Bars, louvres, grilles, shutters & blinds:

1. Bars, louvres, grilles, shutters & blinds:
   1. Grilles
   2. Blinds
   3. Louvres
   4. Bars
   5. Garages
   6. Insurance rated products
      1. LPS1175
      2. STS / SBD products
   7. DIY option

Grilles

• Grilles have been found to eliminate burglary in one study.
• A mesh grille costs about £230 for a square metre.
• Collapsible grilles or ‘scissor gates’ need security ratings. Cheap models are easy to twist and then yank out of the top channel or kick out sideways from the bottom channel. An SR1 grille, eg the 1001 from SecurityShuttersDirect, costs about £500 for a square metre window or £1,000 for a patio door.
• Cardea do 2mm steel SBD & SR1 Crimeshield perforated window screens in aluminium frames. They reduce light by 40% and are mainly aimed at vandalism, but are strong enough for balcony panels so will certainly be a deterrent. Also apparently resold by Theam. Much the same product appears to be HAG’s Seceuromesh with 4mm perforations in aluminium frames. SecurityShuttersDirect also seem to resell it for around £275 for most size windows. They can be screwed to the opening light or wall. Security Care (SecurityDoorsDirect) resell ATB Systems’ Taurus Max to BR1 (what looks like the same vandal shield as Cardea) and the SBD & LPS SR1-3 rated Extendor CX2 and Eclipse collapsible grilles, also resold by Bradbury and Crossguard. ATB also do a polycarbonate vandal shield.

Blinds

• The only rated security blinds on the market are fixed with rotating aluminium blades:
  • Securablind Defender up to NPSA rated, available in terror, blast, ballistic and manual attack versions, explained below under insurance rated products.
  • Eruma Security (T/A Security Blinds) Secur CJ4 to D5 (appears to be the Securablind).
  • Trellidor Shutterview S1 to SR1.

There is an unrated security blind from S-Craft, the Portchester. This solves some of the problem of roller shutters blacking out, bars being ugly and security windows being a monopoly market. But you need about a two feet gap for them to swing inwards. Guardian Screens & Shutters sell a sliding equivalent.

Trellidor have much the same product, although say they have LPS1172 SR1 available on theirs, which appears to be the Shutterview S1. This is weaker than even the minimum housebuilder standard SBD but adds delay, especially against marauders who do not know what they are doing.

Louvres

• Security louvres cover access openings in walls, typically for ventilation.
• Man-passable penetrations for utilities, whether pipes or crawl spaces, need:
• Sewers need inlet grilles to prevent security grilles clogging.
• grilles of 0.5” steel bars in 3” squares, or
• equivalent such as:
  • 9mm steel perforated plate with welded bolt heads,
  • 5mm thick x 25mm deep steel grating 6” wider than the opening on each side fixed with 0.5”x5.5” concrete anchor bolts,
  • cluster of small pipes blocking one large sewer, or
  • 60cm steel pipe through the wall welded to 3mm steel inside and filled with seven smaller pipes of maximum 10” diameter,
  • and for high risk scenario, seismic sensors and 15.9mm bars.
• NPSA rated grilles include:
  • Stafford Bridge Coldstream (1m square) & Grenadier (900mm square) also in 300, 600 & 1,000mm square to MTAS v1.0 for 150mm wall, Blackwatch was to SR4 withdrawn 05/04/24,
  • Technocover Ultrasecure AT5 to MTAS v1.0 450mm square for 250mm wall,
  • Benweld Barras to MTAS v1.0 & MFES 2.0 for 120mm / 215mm wall, Pegasus for 1200mm square, Billinghurst.
  • Assa Prima Commodore to MFES v2.

