Safe room in your house
Posted by theycallmeslayer@reddit | preppers | View on Reddit | 100 comments
Have any of you built a room in your house? Whether full “Panic Room” or just a structurally more secured room for like, hurricane prep? I don’t have a basement and it was suggested I built a reinforced room in an innermost room or closet of the house. Thoughts on what y’all without basements have done and anyone else who has built a panic room?
DaveyAllenCountry@reddit
I've seen people who are building but cannot build a basement (southern soil problem) buy an industrial freezer shell without the freezer part, then incorporate it into their house somewhere bolted to concrete with rebar support. Those things have been the only thing standing from F4s before. Plus the ventilation can still use the fan running even though the freezing part is not.
ScrapmasterFlex@reddit
We have one.
My Dad & I decided to team up and buy land/build a house together, about a decade-and-a-half or so ago. It took a few years to get going - and basically, the entire reason for doing so was to give my 4-legged-son a better life. (He was my SON, and basically my father's only Grandkid, and if he was my Everything, him & my Dad were even closer, Thick As Thieves those two were...) - so we wind up buying a nice piece of wooded land, building a house, etc.
My Dad was very big on building a Safe Room - we moved ~1100mi South, storms are a big deal down here, plus the overall security factor. It probably adds at least another six-figures to the cost of the build, more really - but it's what he wanted (and he had/put way more money into everything than I did ... not even close really...) -
I just asked - our room is about 16'x20ft ... it has two "offices" (one is my father's every day office - not exactly HUGE but it's got his computer, radios, mini-fridge for sodas & snacks, etc.) - my "office" is basically my gun-room ... plus it has our food pantry shelves, random storage shelf, a Mini-Split AC system, a small bathroom , and there is a setup we never took advantage of for having a couch on one side of the open area with a TV on the other wall (under the mini-split AC etc.)
We live in Hurricane Country ...and I admit this fully - my Dad WANTED himself a Safe Room, I would have rather had a Corvette and/or HumVee etc. but wasn't really my money. We FINALLY finished building and moved in around July of '17, and what seemed like a few days later (really ~1-1.5months) was Hurricane Irma ... [ANYONE REMEMBER, the Puerto Rican mayor/governor/senator lady standing behind a warehouse full of pallets of water, food, & paper towels, literally pallets full, and accusing a certain President of personally preventing any shipments of Water, Food, & Paper Towels from reaching PR because he wanted them all to die because he hated their stupid faces, some shit like that?) - I remember being "excited" because a Natural Disaster was coming, we finally moved in, and we were "ready" - well, it got SPORTY AS HELL out there overnight, and while my Dad spent the night monitoring shit in his Safe Room office, I chillaxed with my 4-Legged-Son in my bedroom, across the house. But there was certainly a few times I thought, "Holy Shit... that sounds... NOT GOOD... we might have to actually consider... relocating.. etc"
Thankfully so far we've never had to ACTUALLY USE IT, but we do in fact use it every day. It's kind of like Food Preps ... as long as you prep with stuff you're going to use anyway, it's no big deal. The problems occur when you spend $100 on SPAM, and $1000 on MREs, and $10K on Mountain House etc- and you can't stand the thought of an MRE, nobody in the family will touch SPAM, and the Mountain House just sits there on the shelves, a $10K Prep-To-Nowhere etc.
I highly endorse and recommend people consider these types of investments/preps if they're actual Survival & Preparedness enthusiasts. I would admit fully - part of me would rather have a Corvette, a collection of AR-15s from every designer brand, barrel length, and optic style, $25K worth of ammo, and of course a luxury 4WD-SUV to call my "Bugout Vehicle" ... but my regular-ass guns, Jeep Rubicon, regular-ass ammo collection, all work fine, and that Safe Room is worth way more than it's weight in gold, if you ever even need it truly ONE TIME.
