GB2282403A

GB2282403A - Method of securing door or window opening

Info

Publication number: GB2282403A
Application number: GB9417104A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Alex Mcdonald Duffus
Original assignee: Sustainable Paving Systems LLC
Current assignee: Sustainable Paving Systems LLC
Priority date: 1994-08-24
Filing date: 1994-08-24
Publication date: 1995-04-05
Anticipated expiration: 2014-08-24
Also published as: GB9417104D0; GB2282403B; GB2282404A; GB9419708D0

Abstract

The door or window opening of a building is made secure by mounting a supplementary support means, e.g. a frame 26, to the wall 10 and/or to the door or window frame 14, 16, 22, on each of the four sides of the door or window frame, by providing a closure panel 36 of a shape to fit the door or window opening and securing the closure panel to the supplementary support by means of rivets 40. Alternatively (figure 2) the closure panel may be secured, e.g. to the door or window frame, by means of one-way screws (44). <IMAGE>

Description

METHOD OF SECURING DOOR OR WINDOW OPENING The present invention relates to methods of securing a door or window opening of a building, e.g.

temporarily unoccupied premises.

Property which is temporarily vacant for one reason or another, for example during building renovation, or between tenancies, is being increasingly subject to damage due to theft and vandalism. Early attempts to protect such property involved securing wooden or reinforced panels to the outer skin of the building around the opening.

The means of fixing the panels could easily be accessible from the outside and so lacked security.

In EP-A-0496616 we have proposed a security closure for a door or window opening comprising a panel of sheet material having an inner face and an outer face and a plurality of apertures therein, extending through the panel between the faces, at least two elongate pin members, each pin member having a blank head, the pin members each passing through a separate one of the apertures, with the head thereof in individual abutting engagement with the outer surfaces of the panel. A connecting member, such as a wire or integral bolt, is formed integrally with or connected to the pin on the side thereof inside the inner face and cooperates directly or indirectly with the surround of the door or window opening, whereby tensioning of the connecting member will pull the panel into the opening.

Such a structure is very satisfactory for normal use but it does require either the removal of the door or window or the boring of a hole in the door or window frame and these steps are sometimes found to be unacceptable by customers.

It is now proposed, according to the present invention, to provide a method of securing a door or window opening of a building, said opening having a door or window frame, said method comprising the steps of securing supplementary support means to the wall and/or to the door or window frame, on each of the four sides of the door or window frame, providing a closure panel of a shape to fit the door or window opening and securing the closure panel to the supplementary support by means of rivets.

With such a method, while it will be necessary to slightly damage the door or window frame during the securing of the supplementary support means, this may in fact be relatively minor damage involving the provision of a blind hole into which a simple screw is threaded. The support means may comprise a supplementary frame of the same shape and size of the door or window opening and this may, for example, be an angle section or a channel section metal frame having a flange extending parallel to the front face of the wall.

With such a structure, if one uses, for sample as in EP-A-0496616, a metal closure panel formed with a plurality of apertures therein, or indeed a metal panel without the apertures therein, then, prior to rivetting, holes may be bored through the panel and the flange to accept the rivets.

It is also contemplated, according to the invention, to provide a method of securing a door or window opening of a building, said opening having a door or window frame, said method comprising the steps of providing a closure panel of a shape and size in excess of the size of the door or window opening and securing the closure panel to the wall, or to the door or window frame, by means of oneway screws which can be tightened by means of a screw driver or other tool but cannot be loosened thereby.

In order that the present invention may more readily be understood, the following description is given, merely by way of example, reference being made to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a perspective view of a portion of a window frame to which is shown secured a closure panel by means of a first method according to the invention;- and Figure 2 is a similar view showing a further way of carrying out the method of the invention.

If reference is now made to Figure 1 of the drawings, there is illustrated therein a wall 10 having a window opening shown schematically at 12, in which is mounted a window frame of which can be seen the lower portion 14 and one of the side parts 16. A window pane 18 is illustrated mounted therein. The drawing also illustrates a window sill 20. On the outside of the window opening there is also illustrated a horizontal surface 22 forming a type of supplementary sill, this all being perfectly conventional.