Bars

• The old USA DoD army physical security design handbook said bars only buy one to three minutes depending on thickness ranging from no 3 to no 6 bars, even if with welded joins in a 3” grid and embedded 6” in concrete or installed in steel channels built into the wall during construction. Even a 19mm bar grille of 9” squares only buys one minute – the lowest insurance time rating possible. Penetration time can be increased proportionately by adding layers of bars.
• Removable bars cost about £313 for a square metre. These are cam locked and use a spinning bar within a tube against cutting, although are lightweight so not security rated. Cardea do these.
• A fixed 16mm barset, for example, costs about £276 for a square metre. Cardea do these, although unrated.
• Single adjustable bars are available as a deterrent, although unrated, eg Asec.

Garages

• Roller shutters are ideal for garages, although you may need to check headroom for the canopy, which is usually one foot, and look at the strength of the wall it is going into – often only short runs of single leaf or dubiously bonded buttresses of brickwork around the frame.
• Garage door braces are made for hurricanes and could be a way to beef up your up-and-over door while you do not need it. Plus you could screw the door shut. You could even board it up behind with plywood and exmesh.
• If you have to keep a normal garage door then consider a Sold Secure Silver:
  • Safe & Vault Company’s Garage Door Defender for £70.
  • PJB Security’s garage door lock for £80.
• Kensington Security Doors do a garage door multipoint lock.
• Other options for garage doors include gatelocks at £20, defenders at £47 and bulldogs at £81. Masterlock 1488 EURDAT garage door kit (a defender type product) is Sold Secure. Squire GA5 garage door protector sells at £150 and is Sold Secure Domestic Bronze, as is their GA4 Garage Door Guard Domestic at £170 which is also SBD & Sold Secure bronze. You can further reinforce with escutcheons and plates to protect against ripping and hooking.

Insurance rated products

• Most security barriers for wall openings are roller shutters, whether for garages or windows.
• NPSA advice on unrated shutters is:
  • Steel fire roller shutters can delay a moderate shooter 30s.
  • Perforated steel rollers locked from inside with bullet locks can buy 10 mins against a knife, and delay a basic shooter 5 mins or moderate shooter 2 mins or high ballistic for 1 min.
  • Punch & glazed aluminium roller shutters locked from inside with bullet locks can buy 5 mins against a knife, delay a basic shooter 2 mins or moderate shooter 1 min.

