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Builders Participating in Window Safety Week
 Home builders associations can use a new package of promotional materials from the Window Safety Coalition to step up their outreach to new home buyers and their members’ customers.
NAHB, a member of the coalition, is promoting window safety through consumer education during The National Safety Council’s National Window Safety Week, which runs through this Saturday.
As part of that effort, NAHB has created a column service article with tips for home owners as they start opening up their windows to let in a little spring air. Among the points:
- Windows provide one of the fastest, easiest alternatives to escape a house fire. Sit down with your family to design an emergency escape plan — and practice it. Always be sure that there is at least one window in each sleeping and living area that is available as an alternate escape route during a home emergency.
- Make sure that your windows open and close easily. Don’t accidentally paint or nail your windows shut, making emergency escape impossible. Do not install window unit air conditioners where they could block or impede escape.
- While security bars, grilles and window grates keep intruders out, they also can lock you in. Make sure they have a simple and functioning release mechanism so that you can escape a fire.
- If you have young children in your home and are thinking about installing window fall prevention devices or guards, make sure the product has a release mechanism so that it can be opened to escape a fire. Consult your local fire department or building code official to determine proper window guard placement.
- When children are present, make sure that windows are closed and locked. Set and enforce rules to keep your children from playing around windows or patio doors, and keep furniture, along with any other objects that children can climb, away from windows.
- Don’t depend on window screens to prevent falls. Insect screens are designed to provide ventilation while keeping pests and debris out — not to keep youngsters in.
- Plant shrubs and other soft landscaping underneath windows to lessen the impact in case of a fall.
To ownload the column service article, click here. Get your window safety packet by e-mailing Brian Sause at NAHB, or call him at 800-368-5242 x8444.
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