9 Home Defense Tips (Turn Your Home Into An Impenetrable Fortress)

9 Home Defense Tips (Turn Your Home Into An Impenetrable Fortress) – Graphic © myfamilysurvivalplan.com. Background photo: Pexels (PD)

The possibility of danger lurks everywhere. You risk mugging, robberies (or even worse) not only in the streets but even in the safe haven that is your home. But better than taking self-defense lessons is to take all the necessary precautions to turn your own home into a safe zone. I’ll walk you through some tips and tricks that will drastically reduce the danger factor and will really let you sleep peacefully at night.

1. Home Surveillance System is the first thing to really look into!

You can get a home security setup based on a single camera, which you can place at your front door or pretty much anywhere else you want. The bigger the system, the more cameras, the better! It gives a better overall look on a perimeter that’s being monitored. But before going wild, shopping for such a complex system, read the price catalog carefully. They can be quite costly. And the more cameras you have, the higher the costs. A good camera to investigate is the NeatGear Vuezone. It’s an entry-level camera, but it’s very versatile. It has good picture quality, good battery autonomy (since it’s wireless) and it’s not very expensive either.

NeatGear Vuezone wireless security camera

I went for the Nest Cam system with 3 cameras, which is the #1 Amazon best seller in remote home security monitoring. It has some great features – for example, you can set it to send a text message when someone walks up the garden path, you can look into the app to view the zone real time and even talk back to the person who has arrived. Great stuff. Nest also provides video backup in the cloud for a low monthly rate and you don’t have to scroll through “days of nothing” because it will show you the exact times that motion was detected. It also has night vision.

2. Get An Alarm System!

For your peace of mind there’s quite a range of home security systems to choose from. If you’re planning to spare no expense, you can get an alarm system that comes with a professional monitoring system and a large pack of various service options. One of the best on the market is FrontPoint Security, which has a great variety of products to meet any demand. Their alarms are user-friendly and very efficient. They have various motion detection sensors that you can randomly place around the house and are easily activated or deactivated with a personal numeric code from the main console.

FrontPoint Security System

3. Install Motion Sensors!

These sensors are best placed near every possible entrance of the house, be it door or window. Once they detect movement (most probably caused by breaking an entry), they turn the lights on, either scarring the perpetrators or alerting you at least. RAB Lighting offers a vast range of such products, available to any budget.

4. Secure Your Doors With Kick-Resistant Plating!

No matter the quality of the locks you have installed, a doorframe will eventually give in if it’s kicked or hit hard enough. The door reinforcement plates from a provider like Rebar Door Security will most likely stop even the hardest attempts to breaking an entry by sheer force. These systems are very reliable and are available to everybody. There are similar door jamb reinforcement kits on Amazon.

If you really want to sleep well at night you should also check out this Bulletproof Home mind-opening presentation.

5. Secure Your Sliding Doors!

In most cases, these types of doors have proven to be the easiest access point for those who are trying to break into homes. The sliding system makes them accessible to perpetrators, being very easily manipulated and opened. The security bar offered by Master Lock 265 Security Bar adds to the resilience of sliding doors, making them resistant to any sort of attempt to open them by force. The system is universal, working fine on normal doors too.

6. Get a Deadbolt Lock!

Such a device makes the door inaccessible to everybody who doesn’t hold the key. A door fitted with this type of lock is safer, as the doorknob cannot be turned without sticking the key in first. Having a quality deadbolt lock installed on a fortified door makes the job much more difficult for even the most ambitious burglar or thief! Medeco Maxum is currently the #1 Rated deadbolt on the market.

7. Get A Guard Dog!

Man’s best friend can be very useful to guarding and protecting your home. You don’t have to be a dog person to agree on the fact that a vigilant dog can sound the alarm or fight of intruders by themselves. There are many specialized companies that train and sell various dog breeds for personal and home protection. Canine Protection International is probably one of the best (if not THE) best out there.

