BlastGard is an independent educational website about blast mitigation, protective design and building resilience. We explain, in plain English, how buildings protect the people inside them from extreme events, and how owners can work with qualified professionals to improve that protection.

Who BlastGard is for

We write for facility owners, property and security managers, architects, safety professionals, school and public building administrators, and homeowners in tornado and hurricane country. Most of our readers are not protective design engineers. They need to understand the concepts, standards and options well enough to ask good questions and make informed decisions with the experts they hire.

What we cover

• Protective Design Basics: what protective design is and how buildings respond to extreme loads.
• Retrofits & Glazing: window film, catcher systems, blast curtains and polymer wall retrofits.
• Standards & Guidance: UFC, ISC, GSA, ASTM and ASCE guidance, and how to choose qualified engineers.
• Industrial Facility Siting: occupied building siting and blast-resistant modules at process plants.
• Safe Rooms & Natural Hazards: tornado and hurricane safe rooms and resilience to wind-borne debris and earthquakes.

Our free tools include a protective wall coating quantity estimator and a safe room readiness checklist scorer.

A strictly defensive focus

BlastGard covers protection only. We do not publish explosive or weapon information, threat calculations, charge sizes, attack methods or anything that could help someone cause harm, and we do not publish site-specific vulnerability details. When a topic requires project-specific analysis, we explain the concepts and point readers to licensed engineers and the appropriate standards bodies.

Editorial standards

Our editors build each guide from publicly available, authoritative sources: US government agencies such as FEMA, CISA, GSA and the Department of Defense, national laboratories and universities, standards organizations such as ASTM International, ASCE, ICC and API, and investigative bodies such as the US Chemical Safety Board. We link to sources in the text wherever we state facts.

• Accuracy. Facts are checked against the cited source before publication. Where a value depends on the project, we say so rather than offering a misleading single number.
• No invented evidence. We do not publish fabricated statistics, testimonials, case studies or quotes.
• Updates. Standards are revised regularly. The editorial team reviews articles periodically and updates references when new editions are published.
• Corrections. If you find an error, send it through our contact page with a supporting source. We correct factual errors promptly and note significant corrections.

Our content is educational and is not engineering, legal or security advice. Every protective design project needs qualified, licensed professionals.

Sponsored content and advertising

BlastGard is supported by advertising and sponsorships. Sponsored posts and guest contributions are always clearly labeled, and paid links carry rel="sponsored". Sponsors have no control over our independent articles, and sponsored content must meet our defensive-focus and accuracy standards. When we mention a manufacturer or link to its technical data, it is because the information is useful to readers, not because of payment, unless the content is labeled as sponsored.

BlastGard is part of a network of independent sites operated by Global Trading Partners LLC.

Get in touch

Questions, corrections or topic suggestions? Contact the editorial team. Practicing engineers, safety professionals and researchers can also write for us.