Pros and Cons of a Human Proof Fence
Every prepper has thought about it at some point. If a disaster hits your location on a broader scale, it would only be a matter of time before somebody with ill intentions shows up at your door. Whether it’s one person or a mob of people that are trying to steal your food or supplies, your family would be entirely defenseless to stop them. If you’re very serious about prepping, a human-proof fence may be something that you’ll want to look into. Keep reading to find out what some of the pros and cons are of setting up a human-proof fence around your property.
Keep in mind, every city and country has ordinances we have to follow, you may have to get permits, but you get the general idea. The picture above may only be allowed out in the country if you had a lot of property.
Advantages of a Human Proof Fence
There are a couple of obvious advantages to a human-proof fence, including privacy and extra security around your home that I’ll cover briefly. There are several other advantages of a human-proof fence that are also worth considering to help your family make a decision on whether one is right for you.
Provides You with Privacy
Don’t want anyone else to know you’re a prepper and what supplies you have gathered for any emergency situation? A human-proof fence will provide the necessary privacy to keep your home and belongings safe and secure. Because the truth is, if people know that you’re a prepper or they’ve seen some of the precautions you’ve taken around your home for emergencies, you’ll be the first home they visit when their situation becomes desperate. The 5 Basic Things You Need to Survive
Creates a Safe Space
Having a human-proof fence helps create an area of safety for those living on the property. This is especially beneficial if there are children or geriatric people living at the home as they can remain safe and secure when playing outside without fear of danger coming their way. Four Things That Are Not Safe To Can At Home
Deters Intruders
Should angry rioters or civil unrest ever come to your town, a tall human-proof fence will help to keep thieves from stealing and breaking into your home. This safety precaution will allow your family to sleep more peacefully at night. But I want to be very clear about something. No matter what kind of security fence you decide to go with, there’s not a single one that is entirely human-proof. A persistent person that’s absolutely set on getting inside your home can still find a way, but it will intimidate and keep most people away. 101 Homesteading Skills We Need To Teach
Gives You More Time to Prepare
Without physical barriers around the perimeter of your home, you won’t have much time to prepare if an intruder is set on breaking into your home. But just a few minutes or even a couple extra seconds could be all the difference between you and your family surviving until help arrives or through the night if agency resources are spread too thin. Of course, you’ll also want to set up cameras around your property so the fence areas are recorded to give you extra security and a warning when any unwanted guests are lurking about your property. 125 Preparedness Items You Need To Stock
Extra Protection During a Pandemic
As long as it’s not an airborne virus, a human-proof fence will keep ill people away and help protect you from getting you and your family sick. That’s why it can be such an invaluable investment during a pandemic. It will let you and your family remain isolated from the rest of the world, without having to worry about getting infected with any virus.
Disadvantages of a Human Proof Fence
As you can see, there are several advantages to having a human-proof fence set up around your property, but just like with almost all precautions taken, there are disadvantages that come with it. These are a few of the cons of having a tall fence set up around your home:
Very Expensive to Set Up
Setting up a tall fence around your property can be very expensive. Depending on the size of the lot, the material you choose, and other costs that may come up along the way, a human-proof fence could end up setting you back several thousand dollars.
Requires High Maintenance
A human-proof fence requires more maintenance than other types of security fencing such as a chain-link fence or wooden fences. This is because it needs to be inspected for any physical damage on a regular basis and even the slightest gap in the fence could leave your home vulnerable to attackers. This type of security barrier also has higher installation costs associated with it which can add up over time if not taken care of properly. How To Do Home Maintenance In Your Spare Time
More Difficult for Your Family to Escape
While a human-proof fence may have the desired effect of keeping unwanted people out, it can also create a huge problem for your family that you may not have thought of. What if there was a fire or you needed to escape quickly but you became trapped inside and couldn’t get out fast enough? A well-secured fence would also make it difficult for any emergency crews to get inside and rescue you. Although your intentions may be to protect yourselves, a human-proof fence could be your family’s downfall.
Limits Your Views
Unfortunately, because of the high barriers a human-proof fence can block out your views of the outside world. This means you won’t be able to admire nature or see what’s going on in your neighborhood. Depending on how tall the fence is, even the sunlight and a fresh breeze may seem limited to you, which can leave you feeling isolated from everything else.
