Barricades and securing a building in Project Zomboid

Nothing you nail to a window is permanent. A barricade is a timer: zombies have to chew through every layer and then the window or door behind it before they can walk in. Standard zombies break glass and plain doors if they keep at it, and they come for you when they see you, hear you or follow other zombies. See zombies and stealth.

No source gives a reliable break-in time, because it depends on how many zombies are hitting the same spot. One guide puts a lightly boarded window at roughly 10 to 20 seconds under pressure (one source).

• Doors. On the default Apocalypse settings zombies do not open doors, they thump them down (one source). The Cognition option in sandbox settings can let them use doors.
• Windows. Glass goes first, then they climb through.
• Things you build. Walls, doors and fences you build take zombie damage only while the Damage Construction option is on. It is on in the standard presets.

Stand next to the door or window, right-click it and pick the barricade option. Planks need no carpentry level; skill only makes the job faster. The same options work on doors, but a barricaded door cannot be opened until you take the barricade off. Each side of an opening is counted separately, so one window can carry four planks inside and four outside.

Sources disagree on three details. Two Build 42 guides say each plank takes 2 nails and a third says 1. One says metal barricades need Welding 3 and welding rods, another says only the torch and the metal. They also split on whether a welder mask is needed. Carry 2 nails per plank and check the tooltip for the metal options in your build.

Loose nails count; a closed box may not until you open it. A claw hammer, ball-peen hammer or stone hammer can board. A club hammer and a sledgehammer cannot (one source). To take planks off you need a claw hammer or crowbar. You get the plank back and lose the nails. Metal comes off with the torch. See tools for where these spawn.

Opinion Two planks on each ground-floor window is enough for a first night. Hammering is loud, so clear the street first and work in short bursts.

Zombies that cannot see you have less reason to attack the house. Closed curtains block the view in both directions and add no strength at all.

• Curtains. Click a curtain to open or close it. Right-click to take it down; it becomes a Sheet in your inventory.
• Sheets. With a Sheet in your inventory, right-click a bare window or door and choose Add Sheet. No tools or nails are listed for this (one source). It then works like a curtain.
• Light. A lit room behind an uncovered window can draw zombies at night in Build 42 (one source). Close up before you switch anything on. More on lighting.

Lock the outside doors as well. Patch 42.22.2 fixed a bug that stopped you locking external doors from inside without a key, so deadbolts work again. The same patch lets a crowbar force locked doors and windows. A lock does not stop a zombie that decides to thump the door.

An upstairs base needs a way out that zombies cannot use. Zombies do not climb sheet ropes (one source), but they can attack and destroy a rope that hangs within reach.

1. Craft the rope: 1 Sheet makes 1 Sheet Rope, with no tools. Ripped sheets do not work. Regular Rope is a full substitute.
2. Carry one rope per floor of drop. A two-story house needs one.
3. Go to an upstairs window that is not barricaded. The rope options stay hidden on a barricaded opening.
4. Right-click and choose Nail Escape Rope. This needs a hammer and 1 nail. Many fences, railings and metal bars offer Tie Escape Rope instead, with no hammer or nail.
5. Climb with the interact key. Test it once with your normal load before you rely on it.

Climbing costs stamina and can fail on default settings, and a fall from height can kill. The Easy Climbing sandbox option removes the failure chance. One guide warns that an overloaded character falls instead of climbing (one source).

With the rope tested, you can remove the stairs. Equip a sledgehammer, right-click the stairs and choose Destroy. Stairs you built yourself can also be disassembled with a saw and screwdriver. Weapons and fire do not remove stairs. The method comes from a Build 41 era guide; Build 42 guides still recommend it. Patch 42.22.2 added climbable ladders, but only where the map already has ladder tiles, so houses still need ropes.

Fence height decides whether a yard is safe. Players report that zombies get over any low fence, while tall fences such as chain-link compounds and gated communities keep them out. Those reports come from Build 41 era threads; we found no Build 42 source that says it changed. Some tall-looking wooden privacy fences are reported as climbable, so watch a zombie try before you trust one. The weak point is always the gate, which zombies batter down.

If you build your own perimeter, these are the wall figures one Build 42 guide gives (one source). Full detail is on base building.

Log walls suit day-one characters because they need no skill, only an axe, logs and something to tie them with. Damaged walls cannot be repaired in place; you replace the piece. We could not confirm the Build 42 recipe for a log gate or a double wooden gate, so check the Build panel. Opinion Treat any gate as the spot that fails first and put a second door behind it.

Opinion Pick a two-story house with few ground-floor windows, then work through it in this order. It fits the plan in the first week, and base locations covers where to settle later.

Keep two exits from the room you sleep in.