window frame. I’ve also purchased window pins to install so that the window cannot be forced even if the sash lock were somehow broken. The sliding glass doors are also laminated and security bars are being installed. An added bonus is that the laminated windows have a solar tint to cut summer heat gain by 40% and with the insulated garage door and the storm doors I anticipate much lower energy costs.
I am also planning to install a wireless Dakota driveway alarm and gate as you have recommended. My other plan to increase security is to begin keeping guinea hens since they offer a number of benefits to a rural home or retreat – they are fantastic guards that sound the alarm whenever anything is amiss, they feed themselves on bugs, ticks, etc. which is great for organic farming, and they supply both meat and eggs.
Hopefully some of the ideas I am implementing will be of help to others. I also recommend getting used heating oil tanks (often available for free or nominal cost on Craigslist) and using them to stock up on fuel. Clean the tank, install a battery operated fuel pump, and buy a supply of fuel while it is cheap before war breaks out and the price of oil soars again. Thanks again for all of your help, and Happy New Year. – SteelerFan
Dear. Editor:
In all the talk about using high tech electronic gadgets to protect against home invasion robberies I am surprised no one has yet mentioned the tried and true dog. My choices are Akitas and Great Pyrenees, but just about any medium to large sized dog will do. Attack and protection training is nice if one can afford it and is willing to accept the responsibility of such a trained dog, but from personal experience, I haven’t had a dog yet that would not unhesitatingly lay it’s life down to protect it’s family and home.
Do I expect my dogs to stop a home invasion by several armed and determined thugs? No, I don’t. But I do expect them to buy me the necessary seconds to grab my weapon so that I may. And thank you for a great site, – James G.
Mr. Rawles,
Many years ago when I worked in security we use to install security window laminates to the inside of high-risk structures. This laminate bonds to the glass and works much like the laminated windshield in a car. It is virtually invisible once installed but can repel ferocious attacks. We used the products on retail stores and high-end homes that didn’t want security bars or shutters due to aesthetic reasons.
The other nice part of these products are they are always protecting you. You don’t need to shut them like window shutters and they aren’t ugly like bars. They are also very deceptive to intruders who think the window will be an easy entry point only to find that they can’t get through it with a baseball bat and crowbar. It also provides minor ballistic protection and protection against blast by limiting glass shrapnel.
There are sites that can install it professionally or do-it-yourself (DIY). Here are some:
http://www.diywindowsecurity.com/
http://www.shattergard.com/home.html
http://www.armorcoatfilms.com/
http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/WF/3MWindowFilms/
Here is a demo of a DIY window film installation.
Here is another demo of a different product under more severe conditions.
These products work well on annealed glass (typical glass that breaks into sharp shards when broken). For use on tempered glass (which is usually a sliding glass door, as required by most building codes), you will need to do a special install to anchor the film to the frame with a specialized caulking.
These products work very well as an alternative to more conventional window protection. – Craig R.
Dear Mr. Rawles,
It is easy to become an avid reader of your site.
One simple means to beef up home security is simply to reverse entry door opening. Like commercial code doors, mine open “out” so any attempt to force “in” my doors has one working against the entire door jamb structure. I prefer steel 1 3/4″ thick doors with any [small] window design at the top, if at all.
I live upstairs in my shop. The access to my apartment is up a stairs and through a outward opening door as mentioned. Before one intruder gets that far, I am aware through an old but simple means of alarm. Being that a fine fishing line trip line is strung each evening across the downstairs floors that is attached to electric switches. Intruders will trip one or another once inside the building and I will know by my apartment alarm where they are there long before they know I am waiting with the pump. – Jon C.
JWR Replies: That does have its merits, but I’ve always believed that it is important to have at least one door to a house open inward, especially in snow country. Someday it might be more than just embarrassing to get trapped in your own home.