Building a fortified house

[Taniwha]

Ex-Army Arty Emplacement

In the late 60`s my Grandfather managed to get his hands on a WWII "Arrowhead" Artillary Emplacement / Coastwatch Pillbox. He buried it then built the family home on top of it. With access of course. According to Dad he was worried that the Russians would Invade.


1942 Arrowhead style Artillary Emplacement / Coastwatch Pillbox

 

[theotherwaldo]

Any house that I own is expendable. It will contain a series of fall-back/defense points that allow the occupants to be defended while they make a fairly low-key exit.

I've lived in hardened, green, subterranean, secure homes. Spring-fed water, solar/wind/hydro power, LPG refrigeration, the whole set-up. These places took so much of my time that I didn't get to do much but repair and replace.

Dreary.

 

[RyanM]

One thing I'd suggest, if you can, is hire contractors from out of state, that specialize in making secure buildings. That way, you don't have to worry about some guy getting drunk and blabbing about making this crazy paranoid guy's house, with all the guns.

For local labor... do you have Amish in your area? They do great construction work for reasonable rates, and you can be pretty sure they won't blab anything to anyone. I'm serious. Otherwise, have the contractor bring everyone he'll need.

Another thing I thought of, which would be good against both tornados and "civil unrest." Have nuts for bolts permanently and securely mounted around all your windows, so you can bolt thick boards across the windows (with absolutely minimum space in between) from the inside. Beats the heck out of nails. Add a thin metal strip across the back of each board, and it would be impossible to chainsaw through them, too. And the holes can be covered up with some kind of trim that can be yanked off if necessary, so nothing looks unusual. Keep the bolts and boards (with holes already drilled) handy somewhere, of course. And if tornados are much more of a priority than angry mobs, make them bolt to the outside instead (or you could even have nuts on both sides of the window, so you can choose which side to put them on).

 

[oneounceload]

OK, I'll admit I only glanced at all the replies, so if I repeat, excuse me -

As to ICF - good choice - here in hurricane country, 10-12 inches is good. Tornadoes pose a secondary problem - vacuum effect, so low house, preferably earth-sheltered and/or bermed to reduce profile is good. Use metal roof joists that can be bolted to threaded bolts embedded in the walls with metal industrial decking that can be welded to the joists. The outer skin can be whisked away without having a leak or no roof structure.

As to your basement ideas - a tunnel of 6' water culvert buried to an emergency exit that is not within the damage-strewn area of your house is a good idea.

What to need? A well, with a back-up way to draw water (independent electric source), capability to do hydroponic gardening or similar, light sources if underground for a period of time for whatever reason, meat/fish/protein sources, pre-packaged food sources.

First-aid - somewhat extensive with training would be good if you plan on being unable to get to help quickly.......I know I'm missing a few things, but that should give you things to think about in the meantime

 

[rgwalt]

I hope I'm not bumping this thread unnecessarily, but one thing that the OP never really stated is what sort of situation is he trying to provide security against.

Security against robbery and home invasion?
Security against natural disasters?
Security against the collapse of government (short or long term), society, etc?

I think the first 2 are fairly credible, but if you build a fortress you can become a target. Securing against the third option could eat all of your time and resources. Alternate power sources, gardens, green houses, cisterns, etc, are all great ideas, but these things need regular maintence. If you don't enjoy gardening, and you aren't planning to ride out the fall of society, then a garden, greenhouse, or hydroponic garden would become a chore instead of something to enjoy.

Next thing to ask is what kind of natural disasters you need to ride out? I am on the gulf coast, so hurricanes are at the top of my list, followed by floods, then tornados. If you are in the midwest, you don't need a week's worth of food and water to ride out a tornado. Even still, it would be relatively easy to stock a week's worth of food and water for 2 or more people in a basement provided that you have a schedule to rotate the material out and keep it fresh. An escape tunnel wouldn't be a bad idea if you thought your structure would collapse in a natural disaster AND help wouldn't arrive within a reasonable amount of time.

I do like the idea of a fuel oil supply with a generator plumbed into the supply and wired directly to the house. If you have a decent natural gas supply running to your property, you can buy natural gas generators. Either way I would look into buying enough generator for the whole house and dropping into an outbuilding built with the same construction as the house (reinforced concrete walls and ceiling, etc). Keep in mind that big generators need regular maintence and are pretty expensive. Think $20K or more. If you are going to drop fuel oil or LPG tanks on your property, I would try to hide the tanks as best as possible behind some berms. At least try to hide them as best as possible from the road. This may not be easy or attractive to do, but if you own enough land, you should be able to pull it off.

I like the idea of the upgraded home security features, such as reinforced doors, frames, locks, windows, as well as a safe room. Better yet, a safe room where you can drop a heavy gun safe. Hire a professional for this type of work though to make sure it is done right and to code.

You can rack up a huge bill for this type of build, even into a standard dwelling, and you may not get your money back out of the upgrades if you want/need to sell the house down the line. Remember, this is your home first and foremost. You should be comfortable there as well as safe, and should enjoy living there. If you build in so many features that you end up having to spend all of your time and money maintaining the fortress (and you don't enjoy the maintence and would rather be shooting, hunting, fishing, etc), then you will stop the maintence process and your fortress will be no good to you.

Good luck OP, let us know what you decide to do!

 

[LibShooter]

Pre-wired with CAT6 network cable for IP cameras.

While you're wiring with CAT6, I would also add good coax cable, too. The DirectTV or cable installer is not going to want to drill holes in those concrete or steel studded walls. Even if you don't want HBO of Fox News in every room, the cable will carry signals from analog cameras.

BTW don't run the coax from room to room. Run it from one or more locations in each room back to one central place, like the same closet the CAT6 is going.

 

[rgwalt]

To echo the above poster, I would add that you should run multiple runs of coax and cat6 to at least one if not two locations in each room. If I were building a house today and could custom wire everything, I would run 2 cat6, 2 cat5e (for phone and other uses), and 2 coax to two different jacks on 2 different walls in each room. Much easier to do during construction than after.

Edit: Also, have a professional alarm system installer come and "pre-wire" your home with door and window sensors, as well as locations for panels. If you want camaras, then have them wire in dedicated coax and/or ethernet lines.

 

[W.E.G.]

Spare no expense.