Home Security After The Collapse: The Ultimate Guide
![](https://survivalistbriefing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/printfriendly-pdf-button.png)
Estimated reading time: 27 minutes
When civilizations collapse, one of the most common ways that people die is violence. When people get hungry enough, they get desperate—and dangerous. Someone who has never stolen a thing in his entire life will break into his neighbor’s home if it means finding food for his children.
Then there are the everyday burglars who already steal on a regular basis. Without the police around, the entire city is like a buffet. All they have to do is choose the right target. If they choose your home, the only way to deter them or stop them altogether is good home security.
If you’re worried about societal collapse, then home security should be a top priority. You can’t wait until the lights go out, then head down to the store to buy deadbolts and window alarms. By then it’s too late. You have to start working on home security measures now.
In this article, we’re going to discuss home security after the collapse. We’ll cover doors, windows, bulletproofing, fireproofing, alarm system, safe rooms, weapons, and more.
Want to save this post for later? Click Here to Pin It On Pinterest!
There’s a lot in the news about how infrastructure around the world and especially in the United States is failing. The world is headed for a new global recession, supply chains continue to reel under multiple challenges, and our healthcare system continues to be in bureaucratic shambles.
It’s hard to imagine any country suffering a societal collapse without warning, but as history has shown, it has happened in the past and the signs are bleak for the future. In some instances, countries have fallen apart in less than 2 months.Â
There’s little most of us can do to correct or address threats on a global level let alone on a national level. All we’re left with is an occasional election where we can continue to vote for politicians of all stripes who see their election as a new path to personal power and financial gain.
That essentially leaves us on our own to take care of and protect our families in the hope that things can at least stabilize if not get better. What’s becoming apparent is the need to respond quickly to events and anticipate the possibilities.Â
Security comes on many levels: financial security, healthcare security, even food, water, and electric power security. If you think about it, it’s all about preserving and protecting those things that are both important to us and necessary for survival and much of that survival begins in a place most of us call home.
But before we get into home security and defense, it’s worth remembering that basics like food, water, medical supplies and other fundamental basics are just as important. In actual fact, many of the things we may have assembled and stored are the very things we are defending, in addition to our families.
The more you have, the more you have to protect.Â
The answer to effective home security isn’t simple. That’s why the willingness to make a significant investment can help. If you can hire the pros to do your security installations, they will work fast and efficiently.
To determine how much you spend, keep two factors in mind that affect home security whenever a disaster strikes: location and duration.
Location has a direct affect on any level of home security. The differences between an urban, suburban, rural, and wilderness location are significant.Â
Urban locations are the most problematic in the event of anything approaching a societal collapse. This is driven mostly by the demands of a large population. Historically, photographs and other documentary evidence of civil unrest and violence appear in urban environments.Â
Suburban locations fare somewhat better than urban, but there is still a measurable population to increase the demand for many supplies and services that may be unavailable or in short supply. The lack of supply of many things is the primary factor driving demand to desperation.Â
Rural locations see less of the most obvious effects of unrest or collapse in terms of rioting and violence, but the smaller population often results in fewer services and supplies in the general area. There are more opportunities to achieve a self-reliant lifestyle but any remote area can be an inviting opportunity for scavengers and criminal activity.Â
Wilderness locations often seem like the best environments due to their isolation, but that isolation can affect general security. When you and your family are living alone in the wilderness, you are literally, “on your own.” That has both benefits and disadvantages.Â
In some respects, location is a Catch-22. Someone living in a rural and wilderness location won’t have a lot of people around to make trouble. Then again, someone in a rural or wilderness location won’t have a lot of people around to offer help if they’re in trouble. It’s a balancing act, but the preparations you make for home security can help to balance that out.
The duration of any disaster complicates survival in all locations. The simple fact is that survival rates go down the longer the duration following any disaster.
Survival after a natural disaster is usually measured in days, sometimes weeks, and on rare occasions, months. Survival after manmade disasters like a societal collapse is typically measured in years, decades, and even generations.
