Home Improvements to Ensure You’re Prepared for Every Eventuality

Over recent weeks, many people up and down the country have been preparing in some form or another. In this article, we take a leaf out of the ‘preppers’ guide and look at what home improvements you can add to ready your house for a worst-case scenario.

With the UK in a semi-lockdown and an invisible enemy which could be hiding anywhere, many people around the country would have let their minds wander, thinking up potential, often scary scenarios.

Deep down, most of us are ‘preppers’, and one of the first things people would have thought about is protecting their homes.

Given the dearth of apocalyptic movies made over recent years and highly popular ‘prepper’ TV shows highlighting how people are preparing for the end of the world, more than one of our readers would’ve given considerable thought to how to keep them and their family as safe as possible.

For this guide, the tradesperson comparison site, HaMuch.com, has helped us by costing up the home improvements you can make to ensure your home is ready for every eventuality.

CCTV – £1,000
To fully protect your home from the inside out, you need eyes and ears everywhere, and a CCTV system is a good starting point to make sure everything remains in order while the world ends around you.

You can pick up a simple wireless system for about £50, but if you want a back-up power system, thermal sensing and video quality that doesn’t make everything look like a potato, you’re talking as much as £1,000 to get sorted.

Security Gate – £5,000
To protect your home from post-apocalyptic mutants, you’ll need a sturdy front gate. You can get a simple manual gate for about £300, but for a reinforced, automatic gate system that allows access to others without leaving the house, you’ll have to stump up as much as £5,000.

Fencing and Barbed Wire – £460
If you’re investing in a new gate, you’ll also need to ensure your fences are robust, and you may even want some added security. With fence panels coming in at £30 a pop and barbed wire costing £40 for 200ms, you can upgrade your fencing for £460 based on 14 new panels.

Reinforced Glass Windows – £2,565 to £10,260
An expensive but essential last line of defence, reinforced glass can come in very handy when protecting your home during the end of the world. It doesn’t come cheap, though.

Your average reinforced glass will cost £25 per square foot, but this climbs to £100 for a bulletproof option.

With the average window sized at 5.7 square feet and some 18 windows in even the most modest of homes, you’re looking at a cost of £2,565 for reinforced glass and £10,260 for the bulletproof option.

High-Security Locks – £130
There’s no point in protecting your windows if your doors aren’t protected. On a budget, you could fit two high-security locks to your front and back doors plus labour for £130.

Rainwater Harvesting System – £3,000
Now that your home is protected, you can think about getting by. An essential need is water, and investing in a full rainwater harvesting system will set you back £3,000, which is worth every penny should your water mains switch off.

Polytunnel – £484
You’ve sorted water, now what about food? You could invest in a greenhouse for thousands of pounds, but a simple polytunnel will increase the success of any vegetables you plant and can be easily erected in your garden.

Solar Panels – £8,000
In the worst-case scenario of the power grid going down, you may need an alternative energy source. Solar panels are your best bet, and an advanced system is worth the £8,000 investment to keep your home running.

Extension for food storage – £5,000
A cost-effective way to make more room to store your food is to splash £5,000 on a basic extension of one storage room. Otherwise, you’re looking at as much as £1,950 per square metre for a single-storey extension to the whole house.

Bomb Shelter – £32,000
If you want to go all out and really prepare your home, then a bomb shelter is the way to go and the last fall-back line of defence in your home. For a 200-square-foot shelter, you’re looking at a bill of £32,000, but it could be worth every penny.

Founder and CEO of HaMuch.com, Tarquin Purdie, commented: “We’re in no way suggesting that the end of the world is on the horizon, but with the way some people have been panic buying ‘essential’ items, you could be forgiven for thinking otherwise.

Like many, the trade sector has been hit hard due to the spread of the Coronavirus, and with Government advice to self-isolate, many can no longer work as they are unable to visit people’s homes.

So we thought that those who are fearing the worst and are currently sat on two years’ worth of toilet roll and hand sanitiser might want to go the extra stretch in protecting their homes and pump some cash into a hard-hit trade sector in the process.”