Glass breaks. The film holds it in the frame.

A break-in through glass takes seconds. One hit, the pane falls away, and the opening is clear. Security film changes what happens after the hit.

Guardian is a thick, tear-resistant film bonded to the inside of the glass and sealed to the frame. When the glass breaks, the shards stay stuck to the film, and the film stays anchored in the frame. The pane cracks. It does not fall out.

That buys time and noise. An intruder has to keep hitting at a sheet of held-together glass instead of stepping through a hole. Slow and loud is the opposite of what a break-in needs.

Here is the honest limit. Security film does not make glass unbreakable. It slows forced entry and holds the broken glass together. It is not a substitute for a deadbolt or an alarm. It works alongside them. The same behavior keeps a pane in one piece after a ball, a branch or a hailstone.

• Front-door sidelights. The glass right next to the deadbolt. Break it, reach in, unlock the door. Film keeps that glass in the frame.
• Sliding and patio doors. The largest, lowest glass on most homes, usually at the back.
• Ground-floor windows. Bedrooms and living rooms at grade, especially on the side of the house.
• Basement windows. Small, low and rarely watched.
• Any glass near a lock. Glass in or beside a door that a hand could reach through.

For shops and offices, the same film goes on street-level glass and entry doors. See storefront tint, or the guide to security film for a Denver retail storefront.

Mil is thickness. One mil is a thousandth of an inch. Thicker film resists more force and holds more glass. Every Guardian thickness costs the same per square foot.

• Guardian 4mil Clear. The entry point. Holds glass together after accidental breakage and covers secondary windows.
• Guardian 8mil Clear. The middle of the range for sidelights, sliders and ground-floor glass. Tougher against repeated hits.
• Guardian 8mil Silver. The same thickness with a reflective silver finish. Adds daytime privacy and cuts solar heat on the same pane.
• Guardian 12mil. The thickest film we install, for the glass you worry about most.

We do not pick the thickness from a chart online. We look at the pane, its frame and how exposed it is, then recommend one on the written quote.

Film alone holds glass together. It does not hold that sheet of glass in the window. Edge sealing does. A bead of structural sealant runs along every edge, bonding the film to the frame. When the glass breaks, the pane stays put instead of flexing out of the opening in one piece.

The manufacturer requires it on Guardian, and we never install security film without it. It is billed at $4 per lineal foot of window edge, on its own line of the quote. No film is ever charged both the $2 and the $4 rate.

Example, before we see your glass. One 3 ft by 6 ft panel beside a front door is 18 square feet. Guardian 8mil Clear at $20 per square foot is $360. Add 18 lineal feet of edge sealing at $4, or $72. Example total, $432. See what it costs for more worked examples.

Three of the four Guardian films are clear. The glass looks like glass. Guardian 8mil Silver reflects like one-way privacy film: people outside see a mirror by day, and it reverses at night with the lights on inside. Choose it for a ground-floor bedroom or a west-facing slider where you want privacy and heat control in the same install.

We identify your glass on the estimate and check it against the manufacturer's chart of 972 film-and-glass combinations before we recommend anything. The limits we follow:

• Single-pane glass under 100 square feet
• Dual-pane glass under 40 square feet
• Clear glass under 3/8 inch thick
• Odd-shaped windows over 25 square feet void the warranty
• Uneven exterior shading voids the warranty
• Triple-pane glass treated like dual pane

The dual-pane cap matters here. Most newer sliding doors are dual pane, and a large slider panel can run past 40 square feet. If a film is not safe on your glass, we say so and recommend something that is. Check your glass.

1. Free in-home estimate. We look at your actual windows.
2. Glass check against the manufacturer's chart.
3. One written quote, every cost accounted for, edge sealing on its own line.
4. Install, most homes in a single visit, floors protected, every edge sealed and finished.

Every install carries the manufacturer's film warranty plus ikonic's workmanship guarantee. The glass limits above are what keep that warranty valid. Further reading: security window film as your home's invisible break-in shield.

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