What Is the Difference Between High-Security Fence and Chain Link Fence?

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In some parts of the world, chain link fence is still installed as a security fence. However, in many regions, a chain link fence is not considered a security fence at all. If you’ve ever wondered why that is, this article is for you.

Let’s take a closer look at the answers to the question of what the difference is between a high-security fence and a chain link fence and which one might be best for your project.

What Is a High Security Fence?

The first thing we need to establish to answer the question of what is the difference between a high-security fence and a chain link fence is to define what a high-security fence actually is.

In the fence world, this is always tricky because there aren’t many fence types that you can walk into any fence supplier and ask for simply by name. Sure, you can ask for a wood fence, palisade fence or electric fence, but there are almost endless specifications and variations of all of those.

The best way to define a high-security fence is that it is a fence system that is hard to climb, hard to cut, and hard to get over, under, or through. It acts both as a deterrent and a physical barrier, and it’s robust enough to keep most casual passersby from accessing the property or facility it protects.

High-security fences are not impervious. There are no fences or even walls that are completely impossible to scale, cut, or otherwise breach. But they’re tough enough to make it very difficult to do any of those things.

Time and Difficulty

One of the things that define any high-security fence system is that they take a lot more time to tamper with or breach, and they’re a lot more difficult to get under, over or through.

So, for instance, many high-security fence systems can’t be cut with hand tools.

That doesn’t mean that it’s impossible to cut them, but it does mean that if you want to cut them, you’ll probably need power tools like an angle grinder, and you’re going to make a lot of noise and commotion while you’re cutting through it!

High-security fences also aren’t easy to climb. Sometimes, like palisade fence systems, that means that there are no hand and foot holds to use to scale the fence. In other cases, like 358 welded mesh systems, the mesh apertures are too small to allow you to get a finger hold.

Can you bring a ladder to the fence and climb it that way? Absolutely. But again, you probably can’t do it quickly or without being noticed by someone.

High-security fence systems are designed to make it as difficult as possible to breach them, and if you do try, to make it take as long as possible. That makes it a whole lot easier for security teams to step in and stop any attempted breaches.

Can A Chain Link Fence Be a High-Security Fence?

One question many people ask is whether a chain link fence can be a high-security fence, and the answer is that it depends.

If you choose a hard-to-cut-and-climb option like chain link mini mesh, you have under-fence security like buried mesh or a concrete apron, and you top your fence with barbed wire and razor coils, you might very well make it take a lot longer and be a lot harder to get through, over or under your chain link fence.

If you also add integrated security like monitored electric fence or taut wire systems, then a chain link fence might very well meet the definition of a high-security fence, and do a good job as both a physical deterrent and a barrier.

However, in its ordinary format, like what you might buy from a hardware store or similar, a chain link fence is not really a high-security fence system. So if you do want to use this for your high security fence project, you will need to speak to a specialist who can design a specification for your chain link fence.

Making those kinds of changes to a typical chain link fence specification dramatically increases the cost of the fence system though, and since one of chain link fence’s biggest selling points is cost-effectiveness, that might make it less attractive than fence systems that are designed to be high security from the get-go.

As always, if you’re not sure about which fence will work best for your project, speak to a fence professional. Get all the options, and compare them side by side to weigh all the pros and cons.