Just my throw-away thoughts, as always - especially in the Survival & Preparedness community- when it comes to S&P/SHTF/TEOTWAWKI, you always have to TIFWIW, YMMV.\
UniversalDonorLord@reddit
No need for a special room, I can panic anywhere.
Due_Winter_5330@reddit
I prefer having a panic...at the disco 😎
curkington@reddit
What a beautiful wedding!
crystalskull89@reddit
I chimed in with haven’t you people ever heard of
Longjumping-Army-172@reddit
Closing the goddamned door...
terrierhead@reddit
Dissociation at Aldi.
olnlo@reddit
I watched Panic Room in the earily 2000s okay
misss-parker@reddit
Being resourceful is a big part of prepping lol
Debidollz@reddit
🏆
WannaBMonkey@reddit
Any room I’m in turns into a panic room
Lonely_reaper8@reddit
theycallmeslayer@reddit (OP)
lol, every room is a panic room if you turn on the news!
theycallmeslayer@reddit (OP)
/r/preppers-ModTeam go fuck yourself, look at how much I care about your ban you ignorant fucks. I’ll still read here and post under another account. Go. Fuck. Yourself. I said it. I mean it. And I will embrace the ban; the ONLY POWER you actually have. Now go back to your discord and cry.
theycallmeslayer@reddit (OP)
/u/preppers-ModTeam make sure you see this ^^^*
Previous_Driver7189@reddit
Safe room in your house. What if you cant get out again? Potential aggressors have only got to wait until you run out of provisions. Seige warfare.
theycallmeslayer@reddit (OP)
Did you read the entire post or just immediately respond to the words panic room because you thought of the Jodie Foster movie? I wrote hurricane prep.
Previous_Driver7189@reddit
Of course you are right. There are other good reasons for such a space. Just my negative mindset. Thank you.
theycallmeslayer@reddit (OP)
It’s all good man. The switch from a president to a dictator has been hard on a lot of us and put many into a negative mindset.
preppers-ModTeam@reddit
Political comments such as yours are never acceptable on r/preppers, and continued violation of our no-politics rule will result in you being banned from the subreddit.
jacksonwhite@reddit
Dictators are rarely re-elected. Just saying pal.
theycallmeslayer@reddit (OP)
New Jersey is and will continue to be a blue state, so regardless of whether we have a dictator in office right now, I take pleasure in knowing none of the idiot red votes matter in our state. Yes, I’m in NJ too.
jacksonwhite@reddit
Hey neighbor greetings! Sadly you’re probably right but I sincerely hope that your overconfidence is shared but other misguided dems and we flip it red this year but that remains to be seen.
Nachie@reddit
I don't have a safe room or storm shelter but I do community emergency response type stuff and can certainly pass on these resources:
https://www.fema.gov/emergency-managers/risk-management/building-science/safe-rooms
https://www.fema.gov/sites/default/files/documents/fema_safe-rooms-for-tornadoes-and-hurricanes_p-361.pdf
https://www.fema.gov/emergency-managers/risk-management/building-science/safe-rooms/resources
https://www.fema.gov/pdf/plan/prevent/rms/453/fema453.pdf
Academic_Win6060@reddit
Thanks, I'll be checking out these links.
jpm0719@reddit
We have an above ground steel storm shelter in our garage bolted into the slab. Was not all that expensive and is rated to stop rifle rounds too. Guess we will not know how well it works unless something hits us, but it does provide peace of mind.
theycallmeslayer@reddit (OP)
Interesting, I never thought about doing it in the garage and into the slab. I’d love to see pics, or an idea of what you did inside it. Ventilation? Backup power? How big is it compared to the single car garage? Whole thing or half? I suppose at what point does it make sense to just put up steel walls in front of the sheet rock I have in there, and convert the whole thing. Is that what you did?
