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Discussion: Apartments in the city
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spamanninen |
Apartments in the city
Sep 18 2009, 8:21 PM EDT
Now, I see a lot of people who say that they will stay where they live in the beginning of an outbreak. Some of these people live in apartments in the city. I was thinking.... and I came up with this....For all of you planning on "destroying your staircase" and "filling the tub with water", and you live in an apartment, what will happen if a fire starts? Most apartment buildings have good solid doors to keep out unwanteds but they aren't fireproof. I went up to Boston not too long ago and saw the apartment I lived in for a while on the 1100 block of Mass Ave. I saw how close together everthing was. Almost the entire block was connected.... What if a fire started somewhere in your block? Even if you lived in a complex with just a few apartments to a building. There will be no Firefighters fighting fires in the mass of chaos that would be an apocolypse. If a fire started around the corner, and it spread (which it would), and you destroyed the stairs, how would you get out? I'm not trying to be critical here, I just want to know how you plan to survive if something like this happened. I just hear people saying that they would "bug-in" and "Wait fot the chaos to subside" before leaving. Has anybody ever thought that maybe their apartment complex would catch fire DURING the chaos? I mean, It's bound to happen. Somebody burning candles or even dropping a cigarette when a zombie gets in.... It just seems to me like entire city blocks will burn to the ground and I want to know how people who plan on staying in these places could survive if something like this happens Do you find this valuable? |
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spamanninen |
1. RE: Apartments in the city
Sep 18 2009, 9:56 PM EDT
How did this thread get so many Keyword tags? Is it automatic?
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John199312 |
2. RE: Apartments in the city
Sep 18 2009, 11:39 PM EDT
"How did this thread get so many Keyword tags? Is it automatic?"Anyone can add them. Do you find this valuable? |
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spamanninen |
3. RE: Apartments in the city
Sep 18 2009, 11:49 PM EDT
Oh ok......Anyway... I suppose nobody on this site is going to try to ride it out in the city.... or maybe they just never thought of this and dont even wanna think about it.....either way, ****'s going down and whether you answer my thread or not, I hope you thought about it if you plan on staying in the city Do you find this valuable? |
PedroAsani |
4. RE: Apartments in the city
Sep 19 2009, 6:03 AM EDT
"Oh ok......I'm moving out of my apartment this weekend (becoming a nomad whilst I work this contract), but my contingency for that was to attach a rope to the balcony in the event I needed to leave. Do you find this valuable? |
Freelancer47 |
5. RE: Apartments in the city
Sep 19 2009, 6:11 AM EDT
I'm riding anything bad happening in my apartment here in Seattle. I have a 50 climbers rope that I will attach to my bed frame if I am barricaded with Zeds pounding at my door.
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ZombieVirus |
6. RE: Apartments in the city
Oct 7 2009, 9:15 AM EDT
| Post edited: Oct 7 2009, 9:17 AM EDT
The fire escape to leave and to defend your apartment, set up barricades, destroying the stairs would make a building less stable
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Eritsukukun |
7. RE: Apartments in the city
Oct 7 2009, 10:46 AM EDT
"The fire escape to leave and to defend your apartment, set up barricades, destroying the stairs would make a building less stable"I have never seen a building where stairs are used as supports. In response to the thread over all I would say that if you live in a apartment building you destroy the stairs to the bottom floor so in case of fire you jump and roll from the second floor. Note that apartment buildings are bad for long time survival anyway because you dont have any grow able soil. Do you find this valuable? |
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PedroAsani |
8. RE: Apartments in the city
Oct 7 2009, 12:11 PM EDT
"The fire escape to leave and to defend your apartment, set up barricades, destroying the stairs would make a building less stable"And you get an F in structural engineering. If you don't have knowledge on a subject, don't pretend that you do. It is glaringly obvious when you lie. 2 out of 4 found this valuable. Do you? |
paulred2 |
9. RE: Apartments in the city
Oct 7 2009, 2:14 PM EDT
| Post edited: Oct 7 2009, 2:18 PM EDT
"And you get an F in structural engineering.He has some semblance of a point. There may be problems with destroying the stairs. There's very strict restrictions on putting even tiny electrics holes in the bottom half of flooring joists for a reason. The sole trimmer joist underfoot at the top of your staircase is no exception. If you hit the bottom half of the trimmer joist with a wayward axe-swing you will weaken it. add to that the fact it has lost the support of the staircase underneath it and the fact it's constantly under tensile stress and it may break, the trimmed joists that are in turn supported by this joist will then collapse too ... basically the entire floor leading away from the top of the stairs could collapse because of one wayward swing. so basically Reinforcing the trimmer joist wouldn't be a bad idea.... In response to the actual question: I have a fire-ladder in my two story home. So I'm assuming those who would be diligent enough to survive in the first place would also have the sense to have a fire-escape plan. ( even without a Zombie apocalypse... you have to have another way out besides the main staircase ) 1 out of 1 found this valuable. Do you? |
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ZombieVirus |
10. RE: Apartments in the city
Oct 8 2009, 4:54 PM EDT
"And you get an F in structural engineering.I was only suggesting 1 out of 1 found this valuable. Do you? |
Guerrilla.1 |
11. RE: Apartments in the city
Oct 21 2009, 8:21 PM EDT
destroying stairs in most modern aparment buildings is a moot point, I know I can't destroying concrete with an axe, and most apartment units are concrete constrction with stairs being integral to the structure. You could block them up easily, but make sure it's no flamable stuff, wouldn't want bandits smokinig you out. as far as apartments being not good spots, look at Sarajevo, lots of people rode out the conflict in they're apartments. Roofs are good for gardening a,d keeping pigeons and rabbits for food. , set up a cistern to collect water and make a good greenhouse and you could have food year round.
