Razor wire and other serious deterrents

[Adsibob]

After a nasty burglary, I need to further strengthen my defences.
 

 Can anyone recommend some razor wire that looks and is seriously scary and that I can order for relatively prompt delivery I need a few runs of it above a fence that is 8.3m long. So I thought if I bought 25m I could run it three times with each run 10cm from the adjacent one, thereby increasing the height of my fence by 30cm. Is this worthwhile or will a determined thief just cut it with bolt cutters?

 

 

[nod]

Although you see it everywhere You will be liable if someone cuts themselves Even the burglars Crazy 

[Big Jimbo]

You can no longer embed glass on the top of your wall either. @nod is right I'm afraid. Get a big dog, a geese, lots of outside lights, quality locks, and lots of visible cameras.

The problem is. You are a nice guy. You have a nice car on the drive. Your house looks nice from the street. That means that you have probably got a few nice watches inside, and a couple of laptops. Some decent bling. As you have been burgled, you are now more likely to get done again. The local crack heads know where to go when they need another baggy.

I feel for you. That's London I'm afraid.

I see that Tony Martin recently passed away. Limping Scum Fearon said he understood why Martin shot him, and killed his 16 year old pal.

I kid you not. My friend, many years ago, got Six years inside for torturing a burgler who he caught in his house.

The only other thing I can think of, is some of those concertina grills. I think Banham used to do them. You close, and lock them when you are out, and have them on all ground floor openings. Bloody ugly though, but a second defence. You are going to have to turn the place into a bloody prison to try and keep the scum out.

When I was in London, I was always told. "Make your place look like a pain in the butt to get into, and hope they go nextdoor" 

 

[JohnMo]

8 hours ago, Adsibob said:

just cut it with bolt cutters?

Or just walk up your drive circumvented any barbwire. Leave barbwire to the military. Barbed wire just says, I am rich and have lots to hide and protect, please break in.

 

Do you automatic lights? So they can't sneak about in the dark unseen.

3 minutes ago, Big Jimbo said:

"Make your place look like a pain in the butt to get into, and hope they go nextdoor" 

Or likely to be seen heard easily

[mike2016]

Master Blaster Siren (inside), Strobes and Security Fog for full alarm set ONLY (when no one is at home), not part set / disarmed if that is possible on your alarm panel. Protect the most important rooms and really deter them being able to orientate themselves / find anything. A safe with nothing in it but monopoly money. Anticlimb paint on your side of the wall, not to stop them but to ruin their shoes, one of the few things they care about.....

[sgt_woulds]

Watch: Burglar caught in Home Alone-style trap

 

On our vans we rigged up starter pistol caps to explode if the side doors were bent down.  Same on a shed door at our yard. 

 

Judging by the puddle and splashes, when it went off, it caused a very physical reaction from the would-be thief 🙂

 

Once, after a late night out at the pub, I'd just flopped into bed when I heard my van alarm going off.  I dashed outside and chased the little tyke down the street.  After about 200 yards I realised it was quite nippy outside.

 

Having a drunk angry man rushing out at you in his birthday suit, screaming blue murder and brandishing a toothbrush with evil intent, (I've no idea why I grabbed that as I shot outside) seems to be a fairly good deterrent.

[Adsibob]

9 hours ago, Big Jimbo said:

When I was in London, I was always told. "Make your place look like a pain in the butt to get into, and hope they go nextdoor" 

I have done exactly that: my side gate is 3.2m tall, made of steel with very sharp spikes on top. All my locks are PAS24 rated and all glazing on ground floor is laminated. We have a few cameras and some security lighting. 
 

The problem is that my neighbours have not done the same. And London being as densely populated as it is, you can enter through one craply defended house, and then climb over fences until you find the house you are targeting. Razor wire may possibly help with that, and I’m not bothered if someone gets cut on it. That’s the point, it’s a deterrent. But query whether it will deter this scum. What else can I do?

[SteamyTea]

10 hours ago, Big Jimbo said:

 

I see that Tony Martin recently passed away.

He went to the same public school as me (a few years before I did).

Apparently he was trouble. Guy had undiagnosed mental health trouble I was told.

 

Clean Cut Kid, by Bob Dylan.

 

Everybody's asking why he couldn't adjust

Adjust to what, a dream that bust?

