11 Best solutions to prevent burglaries in ground floor windows

If you live on the ground floor of a building, you are well aware of the feeling of insecurity caused by pedestrians passing by your windows. This feeling is fully justified, as ground floor windows facing the street pose a significant vulnerability to potential burglaries.

The most secure and difficult-to-penetrate windows are made of PVC or aluminum, with double glazing and security film, along with self-locking shutters. These shutters are motorized and connected to a centralized home security alarm system.

However, not all homes have this type of windows, and replacing them would be a considerable expense. Furthermore, even with the most secure windows on the market, the presence of a ground floor window makes it relatively easy for potential thieves to access the interior of the property.

But there’s no need to panic, as implementing a series of simple security measures can ensure complete safety in our homes. Below, we will present the 11 best solutions to protect and secure ground floor windows in our houses.

 

1. Window Alarms

Naturally, installing alarms on our windows can be a complete surprise for burglars, who will be caught off guard and flee immediately.

The installation of these devices is not very expensive and can be easily done by ourselves. Of course, more expensive alarm systems offer additional functionalities, such as simultaneous control of all alarms, mobile control, and mobile alerts in case of an alarm. However, even at a low price, we can obtain and install a high-quality alarm system for our windows. If that’s what you’re looking for, we recommend this affordable and easy-to-install kit of 2 window or sliding door alarms. It is extremely practical.

It is worth mentioning that apart from installing the alarms themselves, the mere placement of alarm signs will have a significant deterrent effect, discouraging anyone from attempting to break into your property.

 

2. Exterior

Security Cameras Installing outdoor surveillance cameras is a powerful deterrent against burglaries. As statistics show, their installation results in an immediate decrease in criminal activity. In the past, this installation required a significant investment, but nowadays, we can acquire high-quality and reliable cameras at a very affordable price, with various features such as motion detection, live viewing on mobile phones, night vision, and mobile alerts in case of motion detection.

At Stoprobberies.com, we recommend this outdoor surveillance camera, which offers excellent performance at a very reasonable price. Moreover, you can easily install it yourself!

If you live in a detached house, the installation is relatively straightforward. However, if you live in an apartment building and the neighborhood has a high crime rate, it would be appropriate to request the installation of security cameras through the community of neighbors or demand it from the local authorities.

 

3. Installation of window grilles

One very effective way to prevent break-ins through the windows on the ground floor of your house is to install security grilles. Obviously, grilles are not a 100% foolproof solution to prevent robberies, as they can still be removed using cutting tools or by anchoring them to a vehicle. However, especially in densely populated areas, they serve as an impenetrable obstacle that will deter potential burglars in most cases. This has been statistically proven.

Keep in mind that burglars typically target vacant homes where nobody will notice their presence, allowing them to quickly enter, steal, and leave within a matter of minutes. By simply installing grilles, burglars would need a significant amount of time to gain access to the house. And even if they succeed, their actions would create a disturbance that would alert the neighbors. This goes against two basic principles of a successful robbery: quick execution and leaving no trace. As you can imagine, in a residential area with a certain number of neighbors, burglars are unlikely to choose a ground floor window with installed grilles as their target.

However, despite the security provided by grilles, many people are hesitant to install them due to two reasons. Let’s see what these reasons are and how we can address them:

1. They create a sense of claustrophobia and confinement for the occupants of the house: This issue is merely an initial adjustment. In reality, people who install grilles eventually get used to them without feeling closed in. In fact, once installed, they provide a sense of increased security and privacy.
2. They don’t look aesthetically pleasing: This concern is unfounded, as there is a wide variety of grilles available on the market, and there is a suitable option for every window in terms of color, style, design, size, thickness, texture, etc. Additionally, we can place plants between the grille and the window, which can greatly enhance the beauty of our house.

Lastly, it’s important to choose high-quality materials for the grilles, as this not only increases their durability over time but also prevents metal corrosion that could affect the facade of our house.

 

4. Locking devices for shutters

If we have shutters installed on our windows, they alone provide very little resistance against potential intruders. You can try it yourself and see how easy it is to raise a shutter from the outside. After that, only the glass of your window would separate a possible intruder from your home.

