Security Stylish ways to stay safe
Security no longer has to fight with your home’s aesthetic; in fact, it could even add to the look! Here are our top picks for custom-fitted solutions…
Custom-made burglar bars
Unlike standard burglar bars and gates, custom-made bars (from about R2 000/m²) are easy on the eye and can be designed to fit in with the look and feel of your home, from ornate Victorian-style trelliswork to more contemporary shutter-like designs.
These burglar bars can be painted with a rust-proof covering such as Hammerite, Duram’s DTM (Direct to Metal) paint or Oxirite, or you can have the bars powdercoated. This way, you can create a focal point at the entrance to your home and leave doors and windows open without compromising your security.
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If your home is close to the coast, corrosion can become an issue. Check with your manufacturer about their treatment process, maintenance and guarantees.
Tip
When ordering custom-made burglar bars, take a look at the manufacturer’s body of work – products and installation – and get references before commissioning the job. Kundra Bowley designed and had these security doors made for her Tamboerskloof home more than a decade ago. “I knew what I wanted and had to draw rough sketches for the manufacturer – there was no Pinterest in those days!” she says with a chuckle. Kundra was keen to incorporate a wooden element in the design to prevent the bars from looking too cold and she wanted them to fold and stack, as the rooms in her home are quite small. The solution: thick meranti doors with wrought-iron bars running down the middle and two strong latches on the inside.
Security shutters
Adjustable, aluminium louvre shutters provide the classic elegance and privacy of wooden shutters but with the additional benefit of security. The shutters (from about R4 000/m²) require no maintenance, many of them now come without tilt bars (you simply tilt one louvre that’s attached to all the others by an internal gear system), and they’re available in a variety of colours.
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• Shutters don’t have to be limited to doors and windows – they also work well between rooms. The bi-fold version, for example, stacks away to the side and can be used in front of sliding doors. • Only aluminium shutters serve as security; wooden ones are used for decorative purposes only. • Ask about the light seepage of the shutters if you want to use them in a bedroom or multi-media space.
Polycarbonate bars (roughly R1 230 for a 950 x 950mm window, including installation) are popular for their transparency but they’ve got a bad reputation for being easy to break through. They’re ideal for use in low-risk areas such as hard-to-reach windows, or to keep animals such as monkeys at bay if you live on an estate.
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• While they can withstand a lot of pressure (a brick or hammer will not easily penetrate the bar) and their flexibility makes it more difficult to detach them from the frame using a crowbar, they may not hold up well against prolonged attack, as is true for many other security measures. • Videos of inferior bars being burned with a simple blowtorch are making the rounds on social media; they are very brittle and not recommended. Good polycarbonate bars may come custom-fitted in an aluminium frame instead of being added directly to the window’s frame. If the bars don’t come attached to a frame and need to be added to your existing window, ensure that the price is approximate to the one that we’ve listed (not considerably lower) and that the bars aren’t flimsy. • You can have wires installed along the length of the bars which can then be hooked up to your alarm system.