Hi all,
I am on the House Corporation Board for one of our chapters and we've recently been considering major renovations to the house. The topic of security bars on the windows came up and I'm looking for ideas on how to keep security while improving aesthetics.
The house currently sits on a busy street across from the campus. We have security bars on the windows (with an internal release mechanism) and the members have never really liked them. Our chapter is the only one with the bars and they say it makes us look like a "prison house" to the PNMs during rush.
I understand their point. Unfortunately, the sorority two doors down and one a block away do not have bars on their windows and they've had incidents of intruders in their house who came in through windows.
As a firefighter, I am personally concerned about the bars as they can slow down or prevent egress from the house in a fire. But, I don't want random intruders climbing in either.
I would love to hear suggestions from others who have had similar situations. I've tried to research alternates to security bars. I understand that a laminate security film can be installed over the glass...but that doesn't prevent someone from climbing in when a girl leaves the window wide open overnight. That may also pose a problem to firefighters attempting to break and vent the glass.
Maybe we could take the bars down, install a laminate and then have a stop installed on the track so that the window only opens halfway? Or maybe there are some more modern-looking bars that will still be secure but blend into the house a little better? Maybe there are security window screens?
This subject comes up at least once a year and I don't want to keep brushing the members off. If there's a way to make it happen, I'd like the get the bars off the windows for them.
Any and all suggestions are welcome!
.....Kelly
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