According to the present invention, there is shown mounted on the surface 22 and abutting the front face of the window frame 14,16, a supplementary support in the form of a channel section supplementary frame 24, this channel section having a web 26, and a front flange 28, and a rear flange 30.

It will be seen that the supplementary frame 26 is secured to the wall 10 by means of screws or bolts 32.

Alternatively or additionally the rear flange 30 could be secured to the frame members 14,16.

It will be appreciated that instead of using a channel section other sections of frame could be employed, for example an angle iron section or indeed one could provide channel or iron angle brackets rather than a full frame. Preferably, however, the frame or the brackets have flange portion, e.g. the flange 28, which extends parallel to the front face of the wall 10.

A sheet metal panel 36 is shown as being provided with a multiplicity of apertures 38 therein and this closure panel 36 is secured to the flange 28 by means of a plurality of rivets 40 along each of the panel 36.

It will be appreciated that the above method of making secure the door or window opening is relatively inexpensive and can be carried out rapidly. Furthermore, there is little damage done to the frame or to the window opening by the screws or bolts 32 and any screws or bolts which may be fastened to the frame members 14,16.

Of course it will be appreciated that the supplementary support means, e.g. supplementary frame 24, needs to be provided on all four sides of the window and the rivets provided again on all four marginal portions of the panel 36. It will be appreciated also that the building can be made very secure with this arrangement as it is extremely difficult to remove all of the rivets to enable access to be gained. However, when it is desired to reopen the building for further occupation, then the rivets 40 can be drilled out and the supplementary support means then dismounted.

If reference is now made to Figure 2, a similar arrangement is illustrated and like parts have been indicated by like reference numerals. However in this structure one does not provide a supplementary support means, but rather one secures the panel 36 by drilling holes in the marginal portion thereof and then holding the panel in place by one-way screws 44 provided with washers 46. The one-way screws may be of a type having ramped outer surfaces or modified sockets (as shown). In either event when one applies a screw driver and rotates in a clock-wise sense, the screw will turn but when one tries to unscrew by rotating in an anti-clockwise sense, slippage simply takes place and it is impossible to use any ordinary tool such as a screw driver to remove the one-way screws 44.

As in the arrangement of Figure 1, when one wishes to dismount the panel the one-way screws have to be drilled out. While it will be possible for a vandal to do this, it would in fact be quite a time consuming job and he would be unlikely to do it for fear of detection. The socket type one-way screws illustrated are preferred because that will subsequently facilitate the drilling out when the panel is to be removed.

Claims

1. A method of securing a door or window opening of a building, said opening having a door or window frame, said method comprising the steps of securing supplementary support means to the wall and/or to the door or window frame, on each of the four sides of the door or window frame, providing a closure panel of a shape to fit the door or window opening and securing the closure panel to the supplementary support by means of rivets.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein supplementary support means comprises a supplementary frame of the same shape and size as the door or window opening.

3. A method according to claim 2, wherein the supplementary frame is an angle section or a channel section metal frame having a flange extending parallel to the front face of the wall when secured in place.

4. A method according to any preceding claim, wherein the closure panel is a sheet metal panel.

5. A method according to claim 4 when appendant to claim 3, wherein the sheet metal panel is formed with a plurality of apertures therein and wherein, prior to rivetting, holes are bored through the panel and the flange to accept the rivets.

6. A method of securing a door or window opening of a building, said opening having a door or window frame, said method comprising the steps of providing a closure panel of a shape and size in excess of the size of the door or window opening and securing the closure panel to the wall, or to the door or window frame, by means of one-way screws which can be tightened by means of a screw driver or other tool but cannot be loosened thereby.

7. A method according to claim 6, wherein the closure panel is a sheet metal panel formed with a plurality of apertures therein, and wherein the one-way screws are passed through separate ones of said apertures.

8. A method according to claim 7, wherein the closure panel is cut to the size of the door or window opening and wherein the one-way screws are screwed into the door or window frame.

9. A method of securing a door or window opening of a building, said method being substantially as hereinbefore described, with reference to, and as illustrated in the Figure 1 or in Figure 2 of the accompanying drawings.