Before we get into home security and defense, we’ll make the assumption that you either have taken some steps to stockpile supplies and equipment, and given some thought to how some of those items can help you pursue a self-reliant and sustainable lifestyle.
These preparations include fundamental needs related to:
Each of the above subjects has been linked to further information about rapid preps to stock and sustain supplies and equipment for these needs.Â
It also assumes some measure of preparations for a self-reliant and sustainable lifestyle including:
If it’s starting to feel like making all of these preps in addition to securing your home is beyond your ability, you just have to patiently stick with it. The fact is that many have already taken positive steps to make some of these basic preparations. Some have also taken steps to secure their home and property.
But for most of us, our preparations for disaster take place quietly as we stockpile in our basements and gradually learn and acquire new skills.Â
What follows are 12 steps to consider for enhanced home security. The degree to which you pursue any one of the 12 steps is dependent on your location, your budget and your ability to engineer some of these solutions. Try to avoid doing this on the cheap but if that’s impossible, do your best.
Perimeters vary.Â
It’s worth taking the time to assess the perimeter around your home and understand the possibilities as it relates to threats.Â
All of this points to the importance of some level of perimeter defense.Â
You can order many of these items online or purchase them at a home center and install them over a weekend or two. Some video cameras are wireless and solar powered, while others require running a hard wire and are powered by standard electricity.Â
The vast majority of home invasions take place through doors and windows. It’s alarming to see how easy it is for someone to kick in a door, and even as kids we often learned the hard way how easy it is to break a window. Both represent the most vulnerable points of entry to any home, and there are various ways to secure them to increasing degrees.
You can have cast iron doors and prison bars on your windows, but if you live in a wood frame home with aluminum siding, a man with an axe can get through any wall in less than a minute. With a chainsaw, it will take seconds. Anyone who has ever erected a stud wall with sheathing on the outside and drywall on the inside knows the materials are easy cutting for an axe or chainsaw.Â
Roofs are just as fragile with sheets of plywood over rafters as the primary structure. It would be unusual for anyone to take this brutal approach, but an unoccupied home particularly in a remote area would be an easy target for this level of forced entry.Â
Securing a framed wall with wood construction is difficult and sometimes requires demolition. Here are varying degrees of wall and roof reinforcement that could be implemented. The best solution is a brick or stone home.
It’s hard to fathom forced entry at this level but in countries from Ethiopia to Colombia, this level of violence is not unusual. Hopefully it never comes to that in most other parts of the world.
It’s not uncommon for people who live in wilderness areas where hunting is both popular and frequent to apply some level of bulletproofing to their homes to protect from a hunter’s errant shot.
It’s also common in many urban areas in South America, the Middle-East, and Africa where urban violence is a regular occurrence. It’s also starting to show up more in more in many American inner-cities where gangs continue to treat the streets like a warzone.
Once again, there are varying levels of bulletproofing that can be applied to any home.Â
Bulletproofing is another extreme step but in many neighborhoods and parts of the world, it is another unfortunate and common practice.
Wildfires continue to be a threat to many as a natural disaster, but the threat of fire during a manmade disaster comes from arson. As a mob mentality takes over in the streets, violence and looting for some reason always lead to arson. It’s probably because it’s so easy to start a fire as an act of raw rage.Â
Quite often, the threat of fire to someone’s home is not a threat directed at them but the side-effect of neighboring buildings or neighborhoods in flames. Fireproofing a home is best done during the construction phase and a brick home emerges once again as a good defense against fire.Â
Then again, there are some simple steps that can help prevent a fire from spreading to your home and many of these examples are a standard practice for people living in areas prone to wildfires.
A call to 911 should be a rapid first step, and if the fire is raging, it may be best to get your family out of the house and away from danger. Put out the fire yourself if you can but know when it’s beyond your capabilities and get out.Â
It doesn’t take a natural disaster or a societal collapse to have a problem with break-ins with detached structures. These structures include garages, sheds, barns, livestock pens, or any other out-building that is typically unoccupied by people and away from the main home.Â
These structures also tend to be coarsely constructed and finished doors, windows and locks are often not as robust as those found on a house. The good news is that the coarse construction is more forgiving for security measures that would be cosmetically unattractive in or on a home.Â
Most of the added security features on a detached structure are relatively inexpensive and easy to engineer or install.
