Safe Room

[jtdumallard]

I am in the process of building a house and am trying to incorporate a "Safe Room" for the family during bad weather. For those of you that have them, what are yours constructed of and what is the going rate for one? Thinking mine will double as a food pantry with a steel door. Not sure if I will go with concrete walls and ceiling or have a welder fabricate one for me.

Any options and pictures that you may have will be helpful.

[novacaine]

I am in the process of building a house and am trying to incorporate a "Safe Room" for the family during bad weather. For those of you that have them, what are yours constructed of and what is the going rate for one? Thinking mine will double as a food pantry with a steel door. Not sure if I will go with concrete walls and ceiling or have a welder fabricate one for me.

Any options and pictures that you may have will be helpful.

"Tornado safe" will take effort and money.....
Ive done a few "in house" tornado shelters and can give you a few items you need to consider..............200 mph projectiles and negative pressure are hard to overcome but.

6 hinge/connections of solid steel door to steel embedded door frame. Thats 3 hinges and 3 dead bolt connections on the other side of frame
solid grout filled reinforce block walls or reinforced concrete walls .........including ceiling
airvent needs to be constructed so that it doesnt get blocked during disaster.
if inground under the house (accessed within house), airvent to outside needs to be well above adjacent grade.

The best design for one is a shelter cut into you garage slab. They can do it after the fact or its easier to install during house construction. They make a sliding roof that is designed to handle a vehicle load in case the wife accidentally drives over it.
Im in the process of designing my next house and i am going to bury a container under the house to double as a pantry, saferoom, tornado shelter also. I will pour the slab to set it on with perimeter drainage and sump pump. The container (8'x8'x40') will serve as the inside form for the second and final concrete pour. I will have a stairway from the kitchen pantry downstairs to the container. At least thats my plan for now.

You can google "tornado shelters" and get the design guidelines from FEMA.

[donia]

got a buddy here that had a thick concrete room built onto garage (first thing constructed due to concrete pour and looked like a dorm sized room square sticking up) ...accessible through the mud room. it doubles as a gun safe. i can get the specifics if you want. not sure when it was poured, with foundation or how long after if it was after.


Experience is a freakin' awesome teacher....

[JLT]

We did our master closet. ICF forms with a 6" solid concrete core and a solid concrete top. I did my own, so not sure of cost. Prob $10k if you had it done.

[teul2]

i am going to bury a container under the house to double as a pantry, saferoom, tornado shelter also. I will pour the slab to set it on with perimeter drainage and sump pump. The container (8'x8'x40') will serve as the inside form for the second and final concrete pour. I will have a stairway from the kitchen pantry downstairs to the container. At least thats my plan for now.

I like this idea. It is what I'd do as well.

[landscaper]

You can find specs and plans for safe room construction on FEMA's website.

[Long Cut]

I do not have one but have seen the one mentioned designed to fit in your garage slab. There is a member on here that had one installed post construction. It looks like like a cross between a duck pit and a grease pit from an oil change place. low profile and its narrow enough that it fits between the wheel wells of a vehicle. We have discussed it and that would be what we do for a storm shelter. As far as a safe room I have no idea.

[landscaper]

I do not have one but have seen the one mentioned designed to fit in your garage slab. There is a member on here that had one installed post construction. It looks like like a cross between a duck pit and a grease pit from an oil change place. low profile and its narrow enough that it fits between the wheel wells of a vehicle. We have discussed it and that would be what we do for a storm shelter. As far as a safe room I have no idea.

I've seen these too and they look awesome. I have always wondered what you do if you need to get in it in a hurry and the garage door is down, the power is out, the car is parked over it, the keys are in the house, etc.

[jtdumallard]

I called a company that installs the ones in the garage and its not any cheaper to install them prior to slab poured or after. Its the same cost and runs about 5500-6500 depending on the size. This may be the route that I decide to go because the "safe rooms" fabricated of either solid steel or concrete filled blocks look to be a good bit more expensive.

Quorted cost:

In Ground/Garage Slab (no price difference between pre or post slab):
Large - (Outside dimensions: 40"x7'x54") - $5400 delivered and installed
Ex-Large - (Outside dimensions: 64"x7'x60") - $6200 delivered and installed

[blackhawk0718]

what i did is took an interior room and did 4x4 for studs and then did a hering bone between them and used screws here and the put OSB on the walls then covered it with dry wall and used a exterior metal door. most all of this you can use scraps cause on the 4x4 i used to 2x4 put together. Now i dont know how effective this will be but it has to be better than nothing.

[jkmjr]

We did our master closet. ICF forms with a 6" solid concrete core and a solid concrete top. I did my own, so not sure of cost. Prob $10k if you had it done.

I have done this for a client on a new construction. A reputable contractor that is already building your house should only charge you a couple of grand to do this plus the cost of the door. There is very little extra work for the subs and the material is marginal.

[JLT]

I don't know JK. If you pour the top solid and have to form/shore it and place all the rebar in the walls and top it is a pretty good job. I wouldn't do it for a few thousand, but some builders might. I don't do residential work so I don't stay up to date on the cost, but if I did it on the commercial side it would be more in line with what I said.....maybe as low as $7 or 8k.

[jkmjr]

I definitely here where you are coming from. I would not do it that cheap either if I was not already on site. I had roughly $1500 in extra labor and material so I charged $500. When I am making 30-40k I try not to hit my clients too hard on extras. If it was just a job to build the room I would charge quite a bit more.

[JLT]

Ten4

[Got Chocolate?]

Jtdumallard, not sure what company you called but I have a company located in Tupelo that does both in ground storm shelters and above ground safe rooms. The in grounds are the type they go in the garage below the slab. They are actually less expensive than the above ground safe rooms. The safe rooms are all steel and have to be bolted to concrete. You can pour a free standing slab but most people opt for putting it in the corner of the garage (you sacrifice space this route but it's cheaper). The website is http://supercellshelters.com/
Shoot me a PM if you need more information or if you want to chat about it.
Trey