The best solution for this is to install shutter locking devices. They are not expensive and ensure a secure fixation of the shutters, which is particularly useful when leaving our home temporarily for vacations or any other reason. The shutters will be firmly locked, and any intruder attempting to raise them will quickly give up when they realize that they can’t budge them even the slightest. If you are interested in this product, you can find a pair of high-quality steel shutter locking devices at an unbeatable price in the following link.

 

5. Sliding window lock

If our windows are sliding windows, it is relatively easy for someone to force or manipulate the closure and simply slide the window to gain access to the interior of a house.

This vulnerability can be easily solved by installing a sliding window lock, which provides an additional point of fixation for our window. It’s important to note that we should purchase a “lock,” not just a “block” for sliding windows since the latter usually refers to a safety feature to prevent small children from manipulating the window, which is completely useless for our purpose of complete security.

It’s worth mentioning that if we want to install these locks temporarily, they may leave marks if we later intend to remove them. In this case, it would be advisable to install key-operated locks that can allow or block the movement of a sliding window at any time.

 

6. Exterior lighting

A very simple way to deter burglars is by installing bright outdoor lighting. Remember, thieves seek to go unnoticed during their criminal acts, so the installation of outdoor spotlights serves as a great deterrent.

Installing such lighting will be relatively easy if we have an individual house or villa, simply by installing motion-activated lights. However, if we live in an apartment building, implementing this measure can be more challenging. In such cases, if your street has insufficient lighting or poor illumination, it would be appropriate for the community of residents to address the local authorities to request an improvement in public lighting.

 

7. Interior Lighting

Given that the majority of home burglaries occur when there is no one at home, a relatively simple way to prevent them when we are away is by simulating our presence.

This can be easily achieved by purchasing programmable plugs, which allow us to turn the lights on and off at various intervals throughout the day, even when we’re not home.

Furthermore, in addition to being able to schedule the interior lighting, we can also turn the lights or any other device connected to the plug on or off using our mobile phone through Wi-Fi connectivity, giving us complete control over our home.

If you’re interested in learning more about effective measures to simulate your presence at home when you’re away, don’t miss our article “7 Ways to simulate presence in your home and prevent robberies”.

 

8. Additional Locks

For casement windows, we can increase our security with additional interior locks that potential thieves would never expect, as they remain hidden from the outside.

By doing so, we ensure that if the main window lock is tampered with or forced open, we have a second, much more secure lock that will prevent the intruder from gaining entry. Faced with this unforeseen obstacle, the thieves will likely give up their attempt and decide to leave.

 

9. High-Security Glass

No matter how strong our glass windows may appear, the truth is that if they are not designed to prevent burglaries, they can be easily broken with a relatively unsophisticated assault hammer. As mentioned at the beginning of the article, the safest standard windows you can find in the market have double glazing with a safety film, but they would not be infallible either; the only practically infallible glass capable of preventing a robbery would be armored glass.

Especially for commercial premises or stores with a large inventory of goods, it is interesting to install these special security armored glass panels to deter burglaries. They are relatively expensive, but their installation in commercial areas is highly recommended, as well as installing bollards on the street to prevent ram-raiding with a vehicle.

However, for personal residences, the high cost may make this option less attractive, and it may be better to consider other types of solutions.

 

10. Presence of a Dog

If you live in a house or villa with a garden, having a dog on your property has a significant deterrent effect. Consider this scenario: A thief is targeting a housing development and sees two identical single-family houses. One has a “Beware of Dog” sign, and the other doesn’t. In which house do you think the thief is more likely to attempt a robbery? Clearly, a dog reduces the chances of burglary for two reasons:

1. The fear of being attacked by the dog.
2. The fear of the dog’s barking alerting its owners and neighbors.

 

11. Alarm Signs

Similar to having a dog, an alarm sign or sticker has a significant deterrent effect, as intruders are unlikely to take the risk when there are other homes without such a warning. However, it is always better to have an actual alarm system rather than just trying to give the appearance of having one.

Nonetheless, it is certainly better to create the impression of having an alarm system through signs or stickers than to do nothing at all.

 

Conclusion:

A ground-floor residence presents significant vulnerabilities to potential burglaries since it is relatively easy to access through the windows. However, by implementing a series of simple security measures, we can ensure complete safety in our homes.

You don’t need to apply all of the measures described above. Depending on the characteristics of your house and the type of crime in your area, you should implement the ones that best suit your situation, and with that, you can live securely and peacefully in your home.