{"id":663,"date":"2026-05-02T23:06:45","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T21:06:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.familie-kleinman.nl\/brain\/?p=663"},"modified":"2026-05-02T23:06:45","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T21:06:45","slug":"piggy-4-the-overengineered-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.familie-kleinman.nl\/brain\/index.php\/2026\/05\/02\/piggy-4-the-overengineered-house\/","title":{"rendered":"Piggy #4: The Overengineered House"},"content":{"rendered":"

We all know the story.<\/p>\n

Piggy #1 built with straw.<\/p>\n

Gone.<\/p>\n

Piggy #2 built with wood.<\/p>\n

Also gone.<\/p>\n

Piggy #3 built with stone.<\/p>\n

That worked.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s me.<\/p>\n

Not a piggy.<\/p>\n

Just\u2026 thinking a bit further.<\/p>\n

What if I had to build a house from the ground up?<\/p>\n

Not the usual way.<\/p>\n

But properly.<\/p>\n

And yes with properly I mean…. PROPERLY<\/p>\n

Prerequisites<\/h2>\n

At a minimum:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Safe room. Actually safe<\/li>\n
  2. EF5 tornado. No discussion.<\/li>\n
  3. Category 5 hurricane. Expected.<\/li>\n
  4. Fallout. Managed.<\/li>\n
  5. Yellowstone burps? On the checklist<\/li>\n
  6. Zombies. Sure.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    So yes.<\/p>\n

    This means I have to think about things most houses simply ignore.<\/p>\n

    Water management.<\/p>\n

    Water treatment.<\/p>\n

    Water storage.<\/p>\n

    Not one filter. Multiple! In different stages.<\/p>\n

    Enough mass to attenuate radiation.<\/p>\n

    And not to forget:<\/p>\n

    electrical island stability.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Because when the outside world goes down\u2026<\/p>\n

    this house doesn\u2019t!<\/p>\n

    Location<\/h2>\n

    EF5 tornadoes. Category 5 hurricanes.<\/p>\n

    Yellowstone.<\/p>\n

    Not exactly a Dutch problem.<\/p>\n

    So yes.<\/p>\n

    This house belongs somewhere in the United States.<\/p>\n

    The basics<\/h2>\n

    Yes. The basics. This house will be partially built into a hill. Why add artificial mass for radiation attenuation\u2026 when nature already provides it?<\/p>\n

    Dirt. A lot of it!<\/p>\n

    That solves part of the problem.<\/p>\n

    The rest of the house?<\/p>\n

    Still exposed.<\/p>\n

    So yes.<\/p>\n

    Concrete.<\/p>\n

    Lots of concrete.<\/p>\n

    More precisely:<\/p>\n

      \n
    • 30 cm reinforced concrete. 12 inches.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Let’s call that the “Outer shell”.<\/p>\n

      Then an insulation layer.<\/p>\n

      And then\u2026<\/p>\n

      another 30 cm reinforced concrete.<\/p>\n

      The inner shell.<\/p>\n

      That\u2019s already a serious amount of mass.<\/p>\n

      And then for good measure another 50cm for the core of the building, the safe room.<\/p>\n

      So yes. Even if someone in the Oval Office decides to play with the nuclear football\u2026<\/p>\n

      this house should handle most of it.<\/p>\n

      Short of a direct hit.<\/p>\n

      That\u2019s\u2026 beyond specs.<\/p>\n

      Getting the picture?<\/p>\n

      Brain, yours truly, is overengineering.<\/p>\n

      Again.<\/p>\n

      Hehe<\/p>\n

      Hardware<\/h2>\n

      Then the hardware.<\/p>\n

      And yes\u2026 inside the safe room. Because that\u2019s where it actually matters.<\/p>\n

      Power first.<\/p>\n

      A serious battery system. Grid connected. Island ready. Plenty of PV. Backed by a diesel generator.<\/p>\n