8. Leave Some Lights Always On!

If you can get used to always having the lights on in the house, know that this would be a very efficient burglar repelling method. Seeing the lights on it would make someone that’s set on breaking an entry think twice, as he faces the possibility of someone in the house being up and active. And if this doesn’t stop the perpetrator, at least you have full visibility of everything that’s going on around. For an even better effect, add some plug in timers ($9 on Amazon!) to your lamps so that the lights appear to be going on and off – so if there should happen to be someone casing up your place, it looks like someone is there. These timers are a very inexpensive security upgrade

9. Make your very own safe room!

The best way of achieving this is to include a safe room into the schematics of your future home. If it’s too late for that, Creative Home Engineering offers various solutions to those in need. They can fit and reinforce any mostly any room, making it safe and secure. If not, you have to choose the safest and most solid room in the house to act as protection in case you find yourself a victim of intrusion. This room best be accessible to you at all times, so you don’t waste much time to reach it in case of danger.

LEARN MORE: I’ve created what is probably the ultimate guide to how to protect your home against home invasions, burglaries and other malicious attacks on your property. Take a look –

FULL TUTORIAL: ► The 25 Layers Of Home Defense

Tips On How To Fortify And Prep Your Home Or Apartment

Tips On How To Fortify And Prep Your Home Or Apartment. Photo – Pixabay (PD)

There are potential scenarios where your home will become your survival shelter or safe haven. And therefore, it makes sense to minimize as much vulnerability in your home as possible. You’ll also want to get setup so that you won’t have to leave your safe-haven when it’s not safe to do so.

Too many homes are vulnerable to intrusion as a result of weak doors, locks and door jams. Even flying debris from hurricanes and tornadoes can penetrate poor quality doors and pose a threat to people inside the areas behind such doors.

Another way to increase home security is to install upgraded solid core doors using solid wood (2 inches thick or more) or steel doors on all external doors. The door jams should be upgraded to include latching faces that are screwed into the framing behind the door trim on the door frame (these screws should be several inches long, and the same for hinges). If you go to the trouble to install a high quality solid door, then you’ll want to also include high-security locks, which can be purchased from any locksmith. Commercial grade door locks provide an additional level of home security with locks that are more difficult to ‘pick’, and as a result of added pins in the lock cylinder, and it’s far more difficult to use a ‘bump’ key to pick a lock like this.

Commercial and home-made door barricades are extremely effective in securing doors and stopping intruders. During and after disasters, there are instances where looters may try to take advantage of the chaos to enter homes and businesses. A solid barricade will protect doors that may not be monitored or used frequently, as well as primary entry doors.

Windows are very vulnerable to many hazards including flying debris during hurricanes and tornadoes as well as would-be looters who attempt to gain enter by breaking a window. One relatively easy fix is to re-glaze key windows with polycarbonate plastic. This is the same kind of plastic that is used in many banks to protect tellers.

Many companies make hard-faced architectural polycarbonate sheet that is available in various thicknesses. Half-inch thick polycarbonate plastic is very tough stuff and in addition to stopping flying storm debris, it will stop many small caliber pistol rounds, and one-inch material will stop some rifle rounds.

Water:

In addition to all the other things (food, first aid, communications, etc) you’ll want to have stored, water requires special consideration: Water is critical to life and too many of the conveniences that we all enjoy related to personal hygiene.

Conventional toilets need water to flush and during/after many disasters there may be no water pressure; this means the toilet cistern will not refill once you flush that toilet. Instead of using that water for only one flush, it may be put to better use by boiling and drinking it (most toilet tanks [not the bowl!!] are relatively clean). And when water is in short supply, the last thing you want to be using it for is flushing a toilet.

So if we cannot use a flushing toilet how do we handle human waste if we cannot go outside? Portable toilets may be just ‘OK’ for some very short-term situations at best. And what comes out of most porta-potties is worse than what went in, so this poses a real disposal (and/or storage) problem. Many people live in apartments and in tight neighborhoods so for these people the option of an outhouse is not available. Besides that, going outside your home or apartment to use the privy in some disaster scenarios may be dangerous. Of course if you live in a rural or country area, you could build yourself an effective outhouse now, before you need it. Here’s a DIY video on building a deluxe outhouse.

During or after any disaster, fresh water becomes a valuable commodity. One way you can improve your home as an effective safe haven is to have significant quantities of fresh water stored for use in emergencies. Storage tanks should be food grade plastic barrels/tanks or suitable metal alloys such as monel or 321 stainless steel. Iron and mild steel can be used, but extra filtration will be required to remove the iron oxide that will form in the tank over time. In a pinch, hot water heaters contain 20-80 gallons of fresh water which can also be used to drink.