They took a clean cut kid (ooh)

And they made a killer out of him

That's what they did

They said what's up is down, they said what isn't is

They put ideas in his head that he thought were his

They took a clean cut kid (ooh)

But they made a killer out of him

That's what they did

He's on the baseball team, he's in the marching band

When he was ten years old he had a watermelon stand

He was a clean cut kid (ooh)

And they made a killer out of him

That's what they did

They said, "Listen boy, you're just a pup"

They sent him to a napalm health-spa to shape up

They gave him dope to smoke, drinks and pills

A jeep to drive, blood to spill

They said "Congratulations, you got what it takes"

They sent him back into the rat race without any brakes

They took a clean cut kid (ooh)

And they made a killer out of him

That's what they did

He bought the American dream but it put him in debt

Only game he could play was Russian roulette

He drank Coca-Cola, he was eating Wonder Bread

He ate Burger Kings, he was well fed

He went to Hollywood to see Peter O'Toole

He stole a Rolls Royce and drove it in a swimming pool

They took a clean cut kid (ooh)

And they made a killer out of him

That's what they did

He could've sold insurance, owned a restaurant or bar

He could've been an accountant or a tennis star

He was wearing boxing gloves, he took a dive one day

Off the Golden Gate Bridge into China Bay

His mama walks the floor, his daddy weeps and moans

They gotta sleep together in a home they don't own

They took a clean-cut kid (ooh)

And they made a killer out of him

That's what they did

Well, everybody's asking why he didn't adjust

All he ever wanted was somebody to trust

They took his head and turned it inside out

He never did know what it was all about

He had a steady job, he joined the choir

He never did plan to walk the high wire

They took a clean cut kid (ooh)

And they made a killer out of him

That's what they did

 

 

[Big Jimbo]

Love that @SteamyTea. Im a big Costello fan. I must give Dylan a listen.

[Big Jimbo]

24 minutes ago, Adsibob said:

I’m not bothered if someone gets cut on it. That’s the point,

I'm with you buddy.

[SteamyTea]

27 minutes ago, Big Jimbo said:

big Costello fan

Saw him in the Nag's Head, High Wycombe, in '77.

[marshian]

1 hour ago, SteamyTea said:

Saw him in the Nag's Head, High Wycombe, in '77.

Back in the late 70’s I watched a little known band called Iron Maiden in various london pubs - they were good even then 

 

OT I know

[Adsibob]

Refreshing this thread

I need to get some spikey strips to install on top of my trellis.

The options I've found are:

 

Plastic: https://earlygrow.co.uk/product/fence-spikes?srsltid=AfmBOooT0wBqLvT_DpBdfK2i_Kky2LzYmyqB6u7AqffioMnus5-RYXg2

Metal: https://www.insight-security.com/razor-channel-inchuinch-profile-anti-climb-security-spikes-1point8-metre-length-galvanised-finish

Another plastic option: https://www.insight-security.com/anti-climb-spikes-prikla-hinge-strip-individual-strip-500-45mm

 

I like the third option the best as it comes in a colour that matches the paint on my fence and trellis. Only issue is that being 50cm long will need to be cut to size to fit 6 foot long fencing panels. The other products come in 180cm lengths which is not ideal because that will leave a little gap at the end of each fence panel which together with the fence post will allow an "island of safety" where the scumbags can get in. 

 

Other query is whether plastic is ever going to be as sharp and scary as metal? Presumably it could just be cut off?

 

Let's keep it on topic please.

[kandgmitchell]

Have you considered bird spikes? They tend to be slightly longer and can't be easy to climb over, Cut to length and add to top of posts as well.

[Adsibob]

45 minutes ago, kandgmitchell said:

Have you considered bird spikes? They tend to be slightly longer and can't be easy to climb over, Cut to length and add to top of posts as well.

I don't think these will be very effective if a thick blanket was placed over them. It would just bend the bird spikes over so they weren't spikey anymore. Plus being longer they are more noticeable and uglier.

[Russell griffiths]

Load of rubbish, the plastic ones are crap. 
pick something that does the job, not because the colour matches your fence, or it’s a better length. 

Edited March 24 by Russell griffiths

[Big Jimbo]

@Russell griffiths they are the proper job. Love em.

[Nickfromwales]

Yup, they'll do the trick! The scumbags won't want to ruin their designer robbing clobber.

