Written By: Brad Campbell | November 25, 2024
For retail stores, glass entryway doors offer a sleek, modern look while drawing in customers by better showcasing your products. They offer greater visibility, create a more welcoming atmosphere, and allow plenty of natural light to flood the space, making it feel more open and inviting. In short, glass entryway doors provide the perfect blend of form and function!
However, storefront glass doors are also incredibly vulnerable to forced entry, doing very little to deter or impede criminals from gaining unauthorized entry to a retail store — unless you retrofit security glass into your retail glass doors.
Reinforcing glass doors and windows with security glazing is the best way to protect retail stores from a full range of forced entry-related security threats, including burglary, smash-and-grab theft, and looting. Security glass also protects storefronts against acts of vandalism, storm damage, and other impacts.
Retrofit retail security glazing solutions are a more affordable alternative to replacing doors and windows completely, since they can often use the existing framing systems and even allow all the existing glass to remain in place. This cost-effectiveness helps retailers more effectively protect their businesses using their available security budgets.
In broad terms, retrofitting is when you install additional parts, materials, or equipment on/in something that’s already been manufactured. When it comes to security glass (or non-glass security glazing), retrofitting means to install it into or on top of an existing window or door framing system.
To retrofit security glazing into retail glass doors, you typically have to overglaze it (install on top of) or backglaze it (fix behind) over the existing door glass. If this is not possible due to structural limitations or certain characteristics of the specific type of security glazing being installed (e.g., weight or thickness), you can also sometimes replace the existing door glass with security glass without replacing the existing framing.
Retrofitting retail glass doors with security glass provides an immediate and robust solution for protecting businesses against a wide range of security threats, primarily forced entry and related threats. By reinforcing vulnerable glass entry points, it becomes significantly harder for criminals to carry out forced entry-related crimes, such as burglary and smash-and-grab thefts.
Security glazing is designed to resist impact far better than traditional glass and even the strengthened safety glass that is commonly used in storefronts. Whereas these types of glass shatter or crumble upon impact, security glass remains intact and in place, delaying or completely preventing unauthorized access.
In addition to providing physical storefront protection against forced entry, security glass also serves as a psychological deterrent. When criminals encounter a storefront outfitted with reinforced glass, they are more likely to abandon their plans and target a less secure location. This preventive measure can be critical in high-risk retail environments where burglary, smash-and-grab theft, looting, and vandalism are common threats.
Not only that, but retrofitting glass doors and windows with security glazing also helps protect against non-criminal impacts, such as flying storm debris and accidental damage, minimizing costly repairs and downtime due to unpredictable events.
Overall, by retrofitting retail glass doors with security glazing, businesses can ensure that their storefronts are well-protected from multiple types of security threats, while maintaining the aesthetic appeal and visibility that glass doors provide.
Riot Glass offers a full line of retrofittable security glazing solutions for glass storefront entryway doors. Retrofitting Riot Glass security glass into retail glass doors is made possible by specialized framing adapters that are fixed securely to the doors’ existing framing systems and hold the new security glazing in place.
For example, overglazing Riot Glass on top of an existing storefront door means retrofitting it in front of the existing door glass by fixing the retrofittable framing adapters within or on top of the existing metal door framing. Once the new security glass is securely in place, it creates an incredibly durable barrier over the existing retail door glass, preventing forced entry and protecting it from all other types of impacts.
Depending on the specific formulation of the retrofit system used (i.e., the combination of security glazing infills and security framing adapters), it’s even possible to turn a glass entryway door into an unbreakable security door.
In general, you should begin any security glass retrofit project with a threat assessment, which is a professional assessment of your property’s vulnerabilities conducted by a security expert who specializes in the implementation of security glazing and other commercial security solutions.
A professional threat assessment will provide you with specific, actionable recommendations for how to harden your property’s security, including recommendations about what type of security glazing to implement and where to retrofit it for maximum security.
Even if you have a good idea of where you want to retrofit security glass into retail glass doors, such as over top of the front entryway doors, it’s a good idea to get a threat assessment done to highlight any vulnerabilities or considerations you may not have thought of.
Any retail store’s physical security system is only as strong as its weakest point, so unbreakable storefront doors are only effective if the rest of the storefront is equally as secure.
For the majority of retailers, forced entry, burglary, smash-and-grab theft, and rioting and looting are the biggest concerns, and require a containment-grade (forced entry-resistant) solution. If you had a threat assessment done, that should have already given you a concrete idea of what type of security glazing to retrofit into your retail store’s glass doors.
For most retail security applications, we recommend retrofitting containment-grade ArmorPlast AP25 security glazing over all vulnerable doors and windows. This solution typically provides more than enough protection against most forced entry-related threats, as it’s virtually unbreakable.
However, certain types of high-risk retail businesses, such as cannabis dispensaries, 24-hour convenience stores, pawn shops, and jewelry stores, may benefit from retrofitting bullet-resistant glass into doors and windows for additional protection against armed robbery and violent attacks.
The next step towards successfully retrofitting security glass into retail glass doors is to measure your existing doors, from side-to-side and top-to-bottom.
If your commercial doors are standard sizes, the security glazing you need should be readily available. But, if your doors are a unique size, you will need to get custom-sized security glazing to fit them properly.
If you have any doubts about measuring and sizing, it’s best to get a glass contractor to take door measurements for you.
After you know how big your doors are, it’s time to order the retrofit security glazing from the manufacturer.
If you choose Riot Glass for your storefront security glazing retrofit project, we offer a soup-to-nuts service that includes everything from custom retail door glass manufacturing, to delivery, to installation (in certain areas).
If you’re located outside of our direct service area, we have a network of dealer-partners located throughout the United States, or we can work hand-in-hand with your local glass contractor to get any Riot Glass retrofit solution delivered and installed to our standards of excellence.
In order to ensure that the installation is done correctly and to ensure that the security glass meets safety and security standards, it’s very important to hire a professional to retrofit security glass into your retail doors.
Again, here at Riot Glass we can assist you with your security glazing retrofit installation anywhere in the U.S., either directly through our own installation service, indirectly through our dealer-partner network, or by collaborating with a local glass contractor.
Now that you know how to retrofit security glass into retail glass doors, are you ready to reinforce your storefront? If so, contact us today for a free consultation!
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