      And in extreme cases\u2026<\/p>\n

      human power.<\/p>\n

      (Yes.)<\/p>\n

      Water becomes a system.<\/p>\n

      Store it.<\/p>\n

      Filter it.<\/p>\n

      Filter it again.<\/p>\n

      Pond near Chernobyl?<\/p>\n

      Fine. After filtration\u2026 it\u2019s just water.<\/p>\n

      Air?<\/p>\n

      Fully controlled.<\/p>\n

      Multi-stage filtration.<\/p>\n

      Down to particles you don\u2019t want to think about.<\/p>\n

      Clean.<\/p>\n

      Predictable.<\/p>\n

      Ours.<\/p>\n

      EF5<\/h2>\n

      Then the EF5 tornado.<\/p>\n

      This is where things get\u2026 less theoretical.<\/p>\n

      Doors closed.<\/p>\n

      Shutters down.<\/p>\n

      And just to be entirely sure\u2026<\/p>\n

      we go to the core.<\/p>\n

      Door closed.<\/p>\n

      Cards on the table.<\/p>\n

      We wait.<\/p>\n

      After it passes\u2026<\/p>\n

      we go back upstairs.<\/p>\n

      Everything is still there.<\/p>\n

      Exactly as it was.<\/p>\n

      Outside?<\/p>\n

      Different story.<\/p>\n

      You\u2019ve all seen the typical timber-framed houses.<\/p>\n

      Two-by-fours. Plywood.<\/p>\n

      Nails doing most of the work.<\/p>\n

      Efficient. Scalable.<\/p>\n

      But basically Piggy #2<\/p>\n

      Back on topic!<\/p>\n

      Something hit the outer shell.<\/p>\n

      Hard.<\/p>\n

      Could have been a car.<\/p>\n

      Could have been something bigger.<\/p>\n

      Is it a Hummer?<\/p>\n

      Didn\u2019t stay long.<\/p>\n

      The house didn\u2019t fail.<\/p>\n

      It didn\u2019t even try.<\/p>\n

      O crap a minor scratch!<\/p>\n

      Why?<\/h2>\n

      Simple.<\/p>\n

      Houses are meant for one thing.<\/p>\n

      Safety!<\/p>\n

      If a house is hit by a natural event that can happen in its region\u2026 it should be able to handle it.<\/p>\n

      Not \u201cmost of the time\u201d. Not \u201cwithin spec\u201d.<\/p>\n

      Just\u2026 handle it. All the time!<\/p>\n

      I remember one storm.<\/p>\n

      Proper storm. Wind force 12.<\/p>\n

      I was inside.<\/p>\n

      Looking at my own reflection in the window. And I saw the glass move. Not break.<\/p>\n

      Not crack.<\/p>\n

      Just\u2026 flex.<\/p>\n

      Inwards.<\/p>\n

      Outwards.<\/p>\n

      Like the house was breathing.<\/p>\n

      That was\u2026 not “comfortable”.<\/p>\n

      And that is an understatement!<\/p>\n

      Up in the attic it was worse.<\/p>\n

      Wooden beams making sounds I had never heard before.<\/p>\n

      After the storm\u2026<\/p>\n

      Houses damaged<\/p>\n

      tiles missing<\/p>\n

      parts of houses\u2026 just gone<\/p>\n

      Yes I’m not kidding, the remnants ended up in our garden.<\/p>\n

      And I thought to myself.<\/p>\n

      Never to my house!<\/p>\n

      Since then\u2026<\/p>\n

      I\u2019ve adjusted a “few” things.<\/p>\n

      hehe.<\/p>\n

      Well\u2026<\/p>\n

      Another slightly insane story from yours truly.<\/p>\n

      Brain out.<\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      We all know the story. Piggy #1 built with straw. Gone. Piggy #2 built with wood. Also gone. Piggy #3 built with stone. That worked. And then there\u2019s me. Not a piggy. Just\u2026 thinking a bit further. What if I had to build a house from the ground up? Not the usual way. But properly….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[431,433,432],"class_list":["post-663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-random","tag-house","tag-overdoing-resilience","tag-rebuild"],"yoast_head":"\nPiggy #4: The Overengineered House - Brain's Ramblings<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"EF5 tornadoes, grid failure, fallout\u2026 What if you designed a house that just keeps working? A slightly overengineered take on resilience.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.familie-kleinman.nl\/brain\/index.php\/2026\/05\/02\/piggy-4-the-overengineered-house\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Piggy #4: The Overengineered House - Brain's Ramblings\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"EF5 tornadoes, grid failure, fallout\u2026 What if you designed a house that just keeps working? 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