Residential Bollards: Which Bollards Are Best

Residential customers make up a significant portion of our customer base here at Bollard Security, and for good reason – there are a number of ways that bollards can be put to good use within residential premises, both from a safety and security perspective. If you’re still sizing up how your home can benefit, we’ve listed some of the most useful applications below. Just before we dive into that though, it’s worth covering a common query we often field from our customers.

What kind of bollards are best for residential properties?

To be honest, there’s no hard and fast answer to this question. By and large, it comes down to the individual choice of the homeowner. However, in our experience here at Bollard Security, we tend to find that temporary or mobile ones are preferred by homeowners over static or permanent bollards. (Of course, this depends on their application!)

In general, telescopic bollards are the favoured choice for homeowners, since they tend to strike the right balance between security and convenience. As they’re lighter and easier to manage, they can be moved in and out of the way as required. Removable lift-out bollards bollards can similarly create a smooth surface for cars to drive on, so that homeowners can grant or restrict access on their property as much as they please. (However, due to the time required to lock them into their sockets – and out again – they’re often seen to be not quite as convenient as telescopic bollards.) Automatic bollards are sometimes used in a similar capacity, but these obviously require significant extra investment, and tend to only be chosen for higher-end properties or luxury residences.

Other types of bollards like cycle stands tend to be a popular option, as they provide a useful secondary function, especially for teenagers or children in the family. (Anti terror bollards on the other hand, are amongst the bollards that can be safely excluded from the options of most homeowners.)

Useful applications or places for residential bollards

Depending on the size and layout of your property, and what sort of function you’re looking for your bollards to fulfil, there are a number of specific locations in which you might choose to install them. Below are just a few of our suggestions.

Driveways

We’ll start with the most obvious location. The driveways of most homes are prime locations for vehicles to be coming and going, so it makes sense that this is the area where they’d be most vulnerable to collisions. Sometimes people may be driving too fast, or they may lose control over terrain conditions, such as black ice. Other times it may be just a matter of misjudging the distance involved, and scraping their cars along neighbouring vehicles (like yours). This is where our driveway bollards and parking bollards can serve useful functions, either for demarcation in parking spaces or in simple traffic control roles.

Near or within garages

Even if you’re well practised at reversing into your garage, it only takes once to misjudge it, or accidentally brush the accelerator, and back into the house. This can have varying levels of consequences, depending on how hard you do it! Carefully placed security bollards can help minimise the chances of this happening once outside the garage. You might even want to consider removable bollards inside it, too. Reversing too far once you’re in there may damage the contents or interior walls of the garage. However, installing residential bollards ensures that a minimum distance is maintained from the back wall, which can spare you some big headaches in the long run.

They can also be useful for motorcycle owners, with sturdy hoop bollards providing excellent anchor points to lock the vehicle up to. While most motorcycle owners lock the rear wheels of their bikes and lean them against the wall, it’s not unknown for thieves to simply take the bike anyway, loading it into the back of a van or other getaway vehicle to work on the lock later. Locking a motorcycle to a hoop bollard, on the other hand, means that even if thieves gain access to the garage, they would still be prevented from removing the motorcycle from its stand.

Outside perimeter

While perhaps not fully appreciated by the majority of homeowners, there are certain properties which might find themselves particularly vulnerable to vehicle incursions. These don’t necessarily have to be malicious or criminal in nature – homes on hairpin bends for example, or where there’s a sudden change of speed limit – may find themselves frequently dealing with minor vehicle collisions or near misses to their outside walls.

On the other hand, if someone completely loses control of the car, the worst case scenario would involve them colliding with the house. In that case, property damage would be the very best outcome, while loss of life would be the very worst. Thankfully, bollards can help protect against this. These are the best safety reasons for homes in high-traffic areas – whereas they can serve similarly useful security functions for homes that are in more out-of-the-way locations.

If you need any help in deciding which bollards or parking posts are best for your property, or which ones would suit your aims best, then we’re only too happy to help here at Bollard Security. We have a huge variety of bollards in stock, and our years of expertise means our experts are only too happy to help you work out which ones are best for you. Give us a call on 01756 636 196 to see what we can do for you!