Would like to draw experience from those who have experience living in condominiums or apartments particularly high floor units. It is quite a norm to install iron grille at the main door and the small balcony area at the air well just outside the kitchen of condominiums or apartments. However, it is necessary to install iron grilles at the main door of the balcony at the living room and the windows of the bedroom that are all located at the facade of the building? For the burglar to enter through these doors or windows he/she would need to be like a spiderman just like the infamous Frenchman (forgotten the name) who used to scale tall skyscrapers using his bare hands including the Petronas Twin Towers before getting caught by the authorities or police.

Back to some seriousness, are there any owners living on condo units who have had someone breaking into your units? If yes, where is the access point that the unwelcome visitors use in gaining entry into your units? Is it through the main front door, the air well area through the kitchen or, just like Spiderman, through the balcony area or windows of the building? Do you have iron grilles installed at all these areas prior to the uninvited visitors gaining access into your units?

Any experience would be appreciated.

Of course, any opinions would be appreciated but real life experience from those who have had their units (already installed with iron grille) being broken into by uninvited visitors would be most useful.

Staying in 14th Floor, with 3 tier security, didn't bother to install one, my balcony sliding door is one way lock (only can be lock/unlocked inside), so i guess is pretty ok, but I'm the only 1 didn't install grille on the main door.

On the yard area, mine was due the design of the condo, it blocked most of the way for someone to climb in, so didn't install that too.

There are always break-ins in condos. Especially during long festival holidays.
As a peace of mind, its advisable to have install a proper grille with solid padlocks (at least for the main door).
The rest of the rpoms/balcony is depend on your pocket. For me its good, as mostly are full glass windows. Having grille is better.

The unit I'm renting actually shares the aircond ledge so there's a risk.

Okay thanks for the post buddy. That is surely logical. If there is no way for the burglar to climb into the yard area due to the design of the condo, then it is perfectly comprehensible that there isn't any need to install iron grille at the area.

For the main door, the iron grille will serve little purpose if the person is an experienced locksmith as he/she will be able to unlock the lock and gain entry through the iron grille and main door within seconds without using any other large tools. In other words, if the person is skilled, he will be able to enter the unit through the main front door even if it is already installed with iron grille. The iron grille usually acts as a form of deterrent or added safety or assurance for the owner but it is not 100% full-proof.

As for the main balcony and windows, personally I feel it is very unlikely uninvited visitors will gain access through these areas unless he is a skilled daredevil like the Frenchman but nevertheless, will see if anyone here has had their units broken into through these access.

Didn't see your post coming in when I replied to the earlier post. Yes I agree it is a good assurance to install these iron grilles as there is just a full sliding glass door at the main balcony area. Just trying to see if there is anyone who has had their units broken into through this access at the high floors, with or without iron grille.

As for the main door, similarly I would think that iron grille and padlock is the way to go. However as I have mentioned earlier, even if there is an iron grille or solid padlock, an experienced locksmith will be able to open the padlock within seconds. Having said that, the iron grille and padlock at the main door will still be useful as a form of assurance.

I top up with cctv in front of my main door.

Not only for security, It also for safety!. Children may fall.

Yes, that's a good point.

Condo break in only involve small valuables like smartphone, ipad, laptop, jewellery, money

Entry may not be through the main door so no point of breaking since they only wanna take small items.

Focus on louvre opening in the kitchen, windows, laundry area & toilet

Install safety door as main door and grille is not really necessary unless got children

depends your design. nowadays many windows all around balcony/rooms/kitchen, so even with grill doors on the front there are many other entries.

when you say grill do you mean extra steel door infront of the original door, or the one further out of your main door (if you like to leave shoes outside it maybe good idea), but the design is limited to condo management?.

for balcony, most condos uses big glass while they are locked it won't stop people. i have not seen people install grills behind their balcony access.

for rooms, some condos have big windows just to look good, you can put grills behind but that would really change the look. depends if there are any ledges for people to climb around.

for kitchen, same, depends whether there are ledges. but even without ledges they can just SWAT team rope down from above.

if small windows, easy to install grills, but nowadays all windows are big big pieces, how you install?

how do you do that? since usually highrise nowadays lots of glass panels.

if put grill, will change the looks.

or got simpler way to do?