LPS1175

• Abbey Protect do an SBD & SR2 Securablind Defender grille, which is actually a steel locking gate, in fixed demountable, slider or casement style with aluminium blades, disguised as a vertical blind, with non SR rated ballistic and NPSA MTAS v1 & MFES v2 (Defender Premium A6GTLHH, 6mm polycarbonate and steel horizontal strips, only available in 101cm w x 170cm h size) versions, and a separate blast version that uses the polycarbonate bursting to trigger the blades. The Defender Plus is available in custom sizes and is similar to the CPNI version. The company also does Obexion external steel reinforced aluminium roller shutters up to LPS 1175 G15 (SBD rated for terror) and an SR5 CPNI XR version. UK Roller Shutters resell Securablind.
• Aluroll are SBD rated, including their aluminium T77 Elite to SR1 weighing only about 25kg. However, they do commercial models in the Elite range, up to SR4 for the I100 with 1.2mm steel if you do not mind that they weigh half a ton. The SBD terror rated I100 Elite SR3 weighs in at about 150kg with the same 1.5mm thickness. The S76 Elite at SR2 weighs about 70kg with 1.2mm steel sheet. The E77 Elite at SR2 weighs about 40kg. The aluminium E37 Elite at SR1 could equally be a garage door, but is essentially a roller shutter for house doors and windows that can be externally mounted, so could be used to back up any opening weaker than the wall. The Secureroll i100 Elite also comes in a double skin aluminium lath NPSA version, E130 (32kg/m²), to SR5, MTAS & MFES. All are SBD. These are resold by UK Roller Shutters.
• Armourpost resell the SWS Seceuroguard 1000 collapsible grille to SR1 like SWS UK, and the Defender to SR2, Rolux‘s SR3 SOL roller shutters and SWS’s single skin aluminium Qompact roller shutter with 6” box to SBD & STS202 BR2.
• Arrow Industrial do the Invictus roller shutters from SR1 to SR4, with levels 1-3 reveal or face fixed and level 4 face fixed.
• Ascot Doors do rolling shutters from SR1 to SR4, the A320 and Centurion ranges, SR1-2 being steel and SR3-4 being aluminium twin skin, with the SR4 steel reinforced and with SBD terror rating.
• Bradbury UK do Spartan reveal, internal and external fitted barsets rated SR2 (20mm) to SR3 (25mm) and Liddle’s range since they bought the company, and collapsible grilles, the CX2 to SR1, Vulcan to SR2 tested against boltcroppers, Eclipse to SR3 – all SBD rated (Eclipse is SBD terror rated) and SBD rated Vertex (crowd control to 0.5t/m) collapsible grilles to SR2-3 (SR3 is SBD terror rated). Their website cannot be viewed by common browsers so this may be a red flag for how easy they will be to do business with. UK Roller Shutters resell the Extendor and Vertex range.
• Burton Safes do internal and external fitted Typhoon barsets to SR2 and SR3, very similar to Bradbury’s.
• CGT do face fix Vortex aluminium roller shutters to SBD & SR2, with compact roll and thus 5” wide hoodbox, available from Coventry Garage Doors. Their Xonar roller shutter can come as SR3-4.
• Charter Global do the Obexion roller shutter from SR2 to SR3 for UD model and from SR4 to E20 for MD model (SBD rated), which also comes in XR versions rated for NPSA to MTAS & MFES, and MDB model to an incredible G15, alternatively there is the ND model which is IWA14 rated against vehicle ram. They also do Obexion collapsible grilles from SR1 to SR2 and the Integr8 SR2-SR3 roller shutter for new-builds (the SR3 is SBD rated for terror).
• Clark Door do an SBD & SR3 to SR5 internal face fixed Multiguard roller shutter with ballistic and blast options, internal face or reveal fixed for SR3-4 and internal face fixed for SR5. SR3-5 is SBD terror rated.
• Extendor make the SBD rated CX2 SR1, Vulcan SR2 and Eclipse SR3 collapsible grilles. These are resold by Bradbury, Crossguard and UK Roller Shutters.
• Fortress Protec did have Defence System Extreme Lattice barsets to SR3 but this has gone from the website. They also have had an SR3 internal face fixed roller shutter, the Alalux, which is SBD but not advertised.
