When SHTF, your home must be well-defended, especially if you’re planning to bug in. To help you out, here are different barriers you can install around your property. (h/t to SurvivalSullivan.com)

Perimeter barriers

Before anything else, you must make sure that intruders can’t even come close to your home. If you have a large, open plot of land, you must keep that place enclosed with barriers that stand tall on the fringes of your property. Fences and walls will be a great deterrent, provided they’re tall and sturdy. Even just the sight of these structures can make home invaders think twice about trespassing. Your fence or wall can also be topped with other enhancements. You can add some barbed wire, metal or wooden spikes and shards of jagged glass on top of them to make scaling your walls more intimidating and difficult.

Grounds barriers

Assuming an intruder was able to cross your fence or wall, you must prevent them from getting any closer to your house. This can be done by fortifying your grounds. Erecting bollards and placing a bunch of caltrops all over your yard can help deter intruders, whether they’re trying to trespass on foot or in a vehicle. Just make sure you and everyone in your home knows where the caltrops are, because accidentally stepping on them will hurt. If you want to get even more medieval and if you have the time, manpower or access to heavy excavation equipment, digging a trench or a moat can be a great way to slow down intruders. If you dig it wide and deep enough it can even prevent vehicles from getting close to your property. Remember that if you don’t have the time to invest in digging a trench, you’re better off spending your time on other defensive preparations. (Related: Simple strategies you can implement NOW to significantly improve your home security.)

Near-perimeter barriers

If your ground barriers fail, you can still keep invaders away by placing barriers immediately next to your dwelling. These near-perimeter barriers work to either slow down or fully repel intruders from quickly entering your home. One indispensable near-perimeter barrier is defensive foliage. These can range from trees such as the black locust tree, which has thorns all around it that grow up to two inches long, to thorn-bearing bushes like the firethorn bush, which leaves a burning sensation that can last for hours on anyone that’s unfortunate enough to touch it. These trees or bushes can be placed in specific locations to prevent attackers from entering your house from its weakest points, such as windows.

Built-in barriers

Your very last line of defense from home intruders is to build barriers that can keep them from breaking in. Doing something as simple as hammering wooden planks onto your doors and windows may be enough to deter an intruder. If you want stronger barriers, installing window film on your windows can help make them harder to break. Window films bond with the glass, forming a composite material that’s harder to damage. You can also reinforce your doors. A solid door with high-quality hinges and locks and long screws will prevent it from being kicked down. You can also reinforce your door frame by installing an anti-kick frame to prevent it from being forced open.

Be mindful that even just hammering wooden planks onto your doors and windows will require some investment, so you should properly plan for what kind of defenses you want to place in your property. That said, having even just one of these types of defensive barriers may be enough to buy you valuable time to either escape or mount a proper defense of your household.

Sources include:

SurvivalSullivan.com

Survivopedia.com