This guide is written as a practical, step-by-step guide for fortifying the average home. While many guides have been written, most assume the features are being installed before the fact and can be fairly complex, or assume certain home features that are too uncommon too be useful in an emergency. What I hope this guide can be is a step-by-step instruction manual for securing your home for a long period of time, with little (less then a week) preparation time.
To make this guide as useful as possible, the steps are broken up into sections, where multiple sections can be worked on simultaneously. You should decide which sections are most important based on the specific situation
Section 1: Barricading the Home
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1. Make a stop at a hardware store (or several). Items to consider:
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a. Wood beams
b. Plywood
c. Sheet metal
d. Battery-powered tools (Sawsall, jigsaw, Dremel, drill, ect.)
e. Screws, bolts and nails
f. (Sledge)hammers
g. Razor wire (if it can be found)
h. Heavy-duty hinges and latches
3. Barricade all ground floor windows with the plywood and beams and, optionally, the sheet metal covering the plywood (to help with sharp impacts). If you choose to make your house appear abandoned, put the barricading behind the shades, so the windows just look like they have the shades down
4. If the house has one floor, skip to step 6. If you are trying to make it appear abandoned, skip to step 5. If the house has two floors, destroy any exterior stairs. Proceed to surround any ledges, porches, windows or other 2nd floor entry points with razor wire, if it could be found. Otherwise, improvise (nails, jagged glass glued down, ect.)
5. Barricade the interior stairs. My suggestion would be two barriers, made of a wood beam frame covered in plywood, which is then covered in sheet metal (to prevent sharp objects from penetrating). One platform would be at the top of the stairs, the other around halfway down. Each of these platforms would be the hinged at their bases, and when open lie flat along the stairs. Their heights would be such that when both lie flat, they cover the stairs, forming a smooth ramp. Rope would be used as handrails on either side of the ramp. The platforms would have to be securely latched and bolted. Thus, even if the barricades are down, zombies would have great trouble climbing and human raiders would need both hands on the ropes, allowing you to fire at them without risk of return fire. This, however, is just a suggestion, and you can use whatever method you would like.
6. If the house has one floor, or you do not want any exterior visible defenses, construct a plywood and metal cage just inside of the entry door. This cage (or rather box) should have razor-wire covered walls (or an aforementioned alternative), a small well-defended door, and a small slit for observation and attack. This way, if the outer door is breached, enough time may be bought to escape.
7. Cut a hole (which should be hinged and latched shut) to the roof, as an alternate escape route (keep a rope ladder nearby)
8. If possible and practical, make an alternative well-secured route (a hole from the floor above, tunnel, ect.) from the house to the garage (to affect a quick escape by car).
9. If possible and practical, hide a tank(s) underground which can be accessed from the house for water, gas, ect.
10. Stockpile raw materials
Section 2: Energy and communications
1. This, too, will begin with a trip to your local hardware store, for:
a. A Generator
b. Gas tanks
c. Funnel and Siphon
d. Power inverters
e. Car batteries
f. Rechargeable batteries/Chargers
g. Electrical wiring, switches, transformers
h. Any solar/wind power devices they may have
2. Following this trip, make a trip to a big automotive or electronics store (or both), for:
a. Anything you couldn’t get at the hardware store (RV stores are likely to have the solar/electrical components)
b. Crank-powered radio, flashlight, and TV (if possible)
c. CB radio
d. HAM radio
3. Finally, a trip to the gas station for gas for the generator and cars
4. When you return to the house, mount any alternative power sources you could find, preferably so they cannot be seen from the street
5. Wire the sources into the car batteries and a central transformer/inverter to make a power outlet (time permitting, I’ll write another guide on electrical wiring)
6. Hook up the CB and/or HAM radio
7. If the car(s) are unlikely to be used within, say, a month, siphon out the fuel into the empty gas tanks
Section 3: Food and Survival
1. Much of this section depends on the severity of the outbreak. The amount of supplies you gather should be based on how long you think you may be stuck in the house
2. Make a trip to your nearest Army/Navy store and clean them out of MRE’s
3. Go to a supermarket. Any food you buy should have an expiration date at least 2
months beyond when you predicted you would be able to leave the house to gather more food. Also, make sure none of the food requires cold storage. Make sure you have enough food and water by this point to last your family/group +2 extra people (when you have more than that, raiding and trips outside the house for food will likely become a possibility)
4. Go to your local camping/RV store. Pick up enough chemical toilet equipment to last you for 2 months longer than your planned time at which you could leave the house. Also look for any power-free cooking equipment-mess kits, solar ovens, ect.
5. Return to the house, and store as much food and supplies on the top floor (including the attic) as possible, so that even if the house is breached you may be able to hide out or escape with the supplies
6. Try to construct a rain collector on the roof, to ensure future water supplies
7. Make a ration table, so you can maintain the food stores easily
8. Time permitting, you could travel to a garden store and pick up supplies for a vegetable garden. When you return to the house, you can either start the garden then or save it for when things get safer
Section 4: Weapons
1. Acquire personal weapons, through any means. Make sure you have plenty of ammo for each. There have been lots of guides to choosing the best weapon, so I won’t go into that here. However, I will say:
a. Make sure you have one pistol for everyone capable of carrying one
b. At least one ranged weapon
c. At least one blunt melee weapon for everyone capable of wielding one (blades may get stuck in the zombies, causing some serious problems. Also, they are not good at pushing back zombies)
2. Weaponize your vehicle, for raiding and escape. This includes:
a. Armoring (windows, ect)
b. Fire ports
c. Spare/run flat tires
3. Store the firearms with the food in the safest area of the house, and keep melee weapons by the doors to push back zombies
There you have it. The weapons section is admittedly thin, because so much attention has been given to this issue in other guides. I hope you never have to use this, but if you do, good luck.