• Harlech Industrial Doors have SBD terror & SR1 to SR4 rated Crimegard internal face fixed roller shutters.
• Hart Door Systems do a Terror Screen roller shutter from SR1 to SR4.
• PSF Wales had their reveal, internal and external fitted Centaur barsets to SR2 to SR4 but this has gone from their website.
• RCS Doors have had SBD & LPS1175 face fixed roller shutters, the RS2A and RS2B to SR2 and RS3 to SR3, which lock with Bulldog GR500 anchors with optional extra Hopkin H75 pin (Euro bullet) locks, but have been taken off their website.
• Simbars do barsets to SR4, although these may be over the top unless perhaps you are protecting a vision panel in a reinforced concrete bunker for some reason.
• Southern Grille and Gate do a Titan collapsible grille to SR1, although they appear to have stopped mentioning it on their website.
• Steelway Fensure do their reveal, internal and external fitted Anti Intruder barest to SR2 and SR3.
• Sunray Doors do their reveal, internal or external fitted SBD Exclugrille barsets to SR3 and SR4 (SR4 is SBD terror rated), and the same roller shutters up to SR5 as Abbey Protect.
• SWS UK (owned by Stella in France) do SBD fixed and collapsible Seceuroguard 1001 grilles and Seceuroshield roller shutters, 3801 and 9501 to SR1 and 7502 to SR2, and the Seceuroglide Excel garage roller shutter to SR1 (costing about £1,200 for 2m wide x 2.15m high). They also have the SBD & LPS2081 SRA Seceuroglide Original Garage Door roller shutter and the Qompact to SBD & BR2. Theam resell the SeceuroGlide Excel and Seceuroshield 3801 and 7801 all to SR1.
• Technocover do their reveal or face fixed WB/DV Ultrasecure barsets to SR3 and SR4 (both SBD terror rated).
• Teckentrup do the only LPS rated garage swing door, the SBD rated Tekentrup 62 to SR1.
• Trellidor do their Trellidor Trojan II collapsible grilles, the Trellidor Plus T900 to SR1, Trojan II T1000 and Trojan II EMSEC T1000 to SR2, and the EMSEC T3000 to SR3 (weighing 50kg/m2).
• Although not LPS rated, some continental manufacturers offer EN1627 alternatives.
  • Alux do the RC3 SafeRoller Safe 1000 Type 30 venetian effect roller shutter for residential use with blackout or perforated options so you can stay secure with the windows open for ventilation.
  • CBX do the Diamond BL-Extreme roller shutter to RC6, FB6 and EXR5 with upgrade available for fire and hurricane.
• Among the more aesthetic options for prepping to harden windows are the Saferoller, E37 Elite or Seceuroguard Excel rollers to give your garage door or window at least a newbuild SBD level of protection, backed up by a rather less proportionately priced Securablind Defender blind to avoid windows looking like prison with bars or grilles – although they would be cheaper. Instead of either or both of, or as well as, the layers of shutters, you could go for Selectaglaze secondary glazing to look like a normal home, however you could then be putting all your trust in the internal leaf of potentially only breeze blocks holding the frame. Polycarbonate shields are available but only protect the glazing and do not help stop the opening light being jemmied. It is wise to secure the outer skin of a wall with replacement security windows or add shutters before anyone can get as far as any crumbly inner layer. Either way, shutters require setting, so are geared towards civil unrest when you know trouble is on its way – you would still need secure windows in case someone turns up unexpectedly while you are at home, to give you time to try to close any shutters and grilles and perhaps see off the invader personally. Security secondary glazing can thus kill two birds with one stone. Ideally you would just replace the windows with security windows like Crittal’s SR3 product or from one of the European manufacturers offering high EN1627 ratings, or if you use Hampton or Sash Window Conservation’s SR2 products they would need backing up with something like a collapsible grille, certainly once you know the going is getting tough.

