How to Barricade and Secure Your Base in Project Zomboid

 

    Per the PZ wiki, "a barricade is a reinforcement made of wood or metal secured to a door or window as a defensive measure." There are three barricade materials — wooden planks, metal bars, and metal sheets — and each has its own crafting cost, tool requirement, and durability. The one rule that matters most before you build any of them: "barricades will only slow down zombies, not stop them. They are just one method of protecting a safehouse, and should be used alongside others." This guide covers how to place them, what each material costs to craft, and how much punishment each one can take before it breaks.

 

What Barricades Do and How to Place Them

 

    With the right materials in your inventory, right-click a door or window and select "Barricade" from the drop-down menu. Barricades can be added to both sides of the same door or window, and each side is tracked and destroyed separately. For wooden planks specifically, the wiki states "up to four wooden planks can be added to each side of a window or door, each needing to be destroyed individually." Metal barricades work the same way ("similarly, metal barricades can be added to each side of a window or door"), though the source doesn't restate a hard cap of four for metal specifically — treat that exact number as undocumented for metal and confirm in-game if it matters to your build.

 

    Line of sight depends on how many planks you stack: "up to two planks can be added to each side of a window while still allowing vision through — three or four on either side will block line of sight." Of the two metal types, "metal sheet barricades block line of sight, metal bars do not." That makes metal bars useful if you want a reinforced window you can still watch through.

 

    Two more mechanics worth knowing before you commit materials: barricades can spawn naturally in the game world "indicating where a survivor has barricaded a house," and those houses "often contain loot stashes from the previous occupants, who may still be inside" — so a pre-barricaded building is a loot signal, not just an obstacle. And because "barricades make a lot of sound when attacked, they can be used to alert the player to a zombies presence," a barricaded door doubles as a tripwire alarm even while you're asleep.

 

 

Crafting Wooden and Metal Barricades

 

    The wiki's recipe table lists three craftable barricades:

 

• Wood Planks barricade: each of Plank ×1 and Nails ×1, with a hammer (tag) as the required tool. No skill level or workstation is listed as a requirement, and it grants Carpentry XP: 10.
• Metal Bar barricade: a Welding Torch (0.3 full items, i.e. 3 units of fuel) as the tool, plus one of Iron Bar ×3, Steel Rod ×3, or Steel Bar ×3, plus Welding Rods (0.2 full items, 3 units) consumed. This one requires Welding skill level 3 and grants Welding XP: 30.
• Metal Sheet barricade: a Welding Torch (0.1 full items, 1 unit) plus Steel Sheet ×1 plus Welding Rods (0.1 full items, 1 unit). Also gated behind Welding skill level 3, also granting Welding XP: 30.

 

    So both metal variants cost the same Welding skill floor and the same XP payout — the difference is purely in raw materials (bar/rod stock vs. a single steel sheet) and in the line-of-sight behavior covered above.

 

    Removal matters as much as crafting: "wooden barricades can be quickly removed using a claw hammer, crowbar, tire iron or firefighter axe. Metal barricades must be removed using a propane torch." On top of that, "metal sheets, bars, and wooden planks can be retrieved, but nails are always lost" — so plan on buying or scavenging fresh nails every time you rebuild a wood barricade, even if you recover everything else.

 

 

Barricade Health by Skill Level

 

    Barricade HP scales with both material and the builder's skill level (Carpentry for wood, Welding for metal), and the wiki is explicit that "the barricade health can't be upgraded or repaired, other than taking them out and re-applying when damaged or a higher skill level is reached." At skill level 0–1, wood planks start at 1000 HP, metal bars at 3000 HP, and metal sheets at 5000 HP. By skill level 5, those rise to 1220 / 3660 / 6100. At skill level 10 (max), the wiki lists 1500 / 4500 / 7500. Worth flagging as-sourced rather than smoothed over: the table's skill-6 row (1260 / 3480 / 5800) actually dips below skill 5 for both metal columns even though wood keeps climbing — that's what the wiki's own table shows, not a typo I've corrected, so treat it as an oddity in the source rather than a guaranteed in-game curve.

 

    One more layer of protection: "barricaded doors or windows are undamaged until their barricades are fully destroyed, enhancing protection" — so the door/window itself takes zero wear while any barricade HP remains on it. For wood specifically, "a wooden barricade's durability depends on the plank's condition. As it's damaged, so are the planks. To repair, replace damaged planks with fresh ones."

 

    One important caveat on all of these numbers: the wiki page itself carries a banner stating it "was last updated for an older version (41.78.19). The current stable version is 42.20.4, so information on this page may be inaccurate," and separately notes "HP is still based on Build 41, and are planned to be revamped to Build 42 at a later date." Treat the HP figures above as Build 41 values that may shift once that revamp lands.

 

 

• Barricade both sides of a door or window — each side is tracked and destroyed independently, so double-siding doubles the zombie's work.
• Keep it at 2 planks per side if you still want to see zombies coming; go to 3–4 only once you're willing to trade vision for line-of-sight blocking.
• Wood is fast to build and fast to strip with common tools (claw hammer, crowbar, tire iron, firefighter axe); metal needs a propane torch to remove, which also makes it harder for other players to strip in multiplayer.
• Treat barricade noise as a free alarm — a zombie beating on a barricaded door will alert you before it reaches the frame itself.
• Stockpile spare nails specifically for wood barricades, since nails are lost on removal even when the planks are recovered.

 

Running your own Project Zomboid server

 

    Testing barricade layouts, Welding skill grinds, and multiplayer safehouse defense all go faster on a server you control, with save access, mod support, and admin commands to reset a build gone wrong. Get your own Project Zomboid server running in minutes — free with code WELCOME.

 

Conclusion

 

    Barricades in Project Zomboid buy time, not immunity — wood is cheap and quick to place but weak and easy to pry off, while metal bars and metal sheets cost Welding skill and raw metal but shrug off far more damage before the door behind them ever takes a hit. Pick materials based on what you're defending against: line-of-sight bars for a watch window, sealed sheets for a blind spot, and always keep spare planks and nails on hand for the wood barricades that will need rebuilding first.