Thanks for the information. Somehow this makes sense as I don't think the burglars will consider taking larger items such as TV or hifi since they will need to carry these items in the lift and since the lifts would likely have CCTV installed there would be video recording of these fellas carrying these items. Makes sense isn't it?

I'm more concerned on them taking the hifi though these are larger items and quite heavy.

Is the CCTV inside the apartment or outside? If outside, is there a power socket to power the CCTV?

Similarly I plan to install a CCTV in the apartment, though a cheap one such as the Xiaomi Dafang. However, I was thinking that even though there are all these security measures in place, the thief or burglar may have got smarter throughout the years with all these technological advancements. Even though there is a CCTV, the intruder may wear a face mask and for this reason people may not be able to identify the culprit. I have received few Whatsapp videos from friends and some of the break-ins captured by videos, the intruders were wearing a mask or a cloth to cover the face.

Similarly I am in agreement with few comments on iron grille. It is surely true that the padlock, I mean any padlocks low-end or high-end can be easily opened by a locksmith in several seconds. Few years ago I hired a locksmith to open a padlock and to my amazement he opened it in a blink of an eye, probably in less than 5 seconds. It's like child play to him. Seeing him unlock the padlock just makes me wonder the man can enter through any locked gates without any problem. Though he is earning a living but with the skills he possesses, he can have access to basically any home if he has bad intentions.

Now coming back to this iron grille. If the main door iron grille and padlocks are breached by the intruder, the second tier would be the CCTV and most importantly alarm. Personally I think CCTV is important but it is just a tool to record videos. That's all. It will likely not prevent the thief from carrying out his work. However, the alarm will surely cause some panic and somehow disrupt the activity. Better still if the alarm is connected to the main security system of the condominium or apartment so that the security guards will be alerted once the alarm goes off, but this connected system is usually available only in high-end condo or apartment.

In summary, it is clear from this thread that iron grille is necessary for high floor condo units, not only for break-ins but to prevent a young child from falling 10 or 20 storeys down. The second point is if the 1st tier security in iron grille at the main door or pad locks are breached, the 2nd tier security which I believe is the last tier will be the CCTV + Alarm.

These are few samples showing the iron grille being breached. It is obvious that by looking at the damage, the activity was not done by a locksmith but someone with a cutter. Even with a cutter, just have a look how easy it is to gain entry to the apartment even though the main door already has an iron grille and padlock.




This post has been edited by ryder_78: Oct 31 2017, 08:02 AM

Grills are as good as its weak point. Protect the weak points esp the pad lock area and also the hinges. Padlock protection can use Nakamura N1/N5 or Keynox padlock protectors or other brand of equivalent function. Specify the width of the side bars such that the padlock protector have sufficient width to be mounted. If space allows, let grill open inwards towards the entrance.

Kitchen balcony access if easier to climb in, grill it up. Although some adept climbing it's needed, it's better to protect. The least is to cover that spot with CCTV or as a barrier to entry, the balcony door should use double key door knobs meaning locking is with key from both sides. Plus a few strategically placed dead bolts that can only be operated from the inside. Any rooms with windows into the balcony should be grilled up if the outer balcony is not. Not required if outer balcony have been grilled up.

This post has been edited by halcyon27: Oct 31 2017, 09:03 AM

you'd imagine the amount of noise would chaos a ruckus? but no, guess it was done daytime and folks though it was renovation works going on.

it's better to have the lock behind the grills, so it's harder to reach. for you, either way it's gonna be harder to reach from 1 side unless you don't padlock when you are inside.

nowadays many condo management insist on the grilles you showed, which is really not that strong it's actually designed in the 80's.

got any good samples on how to grill up balcony access, kitchen windows, bedroom windows those tall corner ones. like subtle way of doing it so it won't ruin the looks?