Crazy insane awesome...
I beat the game on my first try! Anyways here's a few tips and tricks for anybody who needs help.
Taking on zombies: You should get a rapid fire weapon that you are confortable with as your primary weapon, and use the chainsaw as your backup. Just take down as many zombies as you can with your rapid fire weapon and kill any lucky survivors (by that I mean the zombies) that manage to get up to the barricade with you chainsaw. Feel free to experiment with new weapons, but make sure you do so with a chainsaw as a backup... it's a lifesaver.
Time management: Whenever you get to this screen, make sure to spend as many hours as you need on repairing you barricade. Just check the barricade heath and check how much % you can repair per hour. You can do the math from there. Take whatever time you have left and use it to search for survivors and weapons. Try and even this out to make it fair, both of these are vital.
Oh and just for kicks, check out the journal on the weapon select screen.