31
Mar
2016
By Calvin at 12:35 GMT, 9 years ago
I was somewhere in the South-East earlier this week assessing the security of a recently refurbished terraced house (Circa 1930). The main emphasis of the refurbishment was to create a home that did not require any heating and indeed the place is a constant 20°C throughout the year!
Unfortunately the architects gave no consideration to home security and so I was faced with several glaring problems. These included a massive pair of triple glazed sliding doors with no internal key lock on the operating handle (well, no locks at all). This means that if someone should enter the house by smashing through one of the smaller windows they could let themselves out through the sliding doors into the back garden and away; taking with them something of size, which they would otherwise not be able to manage. Also, the glazing system did not include a sheet of laminated glass (also used for safety) and so the toughened glass in use could easily be smashed with a blow from a sharp implement. Toughened glass breaks with a sort of dull thud and crazes into tiny fragments, as it is designed to do, and as it makes so little noise when broken the neighbours are unlikely to hear the break-in.
I am hoping that the door manufacturer might be able to provide a replacement locking handle for the doors or otherwise the local MLA locksmith will have to do their magic.
To add insult to injury I also came across a dog flap (albeit airtight), which the architects were very enthusiastic about. The damned thing is not lockable and is easily big enough for a child to crawl through. Clearly the architects who sourced the product forgot that certain adults will often take a child out with them to burgle; using them like a ferret to squeeze through small gaps, get into the house and find the spare keys to let the adult in.
Fortunately an incident my client recently experienced prompted them to call me in and so already a new alarm has gone in and within the next couple of weeks their home is going to be physically secure as well.
As I’ve said many times before, home buyers often do not consider the security of the new place they’re looking at unless they are prompted to do so and so I do wish architects would do more to advise their clients about security rather than ignore this essential aspect of design.
More about Cat Flaps and Dog Flaps: http://thecrimepreventionwebsite.com/security-door-locks-hardware-and-fittings/566/cat-flaps-and-dog-flaps/