jpm0719@reddit
No, it is a standalone. It is 4x6 or somewhere along those lines. Little taller than 6 feet. I do wish I had gone bigger, but didn't realize at the time there might be times where we spend more than 10 or 15 minutes in it. It is ventilated, no power in it but everything we have (fan, lights, phones, etc) are rechargeable via USB so we keep a couple of portable USB power banks in there for charging stuff. We took the bench off and put it in the top to use as a shelf, and it holds ammo cans, portable camp stove, small propane bottles and freeze dried food. We bought cheap ottmans from amazon to have additional storage and seating. We keep snacks, water, gloves, shoes, batteries for tools, and other odds and ends in those. It is large enough for us to fit quite a bit of stuff, us and our 3 dogs, but it does get cramped after a little bit. It acts as our gun safe too, and I move our small gas generator (not running obviously) with a small gas can in there too when storms are coming so we at least have something for power. Our large generator would fit too, but not worth eating up the extra space.
theycallmeslayer@reddit (OP)
Very interesting. I like this idea. For some reason I feel "safer" in my house, even though my house started as an old log cabin and had a bunch of additions built on, one room at a time. Just a small crawl space, and a weird floor plan where the only central room with no windows is a tiny closet. Not really any ideal place to survive a hurricane/tornado. I'm in South Jersey so I don't think we have an enormous risk of the house getting blown away, though there have been some pretty bad ones that wrecked some houses & blew entire roofs off in the last 5 years. I like the idea of something fortified in the garage, and like your idea... you have the garage around you, and then a bolted down steel room to hide out in. How did you handle ventillation? Is there a window with closeable covers? Do you have sand bags to put on the floor where the door closes? I feel like if I do this and go to sell my house one day, people are going to think I'm crazy for building a panic room in the garage. I'll need to find another prepper to sell to. I suppose alternatively to building a panic room, I could just try to flee .. the problem is we have farm animals to tend to. Though I suppose in an enormous tornado & hurricane, they're cooked if we don't get them off the farm. A lot to think about, and it gets overwhelming so I don't see any of it through!
jpm0719@reddit
The beautiful thing about it is that you can take it apart and move it with you..although in Arkansas it is a feature to have one and I will actually get my money, or a little bit more, out of it. No sandbags, we aren't really in a flood area. The ventilation is built into it. The top of the door and one of the sides are vented at the very top...the fans help move the air around.
Academic_Win6060@reddit
I didn't know these were even a thing. Very cool and I imagine my research will yield more info.
One thing I can think of off the top of my head that I'd add is to find a way to install enough pipe berths for the family in case you need to spend more time than expected or in case someone is injured. Doesn't necessarily have to be bolted to the walls. Could be supported by a glued or otherwise reinforced vertical 2x4 with notches cut out for placing and removing the pipes. If you went vertical bunk-style berths, itd be convenient to drop a side of the top berth against a wall and use the bottom one for seating. I would do this on two sides of the shelter for a larger family.
For those who can't visualize this, look on yt for the channel gonagain and how they rigged the beds in their cargo trailer camper for the basic gist.
I definitely need one of these shelters in my life, thanks!
Chaos_Goblin_7007@reddit
Could you share the company that was used? Im curious out the set up since I have family in TX
bushwald@reddit
What's the TX connection to panic rooms?
Academic_1989@reddit
Not many basements in a lot of parts of Texas. Problems with the soil stability or water tables.
Faris531@reddit
Some of those soils down there are crazy (expansive) and really need to be considered. As a northerner I always thought a big aspect was foundation cost. Here we are going 4-4.5, to bottom of footings for frost. At that depth it’s not too much more to make it a full basement and essentially double the SQFT of your house/building. Down south it’s what 18” footing? It’s probably cheaper cost per SQFT to expend out or up then down.
MBE124@reddit
Listen to this
OneLastPrep@reddit
The cost to dig through the limestone, plus make it not flood despite our water table, not a lot of people have money like that.