Also, if you have a powerful suction pump, you can hook it up to a fresh water spigot inside your home or apartment and in many cases, you are able to pump out many gallons of water that is sitting static and otherwise inaccessible in water pipes when the pressure is gone (a loss of electricity in cities and towns results in the loss of water pressure). People who are lucky enough to live in a rural area and who have a well, can utilize a backup hand pump to deliver water from most wells (really deep wells can present problems when using a hand pump depending on the static water level in the well; make sure you have a good hand pump).

So what do you do if you cannot build an outhouse and a porta-potty is not your first choice? Thanks to recent developments in composting toilets you can install a composting toilet in any small indoor area, which can be used by a family of four people for many weeks before it needs to be serviced, which is a snap. These new toilets are virtually odor free (slight earthy smell from the peat moss inside) and are fairly affordable. These new technology toilets use sphagnum peat moss (available at most garden stores) as a base (it sits inside the toilet) which initiates the digestion (composting) of human waste material when it is introduced, turning it into essentially no-toxic, non-smelly fertilizer which can be subsequently used to support any plant-life. Here is an example of a modern composting toilet which works well: http://www.natureshead.net

These are just a few of the simple improvements that can be made to any home or apartment, which will increase your personal security and comfort during many common scenarios.

Cheers! Capt. Bill
Capt. William E. Simpson – USMM
http://www.WilliameSimpson.com
Twitter: @NauticalPrepper

5 Tips For Preparing A Defense Against Home Invasion

Bad guys are becoming more bold and aggressive. Understanding that valuable items and softer targets are more likely located in more affluent areas they are increasingly targeting suburban homes and neighborhoods in historically low crime areas. As with most things the sage Boy Scout motto of “Be Prepared” applies.

1. Plan it, drill it.

Everyone remembers the fire drills that were practiced in elementary school. The alarm bell sounded and a swarm of generally chaotic creatures with an inclination for ignoring direction suddenly fell into line and moved to a predetermined point of safety with precise exaction. In the same vein, create a simple plan to move everyone living in your house to a pre-determined point of safety, which ideally will be a room with few exit points. Only leave the security of the room you are in if other loved ones need to be secured. Everyone should know what starts the plan . . .

An alarm, a whistle, or predetermined action initiating word. Adults should plan to move to children or the elderly. Older children should move to younger ones and they should all move to a predetermined meeting point or hiding place in the room, and stay put. Panicked people tend to wonder if they don’t have a highly defined place. Designating these locations will give you the ability to discriminate targets far more quickly and effectively if an assailant has made it into the kids’ rooms.

Using techniques similar to those the police employ to deal with active shooters is best for the solo shooter: Don’t clear every room or move tepidly through the house. Instead, move quickly and decisively to the objective point and only engage bad guys that are an immediate threat or in the way. Understand the layout of your house and identify likely entry points/weak points. Set up a primary route and secondary route if available to get to your objective and plot out areas an invader will be likely to move through or toward. Move to the hold point and wait it out. Remain silent and listen. After sufficient time has passed, then go through the home. If anything indicates that an intruder is present, call the police and let them clear the house in a team. Better to look a little sheepish than go on a one-man house clearing suicide mission leaving your family members unprotected.

When you call the police, tell them precisely where you and your family are located in the house. Tell them that you are armed, have received firearms training and that all your family members are safe and secure with you. Ask them to carefully and loudly identify themselves when entering your strong point. Once the plan is set, drill it multiple times. Practice. Practice. Practice. Your wife may think you’re a tin-foil-hat-wearing wack-o and the kids will think it is cool. Run through it several times, both during the day, then again at night with low light/no light. Then have an occasional surprise drill. If and when the real thing happens, you’ll be surprised to see how a standard operating procedure keeps a stressful situation a lot calmer and more coordinated.

2. Have an early warning.

Police response to home alarms are notoriously slow and often set as a priority right above extracting cats from trees. Forget or even disconnect that part of it, but have a good alarm system installed set to activate instantly when a door or window is breached and use it religiously so you’ll be acutely aware of the moment someone enters your perimeter. You have the luxury of knowing who belongs inside those walls and who doesn’t. Once your alarm system is in place, the moment you hear it go off, it’s time to execute your plan. Make sure to disengage the alarm quickly so your hearing can be used to detect interior movement.

3. Prepare resources.

Make sure firearms, flashlights, and telephones are readily available. Waking up to an alarm, still foggy from sleep, is not the time to be fumbling with combination locks on a gun safe or scratching through your drawer looking for a light. Install quick-access gun safes next to your bed and make sure a phone and flashlight are on the nightstand. Practice using them.

