Security shutters
Every roller shutter gives some protection. A security shutter is one built and tested to resist a defined attack for a defined time, and it is usually specified because an insurer, a landlord or a previous break-in has made the ordinary shutter look inadequate.
What a rating means
The reference point in the UK is LPS 1175, the Loss Prevention Certification Board’s standard for intruder-resistant building products. A shutter certified to it has been attacked in a test facility by people with a specified set of tools, and has held for a specified number of minutes.
The current issue grades products with a letter and a number: the letter for the toolkit, rising from A, which is a handful of hand tools, and the number for the minutes of resistance. The older SR grades still appear on insurance schedules, and the common ones translate roughly as SR1 to A1, SR2 to B3, SR3 to C5 and SR4 to D10.
A rating belongs to the complete shutter as tested: lath, guides, locks and fixings together. A shutter assembled from rated lath but fixed some other way is not a rated shutter.
Where the strength actually is
Attacks rarely go through the middle of a curtain. They go for the edges and the bottom. The details that count are deep guides with the curtain well engaged; end locks on the laths, which stop the curtain being dragged sideways out of a guide; a bottom rail that locks into the guides or the ground; and an anti-lift device so the curtain cannot be jacked up from below.
The heaviest lath in the catalogue will not help if the guides are held on with frame fixings into soft brick. On older buildings we sometimes recommend a steel subframe tied back to the structure, and we say so before quoting, not after.
Matching it to the premises
Most shops do not need the top of the range. A café or a barber is well served by a good perforated shutter with end locks and a solid bottom lock. Jewellers, pawnbrokers, phone shops, pharmacies and off-licences are where insurers name a rating, and where we would look at a rated shutter alongside laminated glass and an internal grille.
Ram-raids are a separate problem. No shutter stops a vehicle for long. Where a car can reach the glass, bollards or heavy planters on the line of the frontage do more than any upgrade to the curtain, and we will tell you if that is where the money is better spent.
Read the schedule first
If an insurer has asked for a security shutter, the policy wording normally names the standard and the grade. Send it to us before the survey. It is the difference between quoting the right product once and quoting twice.
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Asked on survey
- My insurer asks for LPS 1175 SR2. Can I still get that?
- The SR grades have been replaced, and a product rated B3 under the current issue is the usual equivalent. Get your broker to confirm in writing that B3 is acceptable before anything is ordered; we will provide the certification details they ask for.
- Can my existing shutter be upgraded?
- In part. End locks, a better bottom lock and an anti-lift device can often be retrofitted, and they make a real difference. The result is a stronger shutter, but not a certified one; only the complete tested product carries the rating.
- Does a security shutter need planning permission?
- The same rules apply as for any external shutter. Rated shutters are available in perforated lath, which is usually how a high-security shutter gets past a conservation officer.
