The basic idea was brought up in another thread about some things to secure or harden ones home and figured that while there has been some discussion of it before it was worth its own thread. So, what are some things you either have done or would like to do to secure your home? A few of the things I hope to incorperate when I build our house here. Walls are concrete Want to use huricane glass for all windows Steel shutters and exterior doors with wood vaniere All exterior doors open OUT so near impossible to kick in.
If I ever build a house from the ground up, I'd like to set two or three 1/2" holes in the foundation directly behind where the front door will be so that I can slip several lengths of rebar that would make it darn near impossible to kick the door in. Oh, and I plan on building underground so the doors are the only ways in.
well i wish i could move but i can't both because of work and low funds. so my only option is "forting" up or hardening my home. before my deployment i had installed motion sencing lights with higher powered bulbs. i have changed the locks as i had just bought the place. i have also pulled out some bushes that could be used as cover. next i'd like to intsall a more stronger front door with a nice looking security door. i like the idea of installing the door to open outwards, but i don't think i can do both doors in this configuration. i'd like to build a shed out back for my toys and supplys but the home owners association might get up in arms. i'd allso like to streghten the fence around the back yard. plus i should have saved up enough $ from this deployment to install some solar panels, at least thats the plan so far, but i'm all ways open to suggestions...
I would make sure that the heavey solid door (when I mentioned a 'steel door' I plan to make it from plate stel not the tin things you buy) is on the outside and opening out if you have 1 door or the 2. Have a good solid frame thats solidly mounted and any part of the wall would be easier to break through than the door. I also want to have the steel door set up so it can be barred from the inside so anyone trying to pull/pry it open would have to pull hard enouph to break a 4"x12" beam/bar to get it open. I figure I also want to put a bunch of bushes in around the house but want to use stuf like Greek Pain Plants then figure will see about putting in terracing or ditches around the outer edge of the yard and have a metal/tin roof. I figure with the doors and windows secured a person wont get in with hand tools less than a sledge hammer and a few hours and with the ditch/terracing then it can be set up such that things like bobcat or some such cant be easily used to break into the house. With the pain plants it gets impossible or anyone to hide in it and also hard to access the windows and such. Then the metal roof should help to greatly reduce the risk of fire from hot embers from a stove as well as if anyone tried to burn it out with concrete and metal being all thats exposed. I also want to put in a vault for the guns and such (eventualy hope to get trained in gunsmithing and open a shop so this comes in there as well) that will also double as a panic room. For it I want reinforced concrete on all 6 sides with a vault door from an old bank or some such. I plan to also put in a drive way alarm with security camera on the drive and a couple other aproaches.
I plan to Bug in, and one would believe that this would be my #1 priority, but it isn't, sorry. Here in Bavaria 30km south of Munich I just haven't a clue what the cause of TEOTWAWKI will be, with the next large City being Munich, I can imagine being very close to ground zero, hence not being quite so sure about which way the wind will be blowing (outwards from ground zero). The 11 meals to total break down of society sort of fits my bill, something that will need us to re-adjust but not worry about radiation poisoning etc., what great prospects... Tony
MM you brought up a good point that i missed... CCTV, now there are some off the shelf models to be had at wallyworld i was looking at... what would you and the other monkeys recommend?
The wireless CCTV unit's are much to easy to detect and spy in on due to the frequencies that they are allocated. We (Germany) had a case of a carer beating and maltreating her charge, an old bedridden man, he was lucky as they had installed the CCTV cam's and then a radio ham was having a play, okay he was doing a radio vision type experiment and happened upon the beat the old man programme. Called the Cops who then followed it up, taped the show as evidence can you imagine being mugged by your own security cam's. Tony
If I were to build a house from the ground up... Wow Okay so my plans are: a double basement configuration with a root celler below. so two and a half stories below ground level (the foundation guys would hate me, but so will my checkbook lol thats about 25 feet of excavation) with the basments following the ENTIRETY of the house, and maybe a bit of extension to an escape tunnel as well as a F/O post. Next I would CBRN proof the basement witha positive pressure air system and pleanty of Rad proofing in the flooring of the first floor. Also I would build ontop of a well , so the water is always there and always accesable. The pump would be run by an inhouse electric / diesel gen set that would be stationed off in another part of the basement. battery room would be next to that. The walls around the house would be around 12 inches thick instead of the standard 8 inches, with steel girders every 6 feet (thats every 5th stud i believe). Inside the walls would be spray on concrete for the first 4 inches with a good insulant on the exterior (its more effeciant at keeping the house cool or warm). The door would be made of 1" hardened steel, bolted into the girders with a double looking feature like in safe doors the floor and ceiling bolts. The windows would have exterior shutters made from 1/4" hardend steel plates. There would need to be some serious bugs to flush out, such as how to heat the house effciantly (maybe go to steam heating) with radiators in each room. Also next to the chimney I would mount the high gain radio towers to disguise the size of them. The weakness that I can see are A: This might make your house a castle, however, castles usually fall when under seige due to food shortage, or bio warfare (lobbing disease ridden creatures at you. B: this house is HEAVY! it would need a major footing system, or be bolted directly to bedrock. C: This house would be a HUGE expense, like 7 digits cost to buy the land build it and pay for the work to be done. D: The square footage I am thinking of is around 2600(not incl basements) . so it would be probably 4 bed 3 bath with a Master apartment. thats alot of area to defend and to heat. and thats my master plan, I'll see if I can cook up a rendering on a cad program someday.