STS / SBD products

• Alluguard do SBD rated STS 202 BR1 and BR2 garage roller shutters, reselling the 77 or 55 and SWS Qompact respectively, costing around £1,500-2,500 for a normal size. The BR1 shutter is sold by Evander, as is another BR1 from Garador.
• Aluroll sell the Elite range of roller shutters.
• Assa Abloy sell sectional garage doors to EN1627 RC2.
• Ascot Doors sell the Garage Door Defender and Garage Door Guard to Sold Secure silver.
• Bastion sell BastionGrille ventilation louvres to SR4.
• Bradbury sell Spartan barsets to SR2-3 and Vertex collapsible grilles to SR2-3.
• Cardea sell Seceuroguard grilles to SR1 and Seceurodoor (SR1, 7502 to SR2) roller shutters.
• Charter Global sell Integr8 roller shutters to SR2-3 and Obexion to SR2-G15, solid lathes from SR4 up.
• CGT sell Vortex roller shutter garage doors to SR2 and Vortex roller shutters to SR1-2 and Xonar to SR2-4.
• Clark Doors sell Multigard roller shutters to SR3-5. The Level 3 is LPS1673 C300 and Level 4 is D300.
• County Shutter & Doors sell the SWS Seceuroglide Excel roller shutter garage door to SR1 and Original Garage Door to LPS2081 SRA and Seceuroshield roller shutters to SR1 and Seceurodoor roller shutters to SR1-2, and Seceuroguard 1001 collapsible grilles to SR1.
• CWG Choices resell Aluroll roller shutters to SBD.
• Fortress make grilles and shutters for APS Aluminium Plastics & Systems: Defence System Extreme Lattice Barset to SR3, Axalux roller shutter to SR3.
• Garador do an SBD & STS 202 BR1 Steel Guardian up and over door and SBD sectional garage door.
• Garage Door Centre resell Teckentrup 62 Swing Secure garage doors to SR1.
• Garage Door Systems do an SBD & SRS202 BR1 rated ThermaRoll roller shutter.
• Harlech sell Crime-gard internally face fixed roller shutters to SR1-4.
• Hormann do SBD & STS202 BR1 (LPU42 / LPU67) / EN1627 RC2 rated (SPUF42 / SPU67)sectional garage doors.
• Integrated Fencing sell the Class 3 Window Guard barset to SR3.
• Novoferm do SBD & STS 202 BR1 garage doors, including internal fix ISO45 sectional doors and steel up and over doors (Bedford / Nasby / Sheraton / Thornby) with three point locking and extra bracing from £1,400 or wood from £3,400.
• Priory Shutter & Door sell an STS 202 BR1 roller shutter, the Europa Elite.
• PSF do ventilation louvres to SR?
• RCS Doors make the Rs2a or Rs2b insulated version) roller shutter to SR2 and to Rs3b SR3.
• Rollerdor do an SBD rated double aluminium skin RD77 roller shutter.
• RSL do a new-build concealed lintel roller shutter L20 610 Security Shutter to STS 202 BR2 and Security Shutter Elite to BR3.
• Samson resell Teckentrup 62 Swing Secure garage doors to SR1.
• Security Care sell the Bradbry CX2 collapsible grille top SR1.
• Stafford Bridge sell the Blackwatch ventilation louvre to SR4 with upgrade options of anti accelerant bevels and vibration alarm, and Grenadier or Coldstream to CPNI with anti drill and additional upgrade option of covert fixings.
• Sunray sell the Exclugrille barsets to SR3-4.
• SurelockMcGill sell the stainless steel MaxAir ventilation louvre XA1 to XA6 to SRB & SR1-6 with vibration and anti accelerant options and EX15 blast version XA6.
• Technocover sell Ultrasecure barsets to SR3-4 and Sentinel Ultrasecure LV/SEN ventilation louvres to SR4-5 and LV/AT5 to CPNI. If you need to cover a utility meter in the wall you may want to ask Technocover about using something like their upstand covers which go up to CPNI rating, although there wouldn’t be much point unless it goes into a reinforced wall.
• Theam sell the Seceuroglide Excel roller shutter to SR1, Seceuroshield roller shutters to SR1 and to Seceuroguard collapsible grilles to SR1.
• Trellidor sell collapsible grilles: Plus T900 to SR1, Trojan II & Trojan II EMSEC to SR2, and Trojan III ENSEC to SR3.
• UK Roller Shutters sell Vertex collapsible grilles to SR2-3, and Aluroll roller shutters up to SR4: Secureroll T77 to STS202 BR1, T77 Elite / E37 Elite/ P76 Elite to SR1, S76 Elite / E77 Elite / V77 Elite to SR2, I100 Elite to SR3-4.
• Vaylia sell Bradbury’s Spartan barsets to SR2-3.

DIY option

• To deter vandalism, squatters and casual thieves and give your home the abandoned and empty look, you could use storm shutters made of plywood, polycarbonate or corrugated aluminium, cut to size, labelled and with bolts pre-fitted ready for rapid installation when it kicks off. However, if you are the only home in the street boarded up it might make you less secure by singling you out as having stuff worth stealing and money to afford security, and these shutters tend to be fitted with wing nuts for easy removal. That could be a reason to use discrete security instead like security windows, even if it just secondary glazing to leave the original windows matching the rest of the street. You can make stronger shutters out of polycarbonate, plywood and/or metal but they are only as strong as the frame you bolt them through and the boltheads or material under the boltheads.