Security idea

Shutters...like this?

Security shutters are nothing new. Just very expensive. The housings are usually mounted outside on retrofit installations, but I have seen them inside on new construction. Many new upscale homes in Brooklyn have them installed during construction. I am going back at least 20 years ago.

Jim Rojas

Yeah, something like that.

Interesting idea. Take a look at the way hurricane shutters are installed in upscale Florida homes. Most of these are not motorized but a worm drive arrangement shouldn't be difficult to build into them.

As you mentioned, this would be an expensive system to implement. It might be cheaper to just use the new hurricane resistant glass in the windows. The stuff is designed to withstand the impact of a 2x4 shot out of an air cannon at something like 80 mph (I don't recall the exact specs for the test). You can hit it with a hammer and it won't break. I once tried jumping up and down on a piece of the stuff and it didn't even take a scratch.

There's a company I've been looking at called NanaWall that makes folding glass walls. If you were to have them made with hurricane glass they could be nearly impenetrable. This doesn't do anything for windows but homes like mine in Florida have almost all sliding glass walls. We have a rather large home but only eight windows. There are glass walls on the lanai (Florida-speak for enclosed patio) side of every common room and several of the bedrooms.

Here's a link to one of the door systems we like. Perhaps you'll get some ideas from what they're doing:

We're going to renovate the house in a couple of years, enlarge one bathroom and add an outdoor kitchen / dining room to the lanai. At the same time I plan to install hurricane glass since I don't like the appearance of shutters and we are sometimes away for months on end. Hurricanes are much more of a concern to me than break-ins as our community is relatively secure. The neighborhood is surrounded by a wall and we are installing electronically controlled gates on the entrance road. That should be enough to keep the IB out. :^)

She should just change the locks and get a restraining order, that should keep the Idiot Bass (IB) out.

Doug L

As you mentioned, this would be an expensive system to implement. It might be cheaper to just use the new hurricane resistant glass in the windows. The stuff is designed to withstand the impact of a 2x4 shot out of an air cannon at something like 80 mph (I don't recall the exact specs for the test). You can hit it with a hammer and it won't break. I once tried jumping up and down on a piece of the stuff and it didn't even take a scratch.

Can you get these in non hurricane areas? How expensive are they?

They're available everywhere. You just have to pay to have them shipped to your location. They're expensive. I looked at doing it to my previous home a couple of years ago. An average size sliding door was about $3,000 with the one company I interviewed. For thirteen small windows alone (not including the sliding doors) they wanted over $15,000 IIRC. We had three double sliders as well. I decided to move instead. :^)

I have custom made plywood that I place on my windows & doors. Though we are pretty safe here in Tampa, the wind gusts alone is enough to make this a viable option.

Home Depot & Lowes have Aluminum & Lexan storm shutters that wing nut into place. It's a-hell-of-alot cheaper that safety glass.

Jim Rojas

I'd suggest you run all these plans for alterations past your Dad first. If either of my sons decided to move back home, I'm sure I'd want them to *find a job* rather than spend their time dreaming up landscaping schemes and such like.

Frank Olson

You shouldn't mention "wing" and "nut" in the same sentence in any response to Robert. He might decide go off on another one of his many aeronautical tirades against my many aliases. :-)

Of course, as this response will no doubt provoke him to post six more "HTML" threads, and a similar number of "PR's", I extend apologies to the Group in advance.

Frank Olson

"To be absolutely certain about something, one must know everything or nothing about it." Olin Miller

Agreed. The problem for me is my home has very large expanses of glass. The living room wall alone is 12 feet high by about 45 feet long, consisting of three pairs of sliding glass doors and a bowed out section of fixed pane glass surrounding the organ. There's no place to anchor plywood there.

I really don't want to deal with plywood or Lexan every time there's a storm churning up the Gulf of Mexico. Besides, storms can come up while we're out of town. Also, our community does not allow people to leave their homes boarded up except when there's a hurricane coming. It would make the area look like Waco or Burnaby. :^)

In the "Security idea" thread you first mentioned the availablity of Hurricane glass. Your next post to thread you said, above, you had 13 small windows and a few sliders and that it was to expensive, so you decided to move. You moved into a home that, now you state, has glass 12' high by 45' long. That would have to be on the back side. I am sure there are many more windows on the rest of the home, which will really drive the cost up, but now you say you are going to install the hurricane glass. Do they even have hurricane glass for the bow window? Is this just wishful thinking or are you looking to make that much more off of your new **spam** business?

examples at Google under Robert L. Bass

What if you had a fire and the power was out?

There is a manual override which involves a crank pole. You have to crank away and hope you have enough time to do so.

Jim Rojas

Hmmmmmm braggiing about 2 million a year in DIY online sales and 20K is alot of money to you. I donate that to the local rescue services.