One of the most important wilderness survival skills to learn is how to build a shelter.
A fire may give you warmth and a means to cook food and purify water, but a shelter provides you with protection from the elements, such as rain, snow, sleet, or wind, each of which a fire can’t protect you against.
It’s also possible to build a shelter, however, that works against you and can actually harm you (if not kill you outright) if it’s improperly instructed.
We’re here to teach you how you can make sure this never happens.
Here are the top ten shelter mistakes that you should avoid at all costs:
Poor Location
Regardless of how well-constructed your shelter is, selecting the wrong shelter location can have dire consequences.
Avoid setting up camp in low-lying areas prone to flooding, near dead trees that could fall, or in areas with a high risk of rockslides or avalanches.
You’ll also want to avoid building your shelter on the side of a hill or mountain, where it can become easily vulnerable to strong winds.
There is so much more to choosing the right location for your shelter, and this guide has all the information you need, from how to utilize the terrain in your favor to how to choose the orientation of your shelter.
You can learn here everything you need to know if you want to be prepared for an event where you have no other choice but to live in the wild.
Building Too Close to Water
While it may seem convenient to set up camp near a water source, building too close to water can pose risks such as flash floods or attracting wildlife. Choose a location that is a safe distance from water while still being within walking distance.
Neglecting Weather Considerations
Failing to account for weather conditions can leave you exposed to the elements. Always check the weather forecast before heading into the wilderness and prepare for changes in temperature, precipitation, and wind. If you are unable to check the forecast or if the forecast is incorrect, the only thing you can do on your part is to be prepared beforehand.
For example, you may convince yourself that you don’t need a tarp when going on a hike because the forecast shows it won’t rain. But if you find yourself stranded and it ends up raining anyway, that tarp could prove lifesaving as the roof or wall for your shelter to keep you shielded from getting wet.
Not Prioritizing Insulation
In cold environments, insulation is crucial for retaining body heat and preventing hypothermia. Avoid sleeping directly on the ground and use insulating materials such as leaves, or a sleeping pad to create a barrier between you and the cold.
You should also place identical or similar materials in the wall of your shelter.
Building a Shelter That’s Too Large or Too Small
The size of your shelter should match your needs and the number of people in your group.
Building a shelter that is too large can be difficult to heat, while one that is too small may not provide enough space for you to sleep comfortably.
A good rule of thumb is to construct a shelter that is about a foot longer than your body length.
Overlooking Ventilation
Poor ventilation in a shelter can lead to condensation buildup, which can make you wet and cold.
Ensure your shelter has adequate airflow by incorporating ventilation holes or leaving small gaps in the structure.
Using Improper Shelter Materials
Selecting the wrong materials for your shelter can compromise its durability and effectiveness. Choose sturdy, weather-resistant materials such as tarps that can withstand the elements.
The flimsy space blankets that you can get for cheap at most sporting goods stores may offer a little degree of protection, but they also can rip and tear easily and won’t offer much strength or protection against strong winds.
Not Securing Your Shelter
Failing to secure your shelter properly can leave you vulnerable to collapse in high winds or heavy rain.
Use sturdy anchors such as rocks or stakes to secure your shelter and regularly inspect it for damage or wear.
Related: Emergency Shelters When You Are on the Move
If you build a lean-to shelter, make sure that the poles are tightly lashed together and to the trees; the last thing you’ll want is for your shelter to collapse over you in the middle of the night while you’re sleeping.
Building Too Complex of a Structure
While it may be tempting to construct an elaborate shelter, simplicity is often best in wilderness survival situations. Avoid building overly complex structures that require extensive time and resources to construct.
A simple lean-to shelter that faces the direction of the wind to protect you from it can often be all that is needed to get you through the night. A shelter that’s longer and more complex could take up too much time and precious energy to construct.
Forgetting About Fire Safety
Fire can provide warmth and comfort in the wilderness, but failing to follow proper fire safety protocols can be dangerous. That’s why you need to be very careful about building a fire around your shelter. It’s possible if your fire is too close, for instance, for the leaves and wooden poles that make up your shelter to catch fire from the flames.