Academic_1989@reddit
In the south plains in the Texas Panhandle, the water table is quite high in spots due to the aquifer, despite the fact that we are a semi-arid to arid climate. And yes, about 18" footings, but most houses here are.built on a concrete slab. My house is very old and mostly pier and beam, but that's unusual here.
jpm0719@reddit
Shelter Solutions...out of Arkansas. I don't think they are in business any longer, but there are a ton of companies out of Oklahoma, and I would bet Texas too that provide them. Heck, you can order them from Home Depot now too.
Chaos_Goblin_7007@reddit
Thank you!
JJduckdaughter@reddit
14-14A23 Marina View Dr, Apple River, IL 61001 | MLS #202502503 | Zillow Just listed with a safe room for anyone looking
theycallmeslayer@reddit (OP)
That’s cool as fuck
North-Pea-4552@reddit
I gutted the area below my stairs and made a safe room. My large gun safe is in it. Built shelves that store all my prep gear. Built a wooden box to store thousands of rounds. Have a microwave and TV hooked up (and connected to generator) in the event I need to watch news or prepare food while in the safe room.
Onehundredyearsold@reddit
I would suggest a fan that can work off your generator or by battery in case your generator for some reason goes out of commission. It will get pretty close in there especially in the summer.
North-Pea-4552@reddit
We have ventilation. Great thought though.
Rogerdodger1946@reddit
Our safe room is a bathroom on the first floor in the center of the two story portion of our house. No windows and lots of house above it. We have a basement, but there is only one egress and it's a very narrow stairs. I also consider being trapped down there with broken water and/or gas pipes.
Unlikely-Ad3659@reddit
My house is small and built of reinforced concrete, even the roof trusses are bolted down into concrete with 240 bolts, the bathroom is central, extra large so a mattress and a comfy chair can be put in there with plenty of space to walk around. And the internal walls are extra strong. The only window is small, has a lockable shutter and has steel bars on it ( so I can leave the window open in summer for ventilation)
Only weak point is the thin painted internal door, but that will be replaced with a hardwood replica this year with an internal 3 point dead bolt lock.
Not a safe room as such, but a safer room, I have a good lock on the bedroom door too, but that is more to buy time if there is a break in at night, it still has the same thin shitty internal door. Bottled water is kept in both rooms anyway.
Odd_Consequence_804@reddit
We have a storm room that was advertised as a panic room on the real estate listing. It is fully concrete (floors, walls, ceiling) room in the basement under the front porch of the house. Still no steel door on it but that is on my project list. I have used this more in the last 2 years than we have in the past 12. Will be in there today with the storms coming through.
KaleidoscopeMean6924@reddit
It depends on what you are trying to protect against. If you're talking Oct 7th-style protection - problems with those were ventilation. People's houses were burned out around them, and they suffocated, or grenades were thrown through vent holes.
If you're talking about home invasion - you could lock yourself in a bathroom and have something in there to barricade the door. Those are usually made of concrete and have a supply of tap water. It might be enough to protect you from standard thieves who just take your shit and FO.
For storms / everything else - bathroom is also the best option as it is the most hardened structure in the house. It can act as a citadel for most things. It won't work for determined attacks from police or people who are specifically after you as opposed to your stuff. If you're proficient in defense and have the appropriate means to defend, it might also work for your family to go there to shield them while you eliminate any threats.
Unique-Sock3366@reddit
We have a room in our basement that serves as our panic room/bunker. It’s stocked with camping gear, food, water, and our gun safe is bolted into the floor, as well.
It also has its own dedicated heating and cooling system, camp shower, portable toilet, etc.
So, yeah.
gimme3strokes@reddit
I have a large "closet" in both my houses with a prefabbed steel tornado shelter inside.
ryan112ryan@reddit
I don’t live in tornado or hurricane country, so really just extra security.
So an interior closet with extra studs and two layers of half inch plywood, staggered to offset the seams. You then Sheetrock over it and no one would ever know.
Then a deadbolt on the door or two.
Could someone get through, yes, but studs plus 1 inch of plywood is very tough. I feel like it’s the best practical option that is covert and not that costly.
HillTower160@reddit
Have the door open out (harder to kick in,) and have a hidden deadbolt on the inside (no evidence of it outside.). Hinges are a type that you can’t just use a drift in to remove them.
True_Fill9440@reddit
Tornado research at Texas Tech demonstrated that this increases survivability by 4x.
ryan112ryan@reddit
One key thing is anchor bolts. You’d want to anchor to the cement below.
OneLastPrep@reddit
I do live in tornado country, but pretty much the same. We have an interior bathroom with no windows. In the event of a tornado it would be into the bathtub with a mattress over our heads.
Local_Error_404@reddit
One thing you have to watch with that is ventilation. If you have a couple of people in there for any extended period of time it will need some way of getting oxygen in and CO2 out or everyone will suffocate, a lot of walk-in closets aren't ventilated.
ryan112ryan@reddit
Just found the link below, in a 10x8x15 foot room you’d have about 5 days of air or 1 day for 5 people if it were perfectly sealed.
71% of home invasions are less than 10 minutes. So unless they’re interested in getting you for some reason, you’d be fine.
Also my master closet has the attic access in it which is a ventilated roof.
https://www.reddit.com/r/biology/s/bScOvOGV2J
True_Fill9440@reddit
And you can hang a picture without finding the studs.
funnysasquatch@reddit
I have lived in tornado alley my entire life. I don't have a basement. If you're in a house built in the last 30 years, you don't need a reinforced room. Modern homes exterior walls are bolted to the foundation. They might lose a roof, but it takes a lot to knock one down.
If you live in an area prone to tornadoes, you just need to get away from the exterior walls and windows. One of your bathrooms or closets will meet thse requirements.
This is because most injuries occur from flying glass. Wear long-sleeves, long pants, socks and shoes. Put on a bicycle helmet in the rare case you do have falling debris.
If you're in a hurricane area, you need to plan to evacuate. Storm surge is a tsunami. Water is going to destroy your house.
Alamohermit@reddit
No. Everyone who lives in this house knows how to secure the property room by room.
SunLillyFairy@reddit
A little different, but my master bedroom's walk-in closet is a safe room. It's not a storm shelter, but if someone broke into our home downstairs, alarms would go off and it would take a few minutes to get in. - giving me time to get in there with my kid and dogs. It has reinforced walls/doors and good barrier locks. I wouldn't call it bulletproof, but the reinforced walls and door would stop a regular caliber handgun. At least I'd have time to get my firearm out, call for help and go down fighting. Most regular crooks and creeps are not going to try to take that on.
JustinMcSlappy@reddit
Find the FEMA PDF for building storm shelters. I followed one of their guides for a safe room/gun room and it wasn't that complicated. Alternating sheets of plywood, a 14 gauge steel sheet on the exterior for some saw resistance then I glued drywall to the steel sheet to make it look like any other room. The only tell is a beefy exterior door.
SunLillyFairy@reddit
US forestry service out some plans I like too.
JacketTricky6386@reddit
https://www.sportsmansteelsafes.com/safe-room.html
Background-Pin-1307@reddit
We have a finished basement with no windows, but a staircase down and a walkout pantry at the bottom of the stairs that walks out under our deck and addition. We are basically treating the basement as the panic living space and that pantry as our long term storage room for preps. For the types of things we would need a panic room for (tornadoes, heavy storms) it should work really well as the house is solid. We’ve also ensured safety by having pathways cleared, an extinguisher and fire blanket at the base of steps and put our preps up on high shelves in case of a flash flood (not likely, but still) since this is also the lowest point of our home
Maleficent-Listen-85@reddit
So… anyone here ever had to use a safe room? I’m not that important and am frankly a peasant with far bigger problems if I ever do need one, but just curious if any of my fellow Reddit denizens felt the need to invest in a safe room or what their experience was in using one.
