Why You Should Use Tempered Glass in Your Home

Have you ever wondered what you could do to make your home safer? Picture this: you’re curled up on the couch watching a late-night thriller movie and the home invasion scene comes on. As the villain effortlessly breaks through the terrified homeowner’s window, you glance over at your living room window and suddenly you’re concerned about your own safety.

I know the feeling. I’ve been there, double-checking my locks and leaving a light on because I’m worried that someone might break-in. It felt like there was nothing I could do to make my house safer, but get this: I was wrong.

That’s right – there IS something that you can do to make your windows 4-5 times stronger. And you know what? All you need to do is choose a different type of glass – tempered glass.

Maybe you’re thinking that you have already taken other steps to secure your house. Great, but don’t stop reading just yet, because tempered glass does more than help keeps bad guys out. We will also be sharing how tempered glass can protect you and your family from accidental injury.

Want to find out more about this special glass and how it works? First off, let’s start by introducing the world of glass. Frankly, most of us don’t know all that much about glass and we just assume it is all created equal. But consider this: there are many types of glass and each is designed for a different purpose.

By now you’re probably wondering what type of glass is used in everyday windows and how to tell if your existing windows are regular glass or tempered glass. But before we go into how to identify the type of glass that you have, we need to learn about both kinds.

What Kind of Glass is Used in Windows and Doors?

Annealed Glass

The standard type of glass that you can expect to find in basic home windows is called annealed glass. Annealed glass is a softer glass that is cooled slowly during production to help it withstand temperature fluctuations.

Tempered Glass

A stronger type of glass which can also be found in homes and businesses is tempered or toughened glass. Tempered glass is a variety of safety glass which gains its strength from the rapid heating and cooling process that it goes through during production.

International building codes require that tempered glass be used in certain locations such as near showers, hot tubs, and stairs where the risk of someone falling into the glass is higher. When purchasing, expect the tempered glass to cost more than annealed glass.

What Makes Tempered Glass a Good Choice?

Tempered glass is a preferred window material choice for two reasons: durability and safety.

Durability

Want to see just how much abuse a tempered window can take? In side-by-side window pane tests, baseballs and golf balls simply bounced off a tempered glass window, but they shattered the annealed glass. Keep that in mind the next time you see a flock of neighborhood kids headed down the street to play baseball.

Safety

Fair warning: even a tempered glass window can be broken, but if it does break, it breaks much differently than annealed glass. This is where your family’s safety comes into play.

Annealed glass breaks into sharp shards that can get embedded in little feet and hands. If your elderly parent or your little child falls through an annealed glass window, they are going to end up with nasty cuts.

This is where the tempered glass fits in. When tempered glass breaks, it breaks into small, smoother and more rounded pieces than annealed glass. Your loved ones are much less likely to cut themselves on the smooth edges of broken tempered glass.

How to Tell if Glass is Tempered

So how do you tell if you already have tempered glass windows? It’s easier than you think. There are a few ways to find out if a window is tempered (and only one of them involves breaking the window).

You start by checking for an etched stamp in one of the window corners that say “Tempered” or “Temp.”

No stamp? Don’t stop yet because there is still a chance your window is tempered, and the stamp is simply hidden by the window frame.

Wait for a sunny day, then put on a pair of polarized sunglasses and look at the window in question. If it is tempered, you will see a series of dark, shadowy lines across the glass. These are leftover by the rollers that the window pane sat on during tempering.

The Bottom Line

To recap, the most common types of glass used in homes are annealed and tempered. Tempered glass is specially treated to be stronger and safer than annealed glass, so it is used in more high-risk locations where it is mandated by building code. Expect tempered glass to break less easily and if it does break, to be less sharp and dangerous than annealed glass.

Now go take a look at your current windows and see if they are tempered. If not, give us a call and we will walk you through how to make your home safer with tempered glass.

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What are Good Ways to Secure My House?