Vehicles are often parked or stored outside. Cars are usually stored in a garage if we have one, but boats are often stored on trailers next to or behind the garage along with motorcycles, snowmobiles, jet skis and ATV’s. Regardless of the situation they are at risk if stored outside and particularly at a time of civil unrest or societal collapse.
There are steps to consider, and most fall in the category of common sense to at least prevent theft.
Alarm systems are not only designed to alert you to an intrusion but to sound a loud alarm to scare or deter any intruder and, in some instances, alert an alarm detection service via phone line, Internet or wirelessly. The service will sometimes call the home to speak to the homeowner who must then recite a pre-determined code to reassure the service that the alarm was either accidentally tripped or confirm the emergency.Â
If the alarm is a genuine emergency the service will contact either police, fire department, or emergency services. If no one answers the phone, the police are automatically notified. The alarms can also be connected to smoke detectors. Most home security alarms also have a panic button that can be triggered at the discretion of the home owner.Â
Alarm services will do the installation and will sometimes include the cost of equipment installed, but in return will require a subscription of their service with a monthly fee and a contract measured in months or years.Â
The alarms are usually connected to doors, windows, and motion detectors on the first floor. The services are not cheap, but the installation can usually be done in a day or two.
The use of force is justified to varying degrees in different states if someone breaks into your home in a violent fashion. However, trespassing is sometimes an accidental occurrence and just because someone approaches a home from any direction does not mean they are a threat.
The point is, you have the right to defend yourself on your property, but if you shoot somebody who turns out to be innocent or deemed harmless, the consequences can be severe.
In an instance when the intention or motivation of a person is unknown, non-lethal defense can protect you from the potential for criminal prosecution or legal action if you overreact to a situation you don’t fully understand. Various options are available.
Dogs are portable as well and can easily accompany you if for any reason you need to travel from the safety of your home.
In an environment where violence is common, any home invasion is a direct threat to personal safety. The laws governing the use of lethal force are well defined in various states. but most will justify the use of firearms for violent entry to someone’s home. Unfortunately, there is great risk of misunderstanding a situation and over-reacting or escalating a situation.
Owning a gun is not an automatic guarantee of home safety and security. but in a desperate time. it may be necessary. Which weapon or weapons you choose to own depends a lot on your situation and location.Â
It’s hard to predict the degree to which electricity, Internet, and cell phone service will be available in a desperate time. The most important consideration related to communication is situational awareness. There are multiple options to consider for communication alternatives. Some are simple and others more complex.
Regardless of the complexity, communication affords you the ability to monitor local news broadcasts to understand what is going on in your area and the world at large, and to communicate with your family, friends, and neighbors to assess their health, condition, and well-being.
This level of two-way communication is also important if someone needs to travel away from home for more supplies, medical equipment or treatment, or to bring aid and assistance to a family member or friend at some distance away from home.
It would be comforting to say that societal collapse and civil unrest is an unlikely possibility in the United States, but there’s growing indications that some events are going from bad to worse.Â
We’re seeing some ominous signs already. Food prices are going up at every grocery store, shelves are empty from Costco to Walmart, homicides are up 30% since 2019, suicides are up 30% over the last 20 years, and deaths directly and indirectly related to COVID-19 are at 1.5 million in the U.S. and continuing.Â
There are growing signs that the stock market and housing market bubbles have burst, and some ominous economic indicators has economists looking over both shoulders.Â
It’s probably a very good time to think about intelligent stockpiling, acquiring tools, supplies, and equipment along with knowledge for a self-reliant and sustainable lifestyle, and seriously thinking about a fast path to enhanced home security.
Like this post? Don’t Forget to Pin It On Pinterest!
You May Also Like: