Safe rooms

Geo-TH,In · May 12, 2015

Both my kids are looking to buy a bigger house. Only problem Indiana has tornadoes. Very few newer homes have basements. I wouldn't live in a house without a basement, but around Indy, there are very few homes with basements.

So does anyone have a safe room? Was it built into the house when new or did you buy one. I don't think I would want to go outside to get into a shelter when it raining, lightning and windy. I think I heard on news where an outside shelter filled with water during a storm. That could be very dangerous.

So what do you have, Cost? Thanks.

Kerry50 · May 12, 2015

3-4 years ago my cousin dang near lost his house new years day due to a tornado. They do not have a basement. During the rebuild, he had a cinder block room built in his garage for his safe room. Hope he never has to use it. I think the only problem with the outside shelter is getting to it. Time is of the essence.

D beatty · May 12, 2015

I go along with you I also have basement and I wouldn't have a house with out a basement . My daughter lives at Fishers,In. and she bought a home with a basement. She says she wouldn't buy a house if it didn't have a basement.

Chris(WA) · May 12, 2015

I would not think that a cinder block room would provide all that much protection against a tornado's destructive forces unless it was well designed and reinforced.

tim s · May 12, 2015

My thoughts too Chris,,cinder blocks aren't good enough..

buickanddeere · May 12, 2015

(quoted from post at 17:06:58 05/12/15) Both my kids are looking to buy a bigger house. Only problem Indiana has tornadoes. Very few newer homes have basements. I wouldn't live in a house without a basement, but around Indy, there are very few homes with basements.

So does anyone have a safe room? Was it built into the house when new or did you buy one. I don't think I would want to go outside to get into a shelter when it raining, lightning and windy. I think I heard on news where an outside shelter filled with water during a storm. That could be very dangerous.

So what do you have, Cost? Thanks.

If there is enough soil to dig out 8ft of basement before hitting rock , they put a basement under homes here. Even if we hit water, just dig a little deeper, dump in some drainage stone, run some drain tile, one piece pour a basement floor and walls. No problem. Room for laundry, utilities, storage, washroom/shower, wood stove, firewood and a TV room.
As previously stated. The cinder block room will just draw tornadoes to it's flimsy walls like tornadoes to a trailer park.

cool hand · May 12, 2015

Block walls can be made quite sturdy if the voids are filled with concrete, and steel reinforcement is used. Not quite like poured, reinforced concrete though.

D beatty · May 12, 2015

In a tornado a 2x4 will go through a cinder block like the block wall wasn't there. A bove ground I would want thick concrete walls with a lot of reinforcing bar running through it.

VaTom · May 12, 2015

"Above ground I would want thick concrete walls with a lot of reinforcing bar running through it."

That will work. Here's a place that won't blow away near Chicago in Indiana. Cost is usually considerably less than traditional stick-built. One farther south in Indiana (Bloomington area) will have sliding steel covers (pocket doors) for the huge windows, the weak spots.

Oklahomans building aren't going quite that far. Neither did I, but my roof weighs 250 psf, total 200 tons on a small house.

dzc3 · May 12, 2015

You can buy a shelter made of steel that will bolt to the floor in your garage or elsewhere. Cinder block wont work.

roy prins · May 12, 2015

hey Va Tom -- there was a house in the dirt like that in chandler minn. when a super tornado went thru there and they never rebuilt it -- it had a south front and it was destroyed -- full of mud and debris --everything inside was toast -- not a window left-- I like the R-value tho--one cord of wood might last a while --

Pair-a-dice farm · May 12, 2015

A friend of mine added on to his house and built a safe room in the addition. They put anchor pillars 6' into the ground added lots of rebar and made the walls and ceiling 8" thick poured concrete. The door is a 1" thick solid steel but looks like any other interior door. Other than a noticeable difference in acoustics, you couldn't tell it from any other room in the house. I don't know where he got the plans but it cost around $10K 12 years ago.

RobCons · May 12, 2015

In Alabama many of the septic tank companies have modified their tanks into safe rooms. Most of these type are installed outside, interior rooms are of steel and plywood bolted to a concrete floor. Cost seems to run $4500 - $7000. Approved plans are on the FEMA web site also.

VaTom · May 12, 2015

Roy, virtually any design can be constructed poorly. My place has been through 2 earthquakes, they caused substantial damage elsewhere. I suffered 2 cracked windows, 1 per quake. In tornado country, only reasonable to make sure the engineering of exposed walls was rated for expected winds. That apparently wasn't the case in Chandler, unless the house was sound and the owners simply didn't like living there enough to bother to clean up. Glass will break, why the Bloomington house is getting steel covers.

I know of an underground house in Oregon that was abandoned, though structurally sound. It had severe water problems, leakage AND condensation. Poor design.

My head building inspector warned me about building a concrete house. Said they were always wet. Condensation or leakage? He didn't know, just always wet. Visited me after we'd been here several years and was shocked. No water problems. Now he suggests interested folks give me a call to make sure they get it right. Pretty simple really, avoiding both condensation and leakage.

We like a fire, so long as it isn't a chore. We burn under a cord/year (20,000 cu ft house), our only active heat source. While a nearby friend with a similar sized house cuts 4 1/2 cords/year of oak here. We also have no need of air conditioning, unheard of around here. Annual Heat Storage is the design I followed, and the other houses I mentioned use, or will use. Cheaper to build, and works better. Not to mention never needing a re-roof.

fixerupper · May 12, 2015

When we were harvesting in Oklahoma one of the young crew members commented about all the bomb shelters he saw in the old farm sites. We had to educate him on storm cellars or root cellars.

D beatty · May 12, 2015

I have looked at underground homes and if located in the right place and constructed properly they will with stand a lot. If you make steel shutters for widows and doors you should have very little damage. You would have to open windows a little to equalize the preasure during a tornado to keep windows from blowing out.

TL (Va) · May 12, 2015

Saw this on tv a while back:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNKe0Sa8qG8

jamesinok · May 12, 2015

I have a 8 x 10 above ground safe room built by OZ. The roof is 12 inches thick, walls are 8 in thick floor is 16 in thick with 4 24x 24 pier holes. All one pour. Has 3,000 lbs of rebar in it, 86000 lbs of concrete. It is outside patio door and my handicapped wife can roll her wheel chain right in the door. Door is 3/4 in laminated wood on each side of a 1/4 tempered steel plate. Cost a little over $11,000, but I am 4 miles east of Bridge Creek Ok. James

Mel in SW Iowa · May 12, 2015

Texas Tech has several safe room/storm shelter designs. They seem to recommend above ground safe rooms/storm shelters that are easily and quickly accessible from any room in the house. One of the proven designs they recommend is constructed of cinder blocks filled with rebar and cement. The rebar in the walls is to be tied in (welded?) to the reinforced concrete slab that they recommend for a roof.

peachhead · May 12, 2015

We don't have that many storms here but I feel much better because I have poured concrete basement walls.

I have often wondered why people don't build basements in that part of the country? Would just make sense to me.

Ian Beale · May 13, 2015

Not tornados, more heat

http://www.outback-australia-travel-secrets.com/coober-pedy-underground-homes.html

Nebraska Cowman · May 13, 2015

I sat out one tornado in a basement in 1985. You wonder if you will live to tell the tale. But you get over it. If I hear stuff hitting the house I'll go to the basement again. Your chances of being in an auto accident are much greater but nobody stops driving.

showcrop · May 13, 2015

I am surprised that young fella Old has not chimed in yet. He has or at least recommends an old school bus. He said he just dug a deep ditch drove the bus in and buried it. he will have to explain the entrance-exit part.

VaTom · May 13, 2015

Worked very well there Ian, too bad other parts of Australia didn't follow that lead to avoid problems with wildfires. That's a common interest in the western US that lights up every year.

When I selected a company for home owners' insurance the underwriter wanted to know why I wanted "fire" insurance, on a house that won't burn. I didn't, I wanted the entire package that comes with homeowners'. To them, it was "fire insurance". I got great rates even though I'm nowhere close to a fire hydrant.

My roof (above) doesn't look much like one in Coober-Pedy, but it rains here in Virginia. Something else amusing is that nobody has ever found my house using Google Earth, even when they had the street address.

Coober Pedy Underground

Geo-TH,In · May 13, 2015

I'm giving my kids an incentive, $14K, to buy a house with a basement and out buildings, call it early inheritance. Daughter is having difficulty finding a house she wants. Looking in Brownsburg area.

VaTom · May 13, 2015

Showcrop, shipping containers have also been used very inexpensively. Neither they nor vehicles are designed for burial, but if you're careful...

Did you catch the news about the Oklahoma woman who drowned in her storm shelter? Rising water, really bad design to allow that.

Another woman with land near Norman intentionally lives a short bicycle ride from OU. Seems they have an underground auditorium used as a tornado shelter. Bicycle to avoid the street traffic jam when the alarm sounds. She's trying to figure out her finances for a house. One that won't blow away. Sent me a photo of a twister that was 2 miles wide, half a mile from her employment. There's a reason I don't live there.

Texasmark1 · May 13, 2015

My cellar is 9x12 and as such is registered as a bomb shelter....none of my doing, contractor said and did. I have seen a few safe rooms around here. I like them better than acellar as they are right there in the house. If I had one I'd make it big enough to spend the night in bed as most of our really bad storms come through in the dark. Have had 2 tornados across the property in 35 years. Minimal damage thank goodness. The cellar is inconvenient and wouldn't get used if an unsuspecting storm hit whereas a room would be just a matter of course. If storms are forecast, you just spend the night in there.

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