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CapnRick said...
Thanks - Great post on a subject often overlooked. What good is a house full of survival goodies if a hefty guy with a crowbar can invite his thug friends to join him in enjoying the fruits of your foresight?
Strong door designs abound with the infusion of narcotraficante money... all the drug dealers have them. Just about any hardware store or Home Depot can help. My Argentine wife will not let me armorplate the inside of our doors, but WILL let me reinforce our already substantial heavy wood door with a couple of bars horizontally placed across the entire door.
I have seen police in various countries defeat strong doors by tearing them out of the wall with truck-mounted battering rams... but, a lot of times they just need a pickax, a sledgehammer and some 1.5 - 2 minutes of grunt work to bust thru the walls, defeating the expensive door standing. If the walls are standard US construction, and NOT concrete block with steel reinforcing, they can shorten that time to 20-60 seconds.
Fortunately, we have 2 foot thick masonry/steel/concrete walls as most 5-10 story buildings in Mar del Plata were built like that in the 1940s-1950s.
I wanted inside-mounted (not visible from outside when not in use) solid steel shutters on all the windows... she insisted on outside rejas... decorative steel security bars. Adding insult to injury, she wouldn't let me pop for the hinged-plus-lock installation I really should have insisted upon. One cannot foretell the future, and escaping a home with immovable bars on all the window in an emergency is not easy.
PLEASE NOTE: I am a strong believer that the best defensive stronghold features are the ones that no one knows about. The thieves have friends that work in the security door business who will gladly give thieves your name for a piece of the take. Also, be aware that cops target homes with apparent strong doors and other security devices (including pit bulls) in some neighborhoods for surveillance.
On a further note, I am using a commercial storage area within walking distance, secured with my lock, to house my prep goodies overflow, as my phase one shtf plan is to survive in place in a medium sized apartment. I am, looking for a garden site not too far from the end of municipal bus service as well as a roof garden for growing food. Sorry if this part is too far off-topic, Suerte, ya'll!
CapnRick
Hey Rick,
Check out mercadolibre, they have some good deals on reinforced doors that look like normal ones, costs 1450 pesos using your own door and getting the work done on that. Mucho cheaper than those Pentagono ones that are outrageously expensive.
Seems I’m going to Pinamar this summer so we’ll definitely drive over there to Mardel and have lunch or something with the families.
Take care man.
FerFAL
3 comments:
Always amazed here in the US of A, Hurricane has it's own season, winter has it's own season, summer has it's own season. Yet we always see idiots trying to buy plywood to protect windows, shovels and salt to keep sidewalks clear or heaters, and fans and air conditioners to keep cool.Every year this happens and folks Always try to buy the stuff they need after the problem has started. Then they bitch about the stores not having anything in stock.
It's annoying as hell to watch the run on stores, year after year.
I am sorry these are the folks that bought to much house, have to much debt, have no back up plans, or provisions and expect someone else to help them out (Take care of them).
I don't want to be nasty but it maybe time for these folks to jump out of the Gene pool.
That isn't entirely their fault. Stores LOVE to put things in stock right AFTER the problem starts, and no sooner. You watch sometime.
No snow shovels and blowers until AFTER a foot of snow is on the ground. No window air conditioners until AFTER the first 100 F degree day. When a hurricane is predicted, lumberyards will suddenly have a "sale" on plywood. You can't buy AC units in December, nor snowblowers in July. You can't get a generator until a hurricane shows up, then suddenly there are several dozen, and they go fast.
Just try ordering something off season, they won't let you. You can buy it online, but then you have to pay for shipping, which is expensive. It's frustrating to get played like this by the greedy retail outlets, who always want to stock things when they can overcharge desperate people. It's called creating an artificial shortage to pump up prices and thus profits, and is theoretically illegal, but can never be proven in a corrupt court system.
One of the best security enhancements I've made is a security screen door. From the outside, the nicer ones blend in and look more or less like a regular screen. But they can be locked with a deadbolt or electric lock, same as your front door.
I always leave the front screen locked. This lets me get fresh air, or open the front door safely to check out the person ringing the doorbell.
The small perforations make it easy for me to see out, but hard for them to see in when it's dark inside and the porch light is on.
Arclight
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