securing windows

[jack8745]

Hi
Stumbled upon this site by accident - cant believe i never heard of it before.

My wife and I bought a 100 year old house and along with it came a 100 year old - stable/wagon house that is now my workshop/garage. The property was vacant for almost 7 years. During this time the garage got uprooted by a tree, roof started leaking, second floor above the stable was ready to collapse.

Since we bought the place i have patched the roof, cut the tree down, took massive amounts of trash out, fixed the second floor etc.......

all the windows in the garage were busted out and boarded up. i want to add some natural lighting and have a bunch of windows i pulled out of the house. My only concern is security. Can you please provide me with some guidance as to what my possibilities are. I was thinking about fabricating window bars/guards

thanks
Jack

 

[slickgt1]

Welcome.

Yes window bars will be your best bet really. If you search the site, others have done doors on the inside for privacy, so no one can look inside. Bars will probably be best, and maybe some shades inside.

 

[toolmiser]

Consider this more like a bump, but I've heard of plastic films that you can apply to your windows that make them much more difficult to enter after they've been broken. Just a thought.

 

[NUTTSGT]

I just tinted my garage windows recently.

 

[ducktapeguy]

If I were to rebuild my garage, I had planned on adding windows high up on the wall (just learned they're called clerestory windows). If your walls are high enough, it allows for natural light and ventilation if you get the ones that open. They're high enough to prevent curious people from peeking inside the garage, and make it difficult to climb in through. Plus I didn't want to sacrifice valuable wall space to regular windows.

 

[LSU]

I've restored a few older (early 1900) homes that had double hung windows. Since they were homes I didn't go the burglar bar route. I wanted the family to be able to get out of the places should fire start.

On one building I didn't rebuild the windows so that they would open. More of a cost factor than anything else. The windows are painted shut and the only way to open them is to break the glass. If you hurled a brick through one, you'd be in and could hand stuff out through the window.

The second building we completley restored the double hung windows. They will open. After spending way too many$'s doing this, we promply used a screw in each window to secure it so it can't be opened. We had to restore the windows so that we would be eligible for a tax credit. At the time, it seemed like a good idea, now I'm not so sure.

Anyway - the problem with windows is the glass. If you want to be able to open them for ventilation they've got to open and close.

If you wanted you could replace the window panes with Lexan and you'd still have the light but you'd have some strength. This is expensive.

I'm not a fan of the window bars because I don't like looking out through them but they offer the best protection - but if someone wants to get in all they need is a tow strap and a pick up truck and they can be easily pulled out of the wall.

Not sure where your place is located or how close you are to neighbors, etc. but I'd give some thought to not using the burglar bars, putting some good locks on the windows and, maybe an alarm with some stickers on the windows.

Unless you're working in a cinder block house with a safe door, you're not going to keep them out, only slow them down.

Also, if you're working on something historic - - go slow. Looking back there are some things I wished I'd done differently.

I'd also suggest you do some really good Google searches to find some old house ideas before you take the sawzall to anything.

Post some pics of before and after.

 

[jack8745]

LSU- great advice.

im not a fan of windows bars. I was also thinking about putting some window shutters on the inside. that way i can close them when I'm not inside the garage.

i will take some pictures and post them up

 

[Lippyp]

If you don't want bars then internal shutters and anti smash film on the windows. A friend of mine some years ago was refurbing his sign business new office and one of his customers happened to be a company that specialised in industrial and security windows. They'd just done a massive contract in London following the Canary Wharf IRA bombing so he ended up with bomb and bulletproof windows, the stuff was about half an inch thick and you could hit it with a sledgehammer with no damage.

 

[karl1672]

Just a thought ....

Would impact glass be something to consider? When we were remodeling our house (FL), I put 2 crank-out impact windows in the garage. Aside from hurricane protection (maybe not important for you), they should offer increased security. I tinted them with some stuff from HD that virtually blacks them out from the street but lets plenty of light in.

I also like the crank-outs since they provide good ventilation and should be a little more difficult to break in to.