how breakable is double glazing?

[tan8856]

Hi

We are going to get new double glazing for the back of the house and there have been a few burglaries round here lately so i want a secure option.

My husband says that regular double glazing glass is almost impossible to smash but Ive heard that you can also get 'toughened' glass - is the toughened stuff even more secure? How easy is it to smash a double glazed window? Do buglars even do that these days or do they rather look for open windows etc?

Also, is there such a thing as a UV filter that can be factory applied to glazing? Our fridge is right next to the kitchen door and gets incredibly hot on the side from the sunlight in the summer.

Thanks

 

[crank39]

Double glazed units made from bog standard float glass are no harder to break than a single pane.

Double glazed units made with toughened glass are harder to break than float glass but can still be broken, your husband is partly correct in that a brick will bounce off a toughened unit all day long if it hits it in the middle, if you catch the glass anywhere near the edge, say 3 inches in, it'll pop in a milli second.

If your concerned about burglars just throwing a slab or a terracota pot through (and i saw it many a time in 12 years of emergency glazing) then it might be an idea to have the outer pane of the biggish units to be made from laminated.

As for the UV then laminated does give some protection from this, if it really is an problem then you could use 'anti-sun' which is available in laminated also, off the top of my head you can get it in bronze, green, blue and grey, if you want clear then you might have to get a film applied to one pane but i don't know how UV stable film is, the stuff i always saw had turned cloudy or yellow

 

[Richard C]

We are going to get new double glazing for the back of the house and there have been a few burglaries round here lately so i want a secure option.

There is no such thing, all you can do is deter & make your property a more difficult option than the one next door.

My husband says that regular double glazing glass is almost impossible to smash but Ive heard that you can also get 'toughened' glass - is the toughened stuff even more secure? How easy is it to smash a double glazed window?

Very easy; a small pick (ice) hammer or spring loaded, engineers centre punch right near a corner will break it first or second try; the only difference laminated glass will make is it won't make as much mess for you to clear up afterwards.

Do buglars even do that these days or do they rather look for open windows etc?

Leaving a window open or door unlocked is down to stupidity but most are not burglars at all, that requires a certain amount of finesse; many will just kick a door in, even the front door & sometimes in broad daylight, or lever it out with that garden spade you left one lying around. They know full well that your average neighbour seeing 2 or 3 of them go into a property in this way isn’t going to challenge them & the Police are unlikely to be there for at least 10 minutes, if they come at all; by which time they will be long gone.

The best option is to create as much noise & attention as possible &, as long as everyone in the immediate area doesn’t have one, a burglar alarm (even a DIY one) is as much of a deterrent as anything; which property do you think brain dead low life will go for first! Geese will give you warning if someone’s snooping about but won’t (usually) attack; a Rottweiler is a different story but you could have legal problems if it (quiet rightfully) rips a burglar apart. A more “secure” option is steel shutters or wreckers, which I seriously considered but these are common in Spain & they just attach a chain to the back of a 4x4 & pull half your house down; the Police do arrive much quicker out there though!

Sorry can't help with the fridge

 

[merlin50]

if i hear a burglar alarm what do i do! nothing, not worth the risk these days, as for phoning the pigs, no way, just a waste of time.

 

[crank39]

My mum and dad had german shepards and they never been burgled, i've had 2 and never been burgled

 

[Richard C]

if i hear a burglar alarm what do i do! nothing, not worth the risk these days

As I said, that’s what many will (sadly) do & most won’t intervene if they see the perps in action, why risk a knife in the ribs FFS; but please tell me, what’s your constructive solution then

Even a false bell box (as long as it doesn’t look obvious) is better than nothing & even a basic DIY alarm will cost less than 200 quid. The whole point is to make the low life aware than you (might) have something & go next door; or next door but 1, 2, 3 ,4, 5, 6 etc. where they appear to have nothing at all & leave you place alone; deception is the key here.

 

[big-all]

you need to make your place less desirable as in no hidden areas near the house for them to hide no tools lying about and for the house to look secure even if its not

you also need to keep it in proportion to what actually happens in your area
i have lived here for 30 years have never locked my back door except when i go on holiday
often leave my front door/window open [ajar] when i go to bed or go out
and in all that time had only a bike nicked from the front garden

 

[^woody^]

My mum and dad had german shepards and they never been burgled, i've had 2 and never been burgled

I was also told that an Alsatian would be better than an alarm box, so I got one, but the RSPCA made me take it down.

 

[Richard C]

you also need to keep it in proportion to what actually happens in your area
i have lived here for 30 years have never locked my back door except when i go on holiday
often leave my front door/window open [ajar] when i go to bed or go out
and in all that time had only a bike nicked from the front garden

Tis very true; not quiet as blasé where I am now but not far off it & I have got lazy in the last few years; god forbid I’d tried that in the Essex district I left around 7 years ago. That’s where I learned the best ways to narrow the odds & deter casuals cos if they want to get I they will anyway. For 18 years we lived in a private close of 4 properties & for 15 of those years I was the only one who had an alarm; they all got done in that time but I didn’t. Sadly there are signs of the rot setting in here & it’s about as rural as you can get; we’ve had a couple of “posh” houses done & the farm next door has been targeted 3 times in the last year for trailers & such like.