Home Physical Security Preps 🆕 Construction Thread

[Bolt_308]

Funny there are a lot of comments about A-frames. We live in an A-frame, built into the side of a hill. The lower daylight basement is surrounded on 3 sides by foot thick concrete foundation, underground. It is an older Aframe, so all solid wood construction, with THICK solid wood siding, heavy beams etc. Metal roof.

Home security though is about more than just the house. Yes our Aframe is built very solid, with a hidden 'panic' room to retreat to, but the hope/plan is to never need it.

Step 1: Live on land, out away from the general populous, on acreage. Make sure your home cant be seen from any main road. Our driveway looks like a half overgrown dirt track, on purpose. No one would think there is a nice Aframe a quaretro mile at the end, out of sight.
Step 2: make access difficult/controlled. Nature helps with this- BLACKBERRIES. We allowed blackberry thickets to take over large swaths of our property, around the outside, on purpose. No one is getting through it. The other side of the property is a river/swamp. The only way to easily access our house, is by the main dirt drive. Which I have motion sensor alarms set at intervals, which alert me far in advance that someone is coming. Again, nothing fancy, I think the system cost less than $100, but works amazingly well.
Step 3: Security cameras. Many inexpensive options that work really well nowadays. Tech has come a long ways. Also set up plenty of motion sensor floodlights, facing away from the house.
Step 4: Dogs. Your wife keeps 'hounding' you to get another cute puppy, well give in to it! ;-).

Bottom line, there is really one one way someone can access my home, and that is only if they know it is there! And i will know they are coming far in advance, and have the whole thing 'caught' on video . . .

 

[pdx210]

As sort of a companion to this thread, how about one devoted to physical security for a NEW residence? Can be stick, modular, manufactured, et al. Whatever preparations suggested, however, would have to be realistic for such an abode.

If looking at constructing, or otherwise setting up, a new home, what security measures would you be putting in as being built or right after construction is complete?

IMO, your first goal should be making it hard or making people think twice about accessing your property and detection once they do and managing their movement in your favor. This starts with the outer perimeter fence, and landscaping, Plants may be the most underrated thing in property security, as a natural fence and deterrent.

For example, thorny Bayberry as a natural offset in front of an existing fence, Bayberry is an evergreen with long sharp thorns; it's drought and cold-tolerant and grows up to 8ft tall 4-5 ft wide combined with lower-growing plants like Crimson Pygmy another thorny plant and you have created a two-layer fence and most driving by just think it's nice landscaping

 

[CamoDeafie]

IMO, your first goal should be making it hard or making people think twice about accessing your property and detection once they do and managing their movement in your favor. This starts with the outer perimeter fence, and landscaping, Plants may be the most underrated thing in property security, as a natural fence and deterrent.

For example, thorny Bayberry as a natural offset in front of an existing fence, Bayberry is an evergreen with long sharp thorns; it's drought and cold-tolerant and grows up to 8ft tall 4-5 ft wide combined with lower-growing plants like Crimson Pygmy another thorny plant and you have created a two-layer fence and most driving by just think it's nice landscaping

Works best in rural/country areas and not as good in suburbia, and would be shot down by either city councils or HOAs or some such.

 

[pdx210]

Works best in rural/country areas and not as good in suburbia, and would be shot down by either city councils or HOAs or some such.

It works well in suburbia, my home. LOL, I would never live in an HOA to each their own. Obviously, all of these things depend on the particulars of your home and property.

 

[The Heretic]

IMO, your first goal should be making it hard or making people think twice about accessing your property and detection once they do and managing their movement in your favor. This starts with the outer perimeter fence, and landscaping, Plants may be the most underrated thing in property security, as a natural fence and deterrent.