[Adsibob]

Thanks. Those spikes from https://intruderspikes.co.uk/product/wall-spikes look good. Will probably go with those.

[Adsibob]

So after discussions with my neighbour it looks like we are closer to agreeing the replacement of the fence which the burglars broke through. That fence was 4.5 feet high wooden panels sitting on a concrete gravel board which is about 1.5 feet high, so a 6 foot fence in total. Sounds high, but the ground level is raised by about a foot on my side, the concrete gravel boards making up a sort of retaining wall. They didn’t climb over it, instead they managed to exploit a weakness in one of the panels and get through it.

 

I’m now planning on replacing the 4.5 fence with this 5 foot one:

https://www.eastcoastfencing.com/6ft-x-5ft-ultra-heavy-duty-closeboard-fence-panel-pressure-treated-brown?_gl=1*18b65mh*_up*MQ..*_gs*MQ..&gclid=Cj0KCQjw16O_BhDNARIsAC3i2GADgF_150ffj2f5cihPlYl8P3YmV7wN28jL8p60pK3VThN90tv0M-IaAgo3EALw_wcB

 

The side without the horizontal pieces would be on my side, whereas the side the burglars came from would be just the vertical planks. This would sit on the concrete gravel boards, between new concrete posts. On top I will fit trellis and on top of the trellis, the scissor spikes (see previous link). 
 

my question is given the longest concrete posts I can find at a reasonable price are 2.7m, what is the maximum height of trellis I can fit: 45cm or 30cm?

 

The fence plus the gravel board will already be 6’6”. If I add 45cm of trellis, that makes 8 feet. If only 30cm of the 45cm trellis is bounded by the concrete posts, and 15cm is sticking up above the posts, this would mean 7’6” of the post is above ground and leaves only 41cm of post below ground in the concrete foundations. That is not complying with the installation notes of the 2.7m posts which say a third of that, ie 90cm, should be underground. 
 

90cm seems excessive, particularly because this fence is largely protected on one side by trees and on the other side it is only 10m away from a house, so shouldn’t really have much wind exposure.

 

is 50cm foundation enough?

 

That would allow 2.2m above ground, which would be 45cm gravel board, 150cm fence, then either 30cm or 45cm or trellis only 25cm of which would be supported by the fence posts.

 

The other alternative is to fit 6 feet of fencing and no trellis, but police recommend trellis as it provides less support to an intruder wishing to climb over which apparently creates a psychological deterrent as the intruder runs the risk of the trellis snapping under his weight causing injury.

 

 Thoughts?

 

Edited Monday at 23:07 by Adsibob

[Russell griffiths]

You need 600mm in the ground. 
Get the trellis made on site, from longer timber so it spans across the top of the posts to make a complete run, not 6 foot sections, that way you can lift it higher than the post tops, keeping the bottom in the post and sailing through with the top two rows of slats. 
just a thought. 

[Adsibob]

6 hours ago, Russell griffiths said:

You need 600mm in the ground. 
Get the trellis made on site, from longer timber so it spans across the top of the posts to make a complete run, not 6 foot sections, that way you can lift it higher than the post tops, keeping the bottom in the post and sailing through with the top two rows of slats. 
just a thought. 

If 600mm goes in the ground, that leaves 2.1m above ground. If 45cm is taken by the gravel boards, and 150cm by the fence, that leaves 15cm for supporting trellis. Are you suggesting it doesn't matter whether I go for 30cm high trellis or 45cm high trellis as either way I join the trellis along the top with an extra batten, to give it additional support? Or is it still better to go for 30cm?

Building trellis entirely from scratch seems unnecessarily laborious when the supplier can supply it so cheaply. The 30cm high stuff is about £11 a 6' wide board, and I only need 6 boards. 

[Russell griffiths]

A 3m post is about £35. 

[marshian]

Round my area wood panels in between concrete posts is std fencing - I've never liked it from a security perspective - you can lift a panel up, chock it and then gain access underneath it - I stick with cant and rail with a feather board front finish - neighbours * all have the "good side" that way no easy climb over from the other sides of the fencing

 

 * Unfortunately all the fences around the garden are marked on the deeds as mine (last house built in the first of two phases) as I stand in my garden the one to the right is mine - the one at the back is mine and the one to my left is mine...............