Successful-Memory839@reddit
No but...
When the junkies tried to break down our front door (only way in and out, no ground floor windows) I was glad the upstairs living area door was equally as thick and robust should they have made it through. They wanted to steal our car and they were after the keys.
My 2 take aways
- If we move somewhere that's more exposed on the ground floor, our bedroom and ensuite will be our fallback room, tiltslab walls, internal hallway, security doors, reenforced windows.
- We sold the car for something far less conspicuos and desireable to car theives.
OneLastPrep@reddit
I spent the night in my parent's closet many times during tornado season. Now my kids spend the night in our interior bathroom. It's a Texas family tradition!
Scared-Tea-8911@reddit
Yep! We go to the storm cellar when it hails, or when we have tornado warnings. Flip on the battery LED lights, flip on the radio, get the kiddos tucked in some blankets on cots, and just hang out for a couple hours. One time a big chunk of hail broke one of our windows while we were down there, so I’m glad that we were out of the house for that.
We have also bugged out before a winter storm before - dogs, kids, go-bags, and we got out before it hit. We got to skip a super huge mess… school was cancelled for a week and a half, millions without power for days, but we were in our secure second location with family and much safer for it!
theycallmeslayer@reddit (OP)
Shelter in place room. I don’t think this is a Jodie Foster movie where people are breaking in to rob me. I have other means of dealing with that. I may have been interchangeably using shelter/safe/panic to mean “a place I am safe during a storm while panicking”
BasedPontiff@reddit
My parents built a storm room when they added on to the house. The walls are concrete block with the cells filled with rebar and concrete and the ceiling is also concrete and it's got an inward swinging (so debris piled on it can't block it from opening) steel door.
Onehundredyearsold@reddit
Smart people. May they never need to use it but I’m glad they have it just in case.
Sprink1es0@reddit
We get tornadoes so when we built our house, I picked a corner in the basement and had them pour concrete walls around it. So essentially I have a ~8x12’ room surrounded by concrete and a commercial steel door, but I left the top open so it’s just sheet rock screwed to the floor trusses
Added a floor drain in it, and it’s where I located my IT rack so it has a huge UPS (battery) to charge phones and power lights for the room.
Local_Error_404@reddit
Make sure you have some ventilation to the room if you don't already. Something that will support however many people you expect might be in there for a while.
Sprink1es0@reddit
Of course I post that and now we are under a tornado watch all afternoon lol. This room does have an hvac supply in the ceiling to keep air moving. I do keep some water and some MREs in there but I have 4 little kids so I’m also concerned with keeping them occupied etc if we really need to sit in there. I figure snacks keep em busy and the MRE is an activity!
theycallmeslayer@reddit (OP)
Okay show off, I’m jealous.
Rynowash@reddit
Widespread panic.
No_Replacement_5962@reddit
We have a tornado shelter... a twister headed your way can induce panic!
TheHauntedBear@reddit
I have a room that I turned into a safe (for guns). That count?
theycallmeslayer@reddit (OP)
The most important part is that the guns survive the hurricane so that the survivors have something to remember you by.
TheHauntedBear@reddit
I’ve survived all the hurricanes, tho. Didn’t need a hurricane safe room. 🤷🏻♂️
bushwald@reddit
I worry about the number of folks on this sub about self-reliance (and the toughness that implies) who are too afraid of the world to ride a public bus
NotAnotherRedditAcc2@reddit
How do you feel about the people unable to discern the subject of a post and who post wildly random comments?
bushwald@reddit
Interesting meta-conmentary on your own post. Mine isn't random, I was commenting on the hysterical fear of the Other that would drive someone to consider building a panic room.
theycallmeslayer@reddit (OP)
Hurricane Helene showed us that communities come together to help each other out, right? Worst case - Darwinism.
bushwald@reddit
Absolutely community should be the number one prep
OthalaFehu@reddit
Utility room in the basement where the well water comes in. 2 walls were already concrete, just reinforced the other 2 walls with 1" plywood and put in a steel door. Has a landline, bed, gun safes and most of the prepping gear. Lights are solar. Total cost maybe $1,500
ResponsibleBank1387@reddit
Easy to build a lie down in box. Bury in the ground about 6 feet and maybe a rock or something on the ground to mark your location for other people.
theycallmeslayer@reddit (OP)
Like, pre digging my grave and laying in a casket?
ResponsibleBank1387@reddit
Well yea. But I did see in Oklahoma, they had big old Jobbox bolted to a concrete slab for tornado shelters.
wpbth@reddit
I do. I live in FL. House is cbs built in the early 80s, I think it was standard as most of my neighbors have it. They just made the 2 interior walls block, the plywood ceiling. Rod did hev in 2005 about 2 inches, previous owner was in the house
Scared-Tea-8911@reddit
We have a cellar/storm shelter, because of the hail and tornadoes that come through here. That’s where we store a lot of our banked food/water, emergency radios, generator, etc etc.. so I guess it’s a bit of a “panic room”, but more for Tuesday-level panic. 😊
Eredani@reddit
Not really a safe room but our master bedroom has a small walk-in closet with a gun safe it it. It's not bolted to the floor (yeah, I know!) so its possible to tip it over to barricade the door and provide some cover. Could be a bit of a deterrent and/or buy some time for family members, neighbors or emergency responders.
The obvious downsides are that anyone can chop or shoot through interior walls and doors.
As with ANY security, there is some threat level that you simply cannot defend against.
CianV@reddit
Also you cna add to the Defense in depth model by adding an extra inner door. At the top of the stairs going into our upstairs area / bedrooms we have added a decorative wrought iron door which is anchored into 4x4s with a metal overlay. It would take some serious pounding to get thru giving us reaction time to wake & prepare a welcome. Also easy to toss Freeze+p canisters thru ( like bug bombs with a locking top nozzel
Academic_1989@reddit
The university I work at has extensive experience in the civil engineering and wind sciences departments specifically designed for tornado and high wind protection. I attended one of their seminars recently and they emphasized a few things. The door to the shelters should always open to the inside to prevent debris from interfering with exiting the shelter. The overwhelming number of deaths and injuries is due to impact from flying debris - cinderblock is apparently useless as are wood structures. 2 x 4's become lethal projectiles - they showed photos of pine needles embedded in brick exterior walls, it was crazy. Steel is recommended for the walls. The structure failures occur at floor and ceiling joints. Anchor bolts, closely spaced, into the slab prevent the structure from separating from the floorr. The ceiling/roof integrity is only as sound as the bolts connecting it to the walls. The bolts should be long and large and closely spaced..
Individual-Mobile976@reddit
A panic room is not the same thing as a shelter room.
Panic rooms are incredibly difficult to do right because defending a fixed location from human assault is pretty much impossible over a long enough timeline.
A hurricane is much easier, but you aren't going to do well above ground.
Your best defense is roof ties and clearing any trees that might fall onto your home. If you are in an area that could have an F5 tornado or something, you're probably fucked unless you want to re-do the walls with 6 foot anchor bolts that tie the entire structure to the earth. Maybe not even then.
You should consult with a professional depending on the storms you see in your area. Your considerations are totally different on the coast of Florida than in the south west.
Illlogik1@reddit
My houses center hall way seems more dangerous to me than other rooms but it’s the only area doubled up… the ac unit sits directly above it though , and the water heater is in a closet there too - so I imagine the ac unit squashing my family and then us getting boiled in hot water ….
theycallmeslayer@reddit (OP)
There is a new Final Destination movie coming out if you want to submit ideas for the movie. Also, I'm in basically the same boat as you. Inner hallway closet being the only thing double walled from the outside, but things above us in the attic that will make us squish. I guess a mattress above and below us would make the squish less bad.