The good news is your fires can be obtained in designated fire rings or pits. Collect rocks to build a perimeter around your fire and then dig a little into the ground to make a pit, and this will go a long way to ensuring that your pit is contained properly. Additionally, never leave fires unattended, and ALWAYS fully extinguish them before leaving your campsite.
A good strategy with shelter building is to take a weekend and practice building a shelter in the woods. Do this more than once so you get the hang of shelter building from personal experience, and while making you avoid each of the above mistakes we’ve covered today.
You never want a true survival scenario to be the first time you construct a shelter. When venturing into the wilderness, having the skills to build a shelter can literally be a matter of life or death.
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This article on shelters reminds me of our economy such as the three little pigs and the wolf. The first two homes were blown away but the third home did not it was strong.
We have a current economy like the in the hard assets and digital currency. One is built on a strong hard packed soil and brick home, being gold & silver. The other is a temporary shelter like tent on a sandy soil or human feces wasted sidewalk, being digital currency.
The choice is which would you invest in?
Hard assets are the test of time where the computer generated digital currency is only as good as the electricity to keep the mining computers secure and not hacked.
Today with the make America last Bidenomics crowd we have another form of shelter the rotted green wooden shelter. Being America last we are protecting borders, retirement systems, economy, medical, food and shelter of foriegn countries.
Leaving our American shelter in shambles such as the open southern border, gangs of terrorism being flown around our country. Giving them the same civil rights as native born American citizens have. As they illegally break our sovereign immigration laws with the help of a corrupt legal system. Our safe and secure American home is no longer as we have seen with recent cargo ship bridge accident.
We are a shell of what America once stood for, we are rotting from within.
The Chinese own and control as a landlord in today’s America.
Can the American taxpayers take our farmlands back from the Chinese CCP and other foreigners, also from elites like Bill Gates?
We have let the bureaucrats sell our America out to the highest bidder of God’s blessings to the native born Americans to the antichrist believers, thanks for nothing liberals.
Yes the taxpayers certainly can. Read the 4th amendment.
See Eminent Domain as well.
RIGHT ON!!!!!!!
i really hate people that have to bring politics into every damn article that is posted. neither the dems or republicans give a damn about you or anything else but lining their pockets. as soon as people understand this we will be able to get started fixing the problem
A large percentage made a big mistake in their shelters, are we better off today than we were 4 years ago?
We can build our shelters of hay, wood or brick, each one has it’s pros an cons as to what we decide for our final structure.
Biden’s build back better is a house of cards built on lies.
God our landlord is coming, we celebrate Easter as a renewal of faith in God’s ultimate shelter a foundation on rock. Not on a foundation of deception of that government gives us our rights, baloney.
God bless America!
Bidenomics was doomed before his puppeteers even got started. Its heart is the word NO.
Yes food, water and shelter are important to survival. Today to be safe and secure we need the best shelter we can afford. But also need a strong border wall and drilling for oil to keep our shelters warm at night. With God’s love, not the love of our current government, that forsakes us American taxpayers last.
I understand that there are a number of empty buildings owned by the government. They never want to sell these buildings. I suppose it’s because the government budget might be reduced. So why not send all the illegals to D.C. and get government to let them trash the places like was done in New York? Just don’t pay them any more of our tax money!
Great article, it is about using commonsense in building our temporary or permanent shelters.
Happy Easter to all!
You know what is funny about shelters in the city limits we have whole house insurance for disaster like fires an tornadoes. Those home and car insurance commercials we see where we pay to a subscription service will be no longer in a SHTF crisis. In the wild outdoors we have no insurance in case of a fire with temporary shelter. All your gear may burn up too.
Americans have been noted to be tough, accountable and generous until this tyrannical spineless regime came into power since the Covid crisis happened.
We now have whinny deranged Marxist educated wimps worming their way into politics into business with no grounding in reality. We people must make heavy decisions to get back on track. Back to our freedom foundations that our country was based on.
Or we will all be building grass shacks outdoors freezing our butts off. Hiding from the antichrist coming into power.
God bless America.