For example, thorny Bayberry as a natural offset in front of an existing fence, Bayberry is an evergreen with long sharp thorns; it's drought and cold-tolerant and grows up to 8ft tall 4-5 ft wide combined with lower-growing plants like Crimson Pygmy another thorny plant and you have created a two-layer fence and most driving by just think it's nice landscaping

Himalayan blackberry brambles grow quickly, thickly (if they have a supporting structure, even better) and can hide significant structure underneath (logs, boulders, stumps). But without the structure underneath, they can be drive thru because the canes are not thick/strong enough to resist a vehicle. Even just laying something like a ladder onto them can make them passable.

There is an orchard on a local road that has a S-curve at the orchard. The owners stack prunings/etc. along the road and let the brambles grow over them and trees that have grown there. This creates a privacy barrier and possible a vehicle resistant barrier (cars are known to go thru there too fast - one person died after his vehicle overturned after the S-curve).

I have recommended that people put a 1/2"-1" wire rope along a border area about 2-3' high, and attach it to/thru bollards or substantial trees/stumps, to resist vehicle intrusion. A significant ditch on the road side with a steep significant incline behind it, with the barrier on top of the incline, can make a very difficult obstacle to overcome. With brambles or other vegetation grown over the cable/bollards/stumps/etc. can hide the cable/etc., and make intruders choose your choke point instead.

 

[CamoDeafie]

Native hawthorn? Some species have 2" long straight thorns. There's several of them but I know of only two specific native to PNW hawthorns; Black Hawthorn and Columbia Hawthorn.

 

[CamoDeafie]

Apparently hawthorn has been used as a hedging plant/shrub in the UK... this might be a decent option in suburbia and in towns, coupled with a thick masonry wall fencing and dogleg entry paths?

 

[dangerranger60]

I did meet a chap once that planed out where incoming fire might be coming from and installed in wall bullet proofing for him to hide behind and on the walls behind where the intruders would most likely be, but I never could figure out if he had reasonable concerns or had just watched too many Charles Bronson movies

I know a guy, his dad is a State Police Officer, Mom is an Assistant DA, He is married to a lawyer, and works in a Gang Unit. I helped him put in Ballistic panels around his front door and put in a steel door and frame. He and his family are one of the few I know that these precautions are reasonable knowing the kind of friends they make! DR

 

[dangerranger60]

A couple of more bullet resistant materials are concrete and ceramic tile. If I were looking to bullet proof the front of my home I might add a fake brick facade over a ceramic tile. It looks like it belongs in a house wall and will stop most rifle rounds. DR

 

[CamoDeafie]

A couple of more bullet resistant materials are concrete and ceramic tile. If I were looking to bullet proof the front of my home I might add a fake brick facade over a ceramic tile. It looks like it belongs in a house wall and will stop most rifle rounds. DR

"Before the Canadian study, most published ballistic testing on concrete masonry walls was carried out during World War II to make sure that adequate protection was provided for transformers, switching stations, and similar installations subject to sabotage. Recommended constructions for bullet resistance are 8 in. (203 mm) solid or grouted concrete masonry walls or 12 in. (305 mm) hollow units with sand- filled cores. Both walls provided equal protection under test conditions. In no case did bullets penetrate the opposite face shell of the masonry when tested with high-powered rifles, revolvers, and machine guns."

From https://ncma.org/resource/faq-22‐17/

 

[K-22]

I haven't seen em here but traveling in the Mid-East and Israel I saw these retractable roll down metal blinds that covered the windows and were actually bulletproof. I didn't see how they were integrated into the building but they were demonstrated to me, rolling down and covering the windows and then rolling up and retracting so you didn't seem them. A brick, stone or log home with a metal roof would be down right

I haven't seen em here but traveling in the Mid-East and Israel I saw these retractable roll down metal blinds that covered the windows and were actually bulletproof. I didn't see how they were integrated into the building but they were demonstrated to me, rolling down and covering the windows and then rolling up and retracting so you didn't seem them. A brick, stone or log home with a metal roof would be down right impregnable.

Invented in Switzerland In 1882.
Rouladen rolling shutters.