Comments on: Your suburban home will not offer true cover

By: McChuck

McChuck — Mon, 27 Jun 2022 00:43:13 +0000

The easiest and cheapest way to harden an existing home is to add an 16″-24″ decorative brick wall or facing around it. Especially if you use two courses.

By: Ezra

Ezra — Sun, 26 Jun 2022 16:18:52 +0000

Make improvised fighting [or protective] positions out of furniture and sandbags [or cinder blocks]. If your house built on a slab OK. If not, support from the basement to where the position is on the above floor might be needed. In an emergency cut off the electricity, water, natural gas. Have halon fire extinguishers available.

By: Kunning Drueger

Kunning Drueger — Sun, 26 Jun 2022 05:16:40 +0000

One should keep in mind how wildly unrealistic testing like this is. Bullets are about as consistent as a female eyewitness. This is not to say that houses are actually bulletproof, rather the ballistic dynamics get pretty strange when you start adding variables. I think Wang Wei Lin’s idea is a capital one, and I bet a few handy fellows could probably build a very successful business “ruggedizing” houses. In this vein, if anyone is interested and has the excess cash, these guys* are well regarded and trusted by industry professionals, on both sides of the law. They have multiple levels, and they can modify your vehicle or purchase one for you. Take a look at where they have there operations; that alone should tell you of their quality and experience.

*https://www.armormax.com/

By: Wang Wei Lin

Wang Wei Lin — Sun, 26 Jun 2022 01:46:22 +0000

I was never under the delusion that my basic 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath house with plywood and vinyl exterior would protect me from small arms fire. Building a new house with metal plates under the drywall around doors and windows would be a simple upgrade for a frame house.

By: Isegoria

Isegoria — Sat, 25 Jun 2022 20:19:20 +0000

I’m not sure what silka is, but American homes tend to have a wood frame and gypsum board (“drywall”) interior walls. The exterior might have fiber-cement siding, but not enough to be bulletproof.

By: Isegoria

Isegoria — Sat, 25 Jun 2022 20:05:04 +0000

Yes, the Castillo de San Marcos is Florida's cannonball-eating Spanish fort:

Built from coquina — sedimentary rock formed from compressed shells of dead marine organisms — the walls suffered little damage from the British onslaught. As one Englishman described it, the rock “will not splinter but will give way to cannon ball as though you would stick a knife into cheese.”

By: Grasspunk

Grasspunk — Sat, 25 Jun 2022 17:24:08 +0000

Didn’t we have a discussion about the benefits of limestone walls? Cannon balls just sunk into the walls of that fort in Florida, IIRC.

By: Szopen

Szopen — Sat, 25 Jun 2022 17:22:21 +0000

Well, I guess this pertains to the US only. Here we’re building old style. My house’s exterior walls are 24 cm silka (~9.44 inches), plus warming (styropian) and plaster. Interior walls 12 cm silka (with load bearing walls 24cm).