Do Wooden Plantation Shutters Make Your Home More Secure?

There are many cases for fitting plantation shutters to your home, most of which centre around how they make your home look on the outside and how, with the shade and light control they provide, they make your home feel on the inside.

One question that is sometimes asked about shutters, particularly solid wood or louvred designs, is whether they can help keep a home more secure.

Security shutters absolutely exist, both in the familiar metal rolling shutter form commonly used to secure places of business and even in the form of specially designed plantation shutters made from composite materials and featuring advanced locking systems.

If you want to buy graded and rated plantation shutters, they do exist. However, even conventional wooden shutters can provide some passive security, even if they are not necessarily a rated security system.

The most powerful weapon in a home security system is psychology, and shutters provide a sense of privacy and security that disincentivises an opportunistic burglar.

Most burglaries are smash-and-grab affairs that take less than ten minutes from entry to exit, often with significant research, scouting and casing to ensure that the burglary is worth the risk.

Anything that could potentially delay a burglar or suggest that a homeowner is at least mildly conscientious about their home security could make committing the crime not worth the risk.

As the Metropolitan Police put it, burglars will only target homes they think will contain valuables, and if they cannot see any obvious signs of anything, they will move away.

Beyond this, blinds and shutters can act as a frustrating physical barrier, particularly if there is a latch or lock on the inside that needs to be forced open manually.

Whilst a set of shutters is no substitute for secure window and door locks, they can provide enough of a disincentive to make a home less of a target.