A Human-Proof Fence Could Upset Your Neighbors
Let’s face it, a tall human-proof fence set up around your home isn’t exactly the most attractive and welcoming sight that your neighbors would want to look at every day. It could even devalue their property when they want to sell it because most people would not want to live next to something that looked so intimidating. That’s not going to help you have good relations with them. Neighbors-It’s Critical We Get To Know Them
Living in Solitary Isn’t Necessarily Your Best Option
A lot of preppers are set on going about surviving an emergency situation on their own while relying on their own skills and survival stockpile. A human-proof fence would only solidify that mindset and make you more isolated from your surrounding community. But the truth is, there’s more strength in numbers and good relationships with family and friends. That way you’ll be able to trade skills, knowledge, and goods when you don’t have something you need. A Prepper’s Not-To-Do List
More Safety Tips
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Final Word
Ultimately, when deciding whether or not a human-proof fence is right for you and your home, it’s important to weigh all the pros and cons before making a final decision. No matter what kind of security fence you choose, make sure that it keeps both people and animals away from your property so that you can remain safe and secure no matter what may try to pay you a visit. May God Bless this world, Linda
The fence around your place is the FPL (Final Protective Line) and is way too small to actually be defend properly. If you think for a second that’s where the battle should take place you’ve already lost.
It is absolutely nothing for me to shoot 500yds for a humane kill much less “I’ll take any hit” battlefield shot.
If it come down to them being “in the wire” not many are walking away that day.
For day to day continuous operations look to South Africa and South America where walls, bars and broken glass are a way of life.
On the fence try and use terrain when possible. Unfortunately most of y’all live in leveled out places and don’t have deep terrain. If there was a creek you’d place the fence on your side so they’d have to traverse the bank and the fence at the same time.
Hi Matt, I totally agree with you. Most people will need weapons and lots of ammo to defend themselves. It’s crazy I have a friend that was my doctor in Southern Utah (prepper doctor) and he visited a “castle” of sorts, I guess I would call it that his friend built way out in the desert of Southern Utah. The house as I remember was 20,000 square feet with walls 4 feet deep. My memory tells me it was concrete but I can’t remember for sure. It was designed for his family to bug out to. It is stocked with water, sewer lines, food, and many many bedrooms. It had electric fences with surveillance cameras everywhere. It was solar powered which is great if we always have sunshine but….what if it doesn’t work as expected. I like to question every aspect, I hope their family can travel to this monster bug out location. We all know what we need to protect ourselves. Linda
I’m with Matt. If you’re waiting until the bad guys are at your fence line you’ve waited too long and will quite likely be overrun.
I think it’s best to grow a thorny hedge as a defensive barrier. I can’t think of anyplace such “ornamental” aren’t allowed.
Out here in the desert, Mesquite, Agave or Yucca plants, barrel cactus, cholla and similar nasties are a really good deterrent. Goji Berries make a great defensive hedge out here also, with the benefit of having edible fruits. When we lived in Las Vegas we had a Bougainvilla hedge, which in addition to being beautiful would have stopped anyone who wasn’t armed with a chainsaw.
When I was a kid on a farm in Kansas we had Osage Orange as a hedge. Not even coyotes wanted to go through that stuff. We also had raspberry and blackberry brambles, which were good deterrents against anything but bunnies.
Here’s a link to an article on living, defensive hedges.
https://gardenerspath.com/plants/foliage/best-defensive-plants/
Hi Ray, oh I love your comment, this gives us so many options! Thank you for the link, on best defensive plants! I love Bougainvillea flowers, oh my gosh they are so beautiful. Great comment, thank you, Linda
As one who specializes in High Security fences for the DoD, if you are looking to build a fence to defend your property, you are going to need a lot of money… a lot of money. I can build a fence that a dump truck would have a difficult time driving through, but stopping a bullet is much much harder.
I have seen radar sites that have a standard 7 foot tall fence with 3 strands of barb wire on it close to the tower to keep people out, but had a ring of jersey barriers to keep most vehicle traffic away for the tower. The ring was the max effective range for an AK. I’m pretty sure it was a Cold War set up.
Fences keep honest people out. Once the rule of law is out of the way, a fence will just be a hindrance. It may give you time to bug out, or get to your defensive positions.
Hi Blue, thank you for sharing this great comment. I appreciate the knowledge others know, thank you so much. It’s too bad we have to be prepared for the worst, but we must do what we can to protect our families. Linda