I dont see me being able to go all out to that degree but one nice thing with basements/earth contact homes is that I know in our area (and thing through most of the country its pretty close) once you get below frost line (about 2-3') then the ground has a constant year round temp around 67 degrees IIRC, so heating and cooling isnt to bad. Its just a bit cool but not intolerable and pretty nice in the summer. On the cams I would figure there would be pros and cons to hard wired or wireless either one. Wires can be cut and radio can be jammed or interfeared with. I would say the main thing would be to be sure that if you are going to spend the money on them make sure you get ones that actualy provide reasonable resolution. I figure we have all seen the pics on the news with video from a robbery where they want you to help identify an aledged person on the tape that based on the quality of the pictures could just as easily be big foot. To me haveing cameras like that is pointless. Unless I paid out the money to get a moveable camera (the kind you can pivot and zoom and such by remote and a LOT more money) then I would probably stick to smaller cameras and try to make sure they were hidden fairly well so people wouldnt be able to plann an aproach based on avoiding them. I would also consider putting a recorder in an attic or some place hidden so that if thieves ever did make it in when was gone (even with a steel door, if no one is inside you have to be able to open it with a key so lock can be picked or bumped) then should have a good chance of getting footage of the thieves and being able to catch them. If I were to put cameras INSIDE though then I would DEFFINATLY have them hard wired so it would become much harder to tap into for someone to see what was going on inside the house. With any of the cams would also seriously consider hooking it up to a modem that would let me check on things from a remote computer when away from home.
I plan to use the cheapo portable system in polythene bags for the ease of use, as they are not in a fixed location and my use will be so intermittent that detection and jamming would take more time to organize than they'd be getting used for, and any jamming would alert me to the fact that I'd been rumbled. I was once directed to a links page where WLAN cam's with their own IP's were to be found, saw some boring stuff. The only problem with a fixed installation is the cables all come together at a certain point ie a secure room that has to be permanently manned (and all pictures films are recorded) to be of any use, then you'd require a what if plan, ie call the cops or go deal with it yourself. While I was still working security they had everything being recorded on a computer, great equipment. Tony
Mostly what I had thought about on the cameras was that could have one show anyone at the door and if angled right could show down the drive, then MIGHT add a couple ot cover other areas. MIGHT run it through a recorder that was hiden then run the cables from there to the TV in the front room and or bedroom or may just go straight to the TVs. Have seen a couple systems set up that way and you can be watching TV then if the door bell rings/knock at the door/dirveway alarm goes off (even if drive way alarm is placed to detect aproach from other areas/directions) then you click the remote to flip over to the channel set to pick up the cameras and see what set it off or who is at the door. The guy I knew who had it set up that way was disabled and had an intercom to the front door and an electronic lock on the door. You rang the bell and he would flip the TV to see who it was and confirm what was being told and know if others were with you etc then he would talk to you on the intercom and if he wanted to let you in he would click the button to unlock the door and tell you where he was. Most of the time he was in his recliner at the other side of the house.
The best home security is the owner being there and being aware I believe this is what some of you are talking about with the CCTV.If you are at home, you and your preps stand a real good chance.If you are away anyone who has a little time can break in.Even the pyramids of Egypt were as solid a structure for security that has ever been built but since noone was home they still got robbed.
I have surveillance cameras. Also have IR motion detectors that first turn on a bedroom lamp then turn on flood-lights outside. I have window-break alarms, door alarms, and motion detection inside the house. My gun room has a motion sensing camera that emails me a feed if anyone walks in between 06:00 and 22:00. There are roses planted in front of the windows and a big fence around the yard with finger-slicers in the top. We have an interior panic room with a steel fire door with dead-bolts; inside is a shotgun, a revolver, extra ammo, a flash-light, a charged cell-phone, bottled water, MREs, and a couple of flash-bangs and tear-gas grenades. I have three dogs that are very territorial and alert and every room in the house has multiple weapons.
Oh and we have 3 smart dogs....they hear something, they know mom and dad have guns so they run behind us (out of line of fire) as they start barking then stand behind us and bark toward whatever they are alerting on. lol
hey i like seas house also.on my end we have the usual alarm system and a small dumb dog. he will bark in the direction of the threat but he is so low to the ground he does not need to hide behind us we will be firing over his head anyhow
Our dogs don't like anyone and don't back down. A couple of years ago my Dad and his wife came to visit, I put the dogs in their pen that has a six foot high fence and thought they were going to go over the top of it when they saw my Dad and his wife hugging all of us. The mess that would be left behind from an intruder would be bad I'm sure. The chickens would clean it up pretty quick though. OGM
