Putting up just any fence around your home won’t guarantee security. In fact, some fences can even be counterproductive and attract burglars rather than protect your home and property. So how do you make the best of security fencing?
- Make sure that yours is a fence that’s not easy to climb over. For one, it should be 8 feet high at the very least. Build your fence in such a way that it possesses spikes, spear-tips, or razor-wires especially on a fence with a flat top. Your fence must also have few horizontal rails to prevent giving burglars a leg up if they climb over your fence.
- Take care to avoid giving burglars any hiding place. This means shunning overly tall and solid fences as well as dense shrubs and big trees along the fences. While they may look formidable, they actually keep burglars hidden from the eyes of police and neighbours. See-through fences are better to give you a view of people on the other side.
- Pay attention that your fence is not easy to circumvent. Do not allow burglars to go around or under your fence with ease by making sure they go along the entire length of your property and fortifying your gates. Secure the fences on the ground with concrete footings and avoid common fencing materials, like chain-links, that are in fact easily cut through with bolt cutters.
Now what kind of fences fulfils all three security requirements in order to guarantee the protection of your home? Security experts recommend the following measures for your security fencing:
Make use of metal fencing that is composed of evenly spaced thin, tall metal rods. The advantages of metal fences include the relative low-cost for installation and very low maintenance. Metal is also not susceptible to being infested by termites and other pests. Of the metal fences, the powder coated aluminium ones are cheaper and more rust-resistant, while wrought iron fences can be custom-built and provide a classic aesthetic to your fence.
Wire mesh fencing with tightly woven wire grids that is both highly durable and cheap is also recommended. Wire mesh fences have the advantage of being easy to install yourself after being ordered or bought from the stores. Like aluminium fences, it is not prone to insect infestation or rotting. It does not require painting either.
If, however, it would be impossible to mount fences around your entire house, one more approach to securing your home would be using short fences to serve as an additional obstacle for burglars and preventing quick escapes with your possessions. While hardly impenetrable, a short fence can make it harder to break into your home without neighbours noticing someone hopping over it.
