|
|
Basically, the group of me and my 4 best friends plan (By 2015) to have purchased a mortgage-free house and split the bills 5 ways on just about everything. Now, the big thing is that this leaves us with one heck of a lot of predicted cash flow. We've already taken everything we definitively need into account, an alarm system that covers floods, fires, etc. and dials all 5 of us when it's triggered, plus an emergency bunker in the basement with autonomous systems including a surveillance robot, computer, phoneline, and generator*.
However, all 5 of us together are the city's biggest zombie apocalypse nuts, and I'm not sure exactly what we should add in to the plan to account for a zombie apocalypse that we haven't already.
So, with that, I'm asking everyone here for their best thoughts of turning a heavily tricked out house of 5 guys into a useable and stable anti-zombie citadel, without compromising the home-eeness of the place too much. We are, at the moment, looking at about £137,464.60 of house income per year, or £2,643.55 per week.
*When one asked me what I was prepping the whole thing for, I replied "Heavy suppressive fire", and he instantly knew what I meant The same friend stated, upon seeing the financial calculations, "we...rock...so hard" 
Bury deep, pile on the stones
Yet I will, dig up the bones
 |
General emergency survival tip: always have backup water. You may want to have a storage container, advisably upstairs (so it can be fed with some pressure downstairs), where you can store a lot of water. The example I saw of this Ive mentioned before, but they had a 50 gallon drum that would last them about half the day before it needed refilling. That was a family of 3 using the water for everything -- washing, drinking, etc. Figure on something at least that big to be useful. Also, make sure you have a way to cycle the water through to keep it fresh. You don't want to fill up the water and not use it for 3 weeks. Depending on the container, you will want it recycled fairly frequently, like every couple of days.
You may want to consider energy efficiency options such as solar heated water, solar power, heat pump, efficient use of windows and airflow, etc. You may also want to consider power storage options. There are a lot of things you can find out about on a lot of hippy sites, but these ideas will help to make it so that, should you lose power, what you have in backup can be used more efficiently and make it last longer.
Beyond that, I think the articles Hamburglar and I wrote can offer a few more ideas, but, knowing you, I bet you had that stuff in mind already.
All that needs to be said is this: FIRE = BAD
If it helps, a 'panic-room'-type of bunker won't be overly useful- nobody will be along to help you if it's a full-blown apocalypse. Sure, in a few years they may come along your starved corpses, rotting untouched in the bunker, but it won't do you much good.
All I can suggest is forming a really effective defence plan for your individual house. Determine a plan of action, including barricades, weapon stores, bottlenecks and so forth. Make sure to have an escape route no matter where you g0- it could be as simple as leaving a crowbar or sledgehammer in the attic to hack your way out if nesessary.
For example, my house is very open and spacious- and there's not much to barricade with. In other words, I'll make token efforts to block the doors, but thanks to large glass patio doors, it's not very likely to last. However, my defensive positions are my stairs- they are about 2 feet wide, wall on one side, banister on the other, with a 15-foot drop to the main floor from the top of the stairs. They sort of double back on themselves into a landing, with the wall/banister combination.
We cut down the banister, form a barricade at the top of the stairs, and use spears and (perhaps) cinder blocks on ropes to defend ourselves. Assuming someone is manning them at all times, it will be a simple task to stab at them and push them off of the side and down onto the main floor, injuring or incapacitating them. If that fails, we retreat into the master bedroom to flee into the attic and out the roof, or down the hallway to the bedrooms and bathroom, where we can climb out the windows or hide in the big crawlspace underneath the stairs in my bedroom.
Why type all that? Because I'm trying to show how even a poorly-optimized house can be used to effectively stem the invasion. Just think about it that way.
Be afraid. Hogan is worse than any zombie.
Well, it's not really a 'panic room', it's an actual bunker.
At the moment, it has a door you expect to see on bank vaults, custom made to have 3 master locks on the inside, steel reinforced too
A computer (We're calling it HAL-666) with a seperate connection to the Internet, power from the Generator/solar panels depending on fuel availablility, a minor connection to the house network, and the surveillance robot. Also has an Internet-based phone and can view the house TV remotely.
A generator, complete with a gallon of fuel, capable of fueling HAL-666 for about 9 hours at 50% tank.
Beds, none too comfy compared to upstairs, but its something.
A projector and screen, for general entertainment and illustration, such as with projected city maps. Same power as HAL-666.
Dry food supplies, water connected to the mains and the secondary supply of the rainwater (We're trying to cut down bills anyways).
We have considered adding in a sheath that blocks off the stairwell to the bunker and prevents access past the door, but that's not finalised yet. And regarding windows, we considered both shatterproof and bulletproof, but we haven't decided which and we are having trouble finding price estimates.
Bury deep, pile on the stones
Yet I will, dig up the bones

I wouldn't bother with bullet-proofing the windows. Perhaps having something you can put up or close over in case, like a storm shutter or something, but buletproof glass is going to be immensly expensive.
All that needs to be said is this: FIRE = BAD
Well, the shutters are none too cheap, but they are certainly a good tip, they have been put to consensus and approved. Thanks for the idea Eko!
Bury deep, pile on the stones
Yet I will, dig up the bones

Remember, design is everything. Hinging shutters work well but need to be held in place- a sliding hatch, one that you could drop down from a slot above the window, would be excellent because it would close under its' own weight and just a gun muzzle could be slipped out to ward off the living and undead alike.
Be afraid. Hogan is worse than any zombie.
Since the house is partially solar powered, we settled on roll-down shutters that work with motors, so we can push a button to get them going up or down, and then stop them where we need them to be. If nothing else, they'll certainly ward off solicitors!
Bury deep, pile on the stones
Yet I will, dig up the bones

Okay, we kicked up the backup computer to 1TB storage and 3.4 Ghz speed, we' not sure if a WiFi connection will make it through to the bunker (Through the brick walls, earth, floors, and especially: the bank vault door), and I can't help but think a wire connection would present an unnecessary weakpoint, after all eventually so many Zs on top will cause it to collapse, and a hole for the wire would cause a weakpoint that could cause an earlier collapse.
If anyone has any thoughts on a similarly non-compromising ventilation method for the bunker, please speak up
Bury deep, pile on the stones
Yet I will, dig up the bones

I dont know if I'd be as worried about all the storage -- what are you thinkinh you're going to need with that much storage? Even if you were to store survival info and videos, a terabyte of storage? Why not spend the money on more ammo or more complicated water storage systems, or power storage/generation?
All that needs to be said is this: FIRE = BAD
The 3.4 Ghz gives us lots of breathing room, a lot of talking to a dying world ans a house being overrun with Zs.
The TB affords us a lot of history. If we encounter a problem that we can't solve then we can leave all of our ideas and thoughts on the records for someone else to use them. It also allows us to run things like the surveillance robot's program and the security system and cameras, and most of all: store the information from the other (smaller) house computers, which includes music, video, games, and tactical information (Such as customising the surveillance robot, vehicular modification, agriculture, how to make napalm at home, how to make emergency supplies actually taste, etc.). The base line is that because we have so much space, there's any number of things we could conceivably use it for, a great many useful.
On a running note, we don't plan on leaving the country (Though we do plan on leaving the present city), which means we are still in the UK, where guns are virtually impossible to come by without acquiring a criminal record. We have our power from the generator and the solar panels, although purchasing repair supplies for the latter may certainly be of use. Could you please explain 'more complicated water storage systems'? I'm not sure I know what you mean
Bury deep, pile on the stones
Yet I will, dig up the bones
