Window shutters are usually non functional decorational pointless plastic junk nailed to the side of the house. I just replaced a bunch of windows and trim. But I made the trim kind of tough. Stained poplar glued to the stucco with "liquid nails" and screwed the poplar though stucko to the window frame studs with 3 inch deck screws so the window trim the stucco and the frame are all one structure now. A little excessive I know. The whole point was I may use them as a foundation for some kind of functional shutter later on. The old shutters that fell off the house many years ago were just nailed to the stucco. I the only protection I am looking to get out of these shutters is a little hail proofing. Not really looking to make the shutters bullet proof, fire proof or anything thing crazy like that since the trim is tough but not strong enough to hang steel plates off from. Just weather protection. We can get base ball size hail, micro burst in the summer and blizzards with 90mph winds in the winter. I have seen hail here take the vinyl siding off 3 sides of some ones house and bust all their windows not far from me and last winter we had a blizzard blowing for 8 hours with gusting up to 80mph so its real. A busted window during a blizzard would really ruin my day. Any ideas?
Look for European designed shutters, they still put the functional type in and some are even triple layered. I spent some time in Northern Europe and Italy, everywhere I stayed that had windows, had functional shutters. They were of many different designs which led me to believe they were all built in place and not available as a kit like most building construction stuff in the US. They were all built of wood and operated with metal rods that ran through the sills, window sides, and walls, which folded out of the way so they didn't protrude into the room. I'll look through my pics and see if I have any I can put up here any as I was fascinated with the mechanics and simplicity of how these were constructed.
Look up Rolleden rolling shutters, the ones we have here in the states use a box above the window, however in Northern Europe (Germany) they are built into the wall, typically aluminum, you can roll them up just a bit and in each joint they have slots that you can see out of or use for ventilation. I wanted to use them on my house, but they are real expensive, every house in Germany has them. Rancher
The home depo stuff is more along the lines of slapping a panel over the window. That is a good plan for people who have no plan. I was looking for something more like shutters that look like the fake non functional shutters everyone has nailed to the side of homes but they can be quickly closed and reopened and provide some protection. I went and looked at the fake ones to see if there is any way they could be used but they are so flimsy. Guess I will just have to build something.
There are several companies still making working shutters in the USA. Just google a term like "functional window shutters"
This might sound ridiculous, but fallow me here. If you create a shutter system that is hinged from an nonconventional direction and put false hinges externally, in typical locations as well, some one attempting to break in, would have a hard time trying to figure it out . Being made to latch via a hidden interior mechanism would further frustrate intruders . This kind of security however might be prudent to have a sprinkler system in the event of a fire, as well as other fire type protocols. If your looking to be cheap, well you get what you pay for.