A good alternative is a vehicle-style shotgun lock like those used by police. These can be attached to bed frames and hidden by dust covers but accessed with a hidden switch. Computer cash drawers can be purchased on eBay for peanuts and with a rudimentary knowledge of electronics, wired complete with battery backup and hidden activation switch. Stash an old cell phone and charging cord in the stronghold room. Even deactivated phones can still call 911. Also, store critical first-aid supplies, such as a CAT tourniquet, quick clot agent and any prescription medicines necessary for household members. If for some reason you take a hit on the way to your secure point you’ll be able to buy yourself time.

Add a few bottles of water for a short potential wait. Enter the direct dispatch number for the local law enforcement on your phone and print detailed directions to your house and to the stronghold inside the house and tuck them away in your safe room. Direct dispatch will almost always function faster than 911. For the ultra-prepared, a great innocuous cover barricade can be made by putting a full set of bookshelves, tightly packed with books, in a strategic place in your stronghold room.

4. Harden the structure.

A man’s home is his castle and one of the best defenses is making your castle a more difficult target than your neighbors’. Encourage the assailant to choose the path of least resistance and go down the street. Remove shrubs and plants close to the house that make good hiding points. Better yet, replace them with thorny bushes that will discourage anyone from trying to move through them. Consider glass bricks as a relatively cheap and bombproof replacement for exterior windows in first floor bedrooms. Use quality locks and, even more important, install door jambs that will resist kicking and crowbars.

As a super economical alternative, drill 1-inch holes in the floor at the foot of both sides of the door and place pieces of steel pipe in them to secure the door at night. While not exactly esthetic pleasing, the pipes can be easily removed and the holes covered by an entry mat. Make sure that entry and exits points are well lit and windows are covered to prevent people from getting a look at the valuables in your house. And get a dog- even the small ones bark when they sense an unwanted presence near or in the house.

5. Get Adequate and Applicable Training.

Don’t let the first time you shoot your gun in the dark with a light be when a bad guy has just broken in. The fewer first time variables you experience in a real fight, the better off you will be. Numerous schools exist that provide valuable instruction and practice in night shooting, civilian room combat, and scenario-based gunfighting skills. Often this instruction is provided by individuals with substantial combat experience. Many, including Asymmetric Solutions, use full-size ballistic house mockups that allow the shooter to simulate tactical movement through the structure while engaging strategically placed targets.

Also, consider taking an intensive first aid course that will help you deal with a serious medical issue while waiting for the police to arrive and clear your house. Wilderness first aid classes designed to teach civilians how to care for major medical problems when help is at a distance are far more intensive and full of practical knowledge than the basic “call 911 and apply direct pressure” quickie basic first aid/CPR courses. Asymmetric Solutions would, of course, like to be a part of your training and offers a wide spectrum of reality-based training courses to civilians. If you don’t use us, find a solid firearms school and make sure you’re prepared. We can vouch for CSAT, TFTT, Gunsite and EAG Tactical from personal experience, but there are plenty of other good ones out there. Bottom line: making holes in the paper down a shooting range lane will not – in any way – prepare you for the real fight. Reality-based training will.

These steps will be met by some with the thought that, “Home invasions are rare and would never happen to me.” That, of course, is usually correct. Insurance companies are highly profitable institutions that bet on bad things not happening. Still, nearly all of us spend thousands yearly with insurance companies to prepare ourselves for those rare contingencies.

We will also hear the classic “That level of preparation is paranoid.” One man’s paranoia is another man preparation until the preparation is needed. At that point, paranoia is reclassified as insight. I’m not paranoid when I drive my car because I wear my seatbelt any more than my grade school principal was paranoid when he made us do fire drills. Being prepared gives you options and puts you in greater control of your situation. While home invasions are relatively unlikely, consider the value of the people and things inside your four walls. Personally, I will never let a few dollars spent on training and equipment, a little inconvenience and time spent in planning and practice and the imposition of a plan for my family be too great a cost to increase the surety of their safety and well-being.

Grady Powell is chief civilian instructor at Asymmetric Solutions. AS is a special operation training facility on over eight square miles outside St. Louis, Missouri employing an instructor cadre of former SpecOps personnel. While AS primarily serves the Department of Defense it now has open enrollment classes for the civilian public.