George,
How was your correct comment useful to survival? Your words may very well happen this Monday. What is your insight if it does? You cared enough to warn. Do you have a suggestion to train people? Seriously. People in this country face everything. Fire. Hurricanes. Tornadoes. Earthquakes. Blizzards. Floods. Now we have to seriously factor in bad actors. It doesn’t matter where you are if you have a suggestion for Survival, please share. No intent to be ugly. Please share.
There is some discussion on the four steps of survival. Shelter, water, fire, food. In my realities it depends on where you are. Shelter first. Get out of the elements. Second I have found to be fire. Water is vital but what if it’s cold and it’s ice and snow? Fire is calming. It melts snow. It boils water. Third is water. Four is food. Like everything, there are variables and the way you find out now instead of actual life or death is practice. People laugh at me but almost always say, if it gets bad Im coming to you. No. You’re not. You have time. It’s your priorities. Why is it when the hurricane is on top of you, you look for the tube that stores dead batteries? Why do you look for a radio then? Why do you look for matches? Now where’s the candles?? Practice these. You figure out which things you need.. now. Not then. Go to the Red Cross and take their basic first aid classes. Then figure out if you’ve gotten anything or not. Once the roof of the PHARMACY is out in the street, not a good time to go looking for Band-Aids and iodine then. Practice real scenarios and be very hard on yourself. Nature will kill you. You should be able to fight back. Get a crank light battery combo. Now you don’t need batteries.
I agree with almost all of your comments. I do NOT agree on going to the Red Cross. They are just another NGO. In the videos clips of illegals how many times do you see them with a blanket on with Red Cross promenently seen? They are just one of the NGOs helping to bring in more illegals. Cut off all funding to the NGOs.
I am reminded of Life’s – Survival “Rule of 3’s”.
3 Minutes without Air. 3 hours without shelter, 3 days without water. 3 weeks without food. Survival Supplies – Tell NO-ONE. Especially Neighbors with kids. With Them – If they know of your preps :
“Asking turns to Begging, Begging turns to Taking.”
Also why I am a State & DHS Certified Firearms Instr. And 3 yrs worth of Ammo(Thousands) stored.
Mostly 9mm, 5.56, and 12 ga. And Combat Competition Shooter, weekly for 10yr now. At night, Inside, Outside, in the Rain, Snow, Heat, name it. CQB, XCQB, more. It is – “What I Do” – NOW. And Teach it.
Tomorrow is the day that we see as the day “My Lord and Savior” came out of the grave.
Thank you GOD for this day.
Build your shelter in Jesus and your shelter will never fall.
John 3:16
stay sharp
I like the idea of a ridge pole between two trees with an A-frame of strong limbs. Drape a tarp over the limbs on both sides with more limbs to hold the tarp in place during high winds. Add insulation all the way around.
Place 2-3 Contractor Trash Bags full of grass or pine needles inside. Put your foam insulating pad on top of these, then your sleeping bag on top. If the sleeping bag is right for whatever season you’re in you should be fine all night.
The 11×15 ripstop tarp is a wonderful shelter for temperate climates.
Hear this and hear it loud and clear. No shelter is survivable. All shelters, no exceptions, are death traps. You will leave a signature of fallen trees, footprints, ashes from the fire, and “lived in looks” everywhere in the immediate vicinity of your abode. Plus you will still have to slap mosquitoes all night. Most of the day too. The smart money for long term survivability is no shelter at all. Yep, no shelter at all. Folks, please abandon any idea of shelter and dress for winter or summer regardless of where you are. We can get skiing clothes, jackets and pants off of Amazon very cheap and they are also water proof. I use them to ride my motorcycle. So forget this crap of building shelter and get extremely cold weather clothes along with mosquito netting for your face and head. To say it bluntly, any shelter you build will become your slaughter house and you and your family will be the gutted. Blunt, but true. Get you xtreme winter clothes off of Amazon or wherever it’s available and live. Think, if you build your shelter in a “safe zone” and tomorrow danger approaches, well, what now. But if all you have to do is stand up, pick up your gear, and walk away, then you have improved the odds, by order of magnitude, of surviving to see another sunrise. Any shelter you build will give you a false sense of security and X marks the spot for your last breath. Your family deserves a better leadership decision. Blessings to all, and see you at His Feet on Judgement Day.