Adding a storm shelter

[ruffdog]

I put this together for a customer a while back. It eats up garage space but I like the design a lot better than the below ground ones. It’s also capable of being taken apart from the inside if debris are blocking the door.View attachment 776004View attachment 776005

I'm just thinking...if you are locked in, the storm hits and the house is on fire. You don't know it until it is too late. Hmm, maybe away from a structure and in the ground is better? Without spending a TON of money, maybe none are fool-proof.

 

[Oaktree]

It’s pretty similar in construction besides the lack of insulation for fire resistance.

Doesn't look like there's a lot of ventilation. How deep do those bolts go that anchor it to the floor? I'd imagine a strong enough twister would pull them right out.
How long is it from when you need to take shelter to when it's safe to come back out?

 

[4570Man]

I'm just thinking...if you are locked in, the storm hits and the house is on fire. You don't know it until it is too late. Hmm, maybe away from a structure and in the ground is better? Without spending a TON of money, maybe none are fool-proof.

I don’t think that the below ground outside shelters are a very good alternative. It’s usually storming severely before a tornado hits and running outside through that isn’t a good thing. I’d much rather take the very unlikely chance of the house catching on fire vs the nearly guaranteed chance of braving the storm.

 

[sd455dan]

Anybody buy a container and bury it a few feet from the house,

Maybe put in a short tunnel and set of stairs at one end of the building.

Seems like it would make a good root cellar and emergency food storage as well as shelter?

 

[4570Man]

Doesn't look like there's a lot of ventilation. How deep do those bolts go that anchor it to the floor? I'd imagine a strong enough twister would pull them right out.
How long is it from when you need to take shelter to when it's safe to come back out?

That piece of channel iron at the top and bottom of each panel is a vent. That shelter is pretty heavy compared to its wind profile to start with and there’s 16 1/2 inch diameter 5” long bolts securing it to the slab. Obviously nothing is completely indestructible but I don’t think that any realistic storm would hurt that. A tornado doesn’t last very long. They usually pass in just a few minutes. But even with a decent buffer before hand I don’t think you’d sit in there for more than half an hour.

 

[EddieWalker]

One of these days I'm going to convert my master closet into a tornado safe room. I know of two different homes with in ground storm shelters right behind their houses, and neither have ever gone into them when there is a tornado warning. I know that one of the family's stood there by the door, debating when the sirens where going off, but never left the house. The way I understand it, when the storm is happening, it's already storming outside and nobody wants to deal with getting wet, and climbing into a hole in the ground in at night.

I thought about adding a cellar type room to my house that I could access from inside the house, or from my garage. The more I worked on the plans, the more absurd it got.

Then I looked into building it inside my garage. I would loose a corner, but it wouldn't take up too much room. The smaller you make it, the easier it is, but for me, getting all of us and our dogs into it made the garage a bit of a challenge.

In the last five years, I'm seeing a lot of people building new homes with the master bedroom being a tornado safe room. They have a massive metal swing in door that is always kept open, and a regular door that they use every day. There is a place to sit, they have some water and snacks in there, and even a bucket for going to the bathroom if you really have to in a cabinet. The City of Tyler has been updating their Code on this, with venting being the biggest issue. I'm not sure of the details, but it was a problem for one of my clients when they had the house built.

My current plan for building a tornado storm shelter in my master closet is to dig out my foundation for a deeper footing, then pour concrete with rebar that is bent under the existing slab. Run that rebar to the ceiling and bend it for the ceiling. All continuous rebar from under the foundation to over the roof. It will go inside cinder blocks that will be filled with concrete. The ceiling will be concrete. The door will swing in and will be built from one of the Safe Companies that offer walk in safe doors. Venting will be through pipes that bend to prevent anything from flying though the wall at that point, but also allow free flow of air into the room. Overall, the cost doesn't seem too bad except for the door. Once built, I plan on finishing it off with dog kennels and shelving for our clothes. Since it's so complex and time consuming to build, I keep putting it off for other projects that always seem more important. Eventually I'll get to it, but I really don't know when.

FEMA has a lot of stuff on their website on how to build a storm shelter. I've read up on what they require, and I'm going to built it to their specifications.

 

[gsganzer]

If I ever have a house built, I'll make an indoor gun/safe/shelter room. We have some friends that built a place and they have a farmer/garden prep kitchen with an attached walk in pantry. I'll probably copy some of their plans and make that pantry the shelter room.

 

[gsganzer]

I don’t think that the below ground outside shelters are a very good alternative. It’s usually storming severely before a tornado hits and running outside through that isn’t a good thing. I’d much rather take the very unlikely chance of the house catching on fire vs the nearly guaranteed chance of braving the storm.

I'm planning to locate mine right at the end of our carport. So if you run out our back door, you're under cover until the last 5 feet. Closer is always better, but it's just the place that works best for us.

In this day and age, you usually have media tornado watchs and tornado warnings with your cell phones also giving alerts in case of power outages. So, in our case, there's typically reasonable warning that conditions are favorable for a tornado and to start getting prepared. I know that's not always the case, but I feel comfortable with our layout.

 

[airbiscuit]

Weather radios are cheap also.

 

[ponytug]

One of these days I'm going to convert my master closet into a tornado safe room. I know of two different homes with in ground storm shelters right behind their houses, and neither have ever gone into them when there is a tornado warning. I know that one of the family's stood there by the door, debating when the sirens where going off, but never left the house. The way I understand it, when the storm is happening, it's already storming outside and nobody wants to deal with getting wet, and climbing into a hole in the ground in at night.

I thought about adding a cellar type room to my house that I could access from inside the house, or from my garage. The more I worked on the plans, the more absurd it got.

Then I looked into building it inside my garage. I would loose a corner, but it wouldn't take up too much room. The smaller you make it, the easier it is, but for me, getting all of us and our dogs into it made the garage a bit of a challenge.

In the last five years, I'm seeing a lot of people building new homes with the master bedroom being a tornado safe room. They have a massive metal swing in door that is always kept open, and a regular door that they use every day. There is a place to sit, they have some water and snacks in there, and even a bucket for going to the bathroom if you really have to in a cabinet. The City of Tyler has been updating their Code on this, with venting being the biggest issue. I'm not sure of the details, but it was a problem for one of my clients when they had the house built.

My current plan for building a tornado storm shelter in my master closet is to dig out my foundation for a deeper footing, then pour concrete with rebar that is bent under the existing slab. Run that rebar to the ceiling and bend it for the ceiling. All continuous rebar from under the foundation to over the roof. It will go inside cinder blocks that will be filled with concrete. The ceiling will be concrete. The door will swing in and will be built from one of the Safe Companies that offer walk in safe doors. Venting will be through pipes that bend to prevent anything from flying though the wall at that point, but also allow free flow of air into the room. Overall, the cost doesn't seem too bad except for the door. Once built, I plan on finishing it off with dog kennels and shelving for our clothes. Since it's so complex and time consuming to build, I keep putting it off for other projects that always seem more important. Eventually I'll get to it, but I really don't know when.

FEMA has a lot of stuff on their website on how to build a storm shelter. I've read up on what they require, and I'm going to built it to their specifications.

I saw this solution and thought it interesting.