You work hard to earn what you have, and the last thing you want is for someone to break into your home and steal from you. Unfortunately, the most recent FBI crime reports document an estimated 1.4 million annual burglaries in the United States.

Each of these break-ins costs the homeowner an average of roughly $2,400, not to mention the time of dealing with insurance companies, police reports, and home repairs or the emotional and mental impact.

You may not be able to make your home 100% burglar-proof, but there are some simple, actionable steps you can take so your home becomes less appealing to a burglar out trolling for easy targets.

 

Reinforce (and Lock) Your Doors

One of the first entry points burglars go to is your front door. Is it locked? Good job – you passed the initial test.

Now, what else can you do to make your door stronger?

In most forced entries, the door itself isn’t what breaks. Usually, the weakest point is actually the doorjamb. A swift kick to a non-reinforced doorjamb splinters the wood. To combat this, newer doors are being made with heavy metal reinforcing plates.

Not in the market for new doors? Upgrade the security of your existing doors by installing metal-reinforced box strike plates with 3” screws.

Some other DIY door security upgrades include replacing existing deadbolts with quality Grade 1 deadbolt and swapping out the deadbolt strike plates and screws as well.

Lock Your Windows

The second most common entry point in home burglaries is through windows. The good news is that there are some easy steps you can take to make your windows more burglar-proof.

For starters, inspect your windows’ existing locks and ensure that they work. Next step – actually lock them any time you are away from home and at night when you go to bed.

After-market security bars that are easy to remove from the inside, but keep the window closed.

A final security measure is a glass break sensor that will notify you if your window is broken. This can be a stand-alone sensor or may operate as part of a larger home security system (more on that later).

Hide (REALLY hide) the Spare Key

If you are one of the 18% of Americans who leave a spare house key hidden outside, you may want to rethink that practice. At the very least, choose a less obvious hiding place.

A recent survey found that 35% of homeowners said they stashed a spare door key in a fake rock and a scary 25% of respondents simply slid the key under the door mat (the first place a would-be burglar is likely to look). [1]

If you must have a spare, store it in your vehicle, at work or with a trusted nearby family member, friend or neighbor.

Light Up Your Yard

In addition to some strategically placed ornamental lighting, install motion-sensor floodlights that can be turned on after everyone has gone inside for the evening.

Pro Tip: Be sure to install the floodlights in a high enough location that a burglar can’t simply walk up and unscrew the lightbulb.

Don’t Give Them a Place to Hide

Now that you’ve illuminated your yard, where do you think a potential burglar will want to go? That’s right – they will be hiding anywhere they can.

You don’t have to remove all of your landscaping, but do conduct your own risk assessment of your property as it is now.

Are there easy hiding places like soft hedges and shrubs near doors, windows or other entry points? What can you do to make those places less inviting?

Install a Home Security System

Are you curious about home security systems but wondering whether they are actually effective?

A study conducted by the University of North Carolina’s Criminal Justice Department found that 83% of potential burglars would try to find out if a house had an alarm system. If they learned that the house had an alarm, 60% would choose another, less well-protected target.

If an alarm system was discovered mid-attempt, 50% of burglars would always leave and 31% would sometimes leave.

This means that only 13% of burglars will always continue the burglary after finding out that you have a security system.

Now that you’re ready to look into them, there are many home security systems to choose from, both professionally monitored and non-monitored.

Learn how the systems work, then choose the best fit for you.

Complete systems typically come with a control panel, door and window sensors, motion sensors, surveillance cameras, a high-decibel alarm plus yard signs and window stickers to advertise that your house is secured.

Commit to Consistently Using Whatever Security Measures You Have Installed

An unlocked door provides easy access to your home and even the most elaborate and high-tech home security system does you no good if you don’t consistently arm it.

Complacency is dangerous and can put you and your home at risk. Whatever steps you take to secure your home, choose options that you are confident you and your family will commit to using on a regular basis.

[1] http://www.eyewitnesssurveillance.com/americans-dont-lock-doors-survey/

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