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Most people would rather not live in a house that needed window bars, but reality is that many have them. Is it a deterrent?
Do home owners in areas with burglaries feel a little more secure having window bars versus not having them installed?
Last edited by Sky-Blue; 08-18-2013 at 08:32 PM..
Reason: Re-phrased the questions
We have 4 large windows in our ground floor master bedroom. We have window bars on 2 of them, but unlike most who have them, we have the bars on the inside. We have drapes across all 4 windows and during the day, we open the drapes on the unbarred windows to let daylight in and enjoy the view. For approximately half the year we open the other drapes at night, as well as the windows behind them. We both enjoy sleeping with crisp, cool air coming in and we wouldn't be comfortable sleeping with open windows if they didn't have bars - regardless of the neighborhood.
Personally, I think they're very ugly. Where I live, you will see houses with and without them, but I live in a big city. My neighborhood is relatively safe but it seems like some people just prefer to have them on the windows. I will say certain cultures in my neighborhood seem to cover their house in bars---looks terrible. If houses do have bars where I am, the majority of them only have bars on the first floor or basement windows and some of them look better than others.
If I was buying a house, it'd be a deterrent. But based on MY area, some decent looking bars on a first floor or basement wouldn't be a complete "no" if I was buying something.
I should've re-phrased that question better. I really meant: Do window bars deter break-ins from burglars?
Burglars are going to look for the easiest target. If your home has bars on the windows, they will look for the home without bars on the windows. If your home has a security system, they are likely going to target the home next door without the security system. Ultimately, however, there is no such thing as a burglar-proof home.
No idea if they're effective, but it seems to me as if most windows bars are from an era when both violent and non-violent crime were literally nearly twice as high. The decrease in crime over the last 20 years, coupled with increasing affordability of home security systems, has made a big difference in the perceived need for those types of unattractive, in-your-face security measures. I live in an attractive, historic, and relatively safe neighborhood. There is still one house on my street with bars on their windows, which is surrounded by nicer houses with nicer cars out front, none of which have bars.
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