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Oakspar77777 |
12. RE: Apartments in the city
Oct 25 2009, 11:46 AM EDT
The real problem with apartments is that they are full of people. If you rolled up on an empty apartment building, you could likely go for some time, but when TSHTF, that building is going to be full of people:1) Packing away everything you would ever want to scrounge. 2) Keeping you from barricading them in (fear of being trapped is strong in frightened people) 3) Keep you from tearing the place apart (I know it is illogical, but many will be unable to break from existing mindsets) 4) Consuming your consumables 5) Making other unwise decisions that you have no control over (since no one will listen to you, you are just another tenant to them) As for fire, it is your worst enemy. City - unchecked it will destroy everything, though that will take days, so unless it starts next door, there will be warning. Country - a crop killer, forest killer, and house killer. You should always have at least two means of escape from any place you stay. Do you find this valuable? |
Krishna673 |
13. RE: Apartments in the city
Oct 25 2009, 12:41 PM EDT
Hate to break it to you, but when engineers want to destroy a building by imploding it, that is making it fall in on itself, they destroy the stair cases with explosives. Now this might have more effect than just using a jackhammer to chip away the concrete, but still it's something good to have in mind when destroying the cases.BTW, i took a course on engineering so I know a little bit about this, if someone could please contribute some more, I'm always looking to learn :) Do you find this valuable? |
NorCal_Survivors |
14. RE: Apartments in the city
Oct 25 2009, 12:50 PM EDT
Unless we're talking about something really, really unusual here ... I haven't seen any staircase that couldn't be rendered useless in about 15 minutes through the careful application of either sledgehammer, thermite or some combination of the two :-)
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PedroAsani |
15. RE: Apartments in the city
Oct 25 2009, 1:27 PM EDT
The important point to note is that a sledgehammer is a blunt object. Hitting concrete with it will just compress it. What you will need is a Steel Chisel. This will transfer the blunt force to a point, allowing you to create a crack. Then you just drive the chisel into the crack to make it wider.It is my experience that the concrete steps of large apartment blocks are quite thin along the bottom corners, and the easiest solution would be to crack the top step, the bottom step, and then let the whole section fall down in one piece. You might even have some decent barricade material left from it. Do you find this valuable? |
DevilNuts |
16. RE: Apartments in the city
Oct 25 2009, 4:35 PM EDT
"Okay, I was a Union Ironworker and used to build this type of structure. The staircase doesn't even go in until weeks after the steel frame is erected. We used ladders to get from floor to floor until the stairs get installed. The stairs do not affect the structural integrity of a steel structure. I cannot speak for small, wooden homes, but apartment buildings in most cities are steel. Do you find this valuable? |
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PedroAsani |
17. RE: Apartments in the city
Oct 25 2009, 5:02 PM EDT
Stairs can never be load-bearing. Think about it. A staircase has too much open space, few if any vertical pillars that can be put under heavy weight, and is usually located next to load bearing walls for this very reason.So unless you are knocking out the walls as well as the steps, you will be fine taking the stairs out. Until you want to get down again, that is. Do you find this valuable? |
Kam47 |
18. RE: Apartments in the city
Nov 10 2009, 12:22 PM EST
| Post edited: Nov 10 2009, 12:23 PM EST
In response to riding it out in the city....how about tunnel ratting out in the subways? It's definately not ideal and in a lot of cases you would need to bring most of everything you would be using, but on some platforms there are snack stands and even entire restaurants. And i'm thinking if the subway platforms arn't converted into official safe houses sanctioned by local authorities most people would be too intimidated to try it.
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PedroAsani |
19. RE: Apartments in the city
Nov 10 2009, 12:36 PM EST
"In response to riding it out in the city....how about tunnel ratting out in the subways? It's definately not ideal and in a lot of cases you would need to bring most of everything you would be using, but on some platforms there are snack stands and even entire restaurants. And i'm thinking if the subway platforms arn't converted into official safe houses sanctioned by local authorities most people would be too intimidated to try it."The problem with subways are the tunnels. With no power, and no light, they are going to be without air conditioning as well. Going down there with just a flashlight puts you at great risk from zombie attacks. And if you are going to try and navigate, you need to be aware of things like air vents (some tunnels run over one another, and they have holes in the floor/ceiling to keep air pressure and temperature even. Fall down one and you are ******.) and dead stations. The London Underground has got so many dead stations that no single worker knows where all of them are, what condition they are in, and if they are still accessible from the topside. Subway systems are better than getting out via the sewer system, but not by much. Do you find this valuable? |
