NYC Window Guards: What Gets Guarded, and How
NYC window guards start with one question: can the opening be reached from a sidewalk, areaway, fire escape or adjoining roof? If it can, it is a candidate for a guard.
Which openings get guarded
On the buildings we work on, the list is consistent: brownstone parlor and cellar windows, apartment building ground floors and airshafts, storefront side and rear windows, school and community facility openings, warehouse and garage windows — and the vent, louver and A/C sleeve openings on all of them. Those last ones matter, because vents and sleeves are the openings burglars actually try once the windows are guarded.
Bar, welded mesh or expanded metal
Flat and square bar guards are the standard for ground floor and parlor windows: vertical bars on a welded frame, spaced to keep sightlines open. Welded mesh closes the opening tighter, which is usually what cellar and areaway windows need. Expanded metal stops hands and thrown debris as well as entry, which is why it shows up on schools, garages and utility rooms. Where a facade is landmarked or simply visible, custom patterns — scroll work, picket tops, curved heads — are fabricated so the guard looks intentional.
Egress windows
Where a window is a required means of egress, the guard has to open from the inside without a key. Those get built as hinged or release-type guards and tested open and closed before the crew leaves; the rest of the opening is fixed solid.
Why fit decides everything
A guard cut down from a stock size leaves a gap at the edge for a pry bar to find. Every steel window guard we build is field-measured so the frame sits inside the reveal, bars and mesh are shop-welded to the frame so there is no exterior hardware to unscrew, and anchors land in sound brick or block rather than mortar joints. Frames are primed and painted before delivery, then touched up on site after anchoring.
Window guards are one of four lines in our security steel group, alongside security doors, roll down gates and cages and partitions.
Every job is measured in the field and built to that opening - we fabricate in our own Brooklyn shop and install with our own crew, the same way we have since 1972.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. Where a window is a required means of egress we build hinged or release-type guards that open from the inside without a key, and fix the rest of the opening solid.