I would like to have a safe room in my house.
Was thinking maybe a walk-in closet for this.

The question would be 4",6",or 8" cavity?
How thick the top should be?

I would like the roof truss to set on top.
Plan to have 11'-12' celings.

Need to know how much room to allow for.

vmg. god I must be bored but here it is:

http://www.fema.gov/hazard/tornado/to_saferoom.shtm

Thank You,
I probably should make the utility room the safe room.
What room is common for this?

Sorry if I ask too many questions, but I don't always believe
the salesman at the home shows.

Vic

Vic, We're going to use an 8' x 16' walk in closet capped with 4" concrete. Three sides are 6" exterior ICF walls; the interior wall with closet door will be 4" ICF so we don't take up too much floorspace. Were planning to use some leftover Lite Deck a friend had, but that would reduce ceiling height by 5-6". Instead will use 3/4" plywood as the base for the concrete which will be supported with bracing and jacks until concrete cures. Will use grade 60 #5 rebar on a 1' grid with ends at 90* into the four walls. Our roof trusses will rest on the top of walls with a few inches of gap from bottom chords to cap.

Would rather use the closet, because we can store important docs, archives, backup computer media, valuables, my wife's shoes and my collection of John Deere caps. Hope this helps. Dave

Once you have your room, you then need to keep some basic supplies in it. One supply I believe is the future of replacing cases of water bottles is the Lifesaver Bottle http://www.lifesaversystems.com/. It's expensive, but you can use it in just about any water source. Think about the one commodity you will need in the event you need your safe room. Unless this is more a security issue.

We put a safe-room in almost every house we build. The cheapest, best space is under the stoop. And you don't loose any basement space. Most house plans we get include a concrete stoop. Plans usually say "excavated" however but unless the stoop is more than 8' from the house, the excavator has to dig it out, so it gets a full height foundation. It is a waste of space to fill it in, so we put 6" Lite-Deck over it, presto safe-room. FEMA has Lite-Deck and ICF engineering for any spans 12' or less, so we don't have to hire an engineer.

The majority of the houses we build are 6" all the way to the roof. But if you do big spans of Lite-Deck we need 8".

Lite-Deck stoop installation guide:
 
http://www.litedeck.com/PDF/Safe%20Porch%20Install2.pdf

We're building a slab on grade, therefore, the closet option.  Early design had a partial basement for utillities which was to have a Lite-Deck ceiling, but we didn't want to have to hobble up and down stairs in our old age. 

As they refer to it here, the "fraidy room", is primarily for weather protection, i.e., tornados, but security may become a need as the economy is wandering around and some folks might resort to theft.  Like to think that being in the country, we're a bit removed from all that, but we need to be realistic.  Merry Christmas!

VMG,

We are also planning the same. We using the foundation walls as the walls for the safe room. Also considering Lite Deck for the overhead ceiling. The room spans 13' and supports the floor above. What have you decided on the thickness of the deck?

Leonard

Leonard,


I'm not sure on the thickness yet. I will have a one story, with salb on grade. The safe room I believe will have all utilities, and secure storage.
Since I will have 11'-12' clearence it will allow any type of roof. I like the Lite-Deck option. Estimating 3,500-4,000 sq.ft. not including garage.
Might put safe room between a potion of the house, and garage to disguise it's existance.

I will go for a 2 1/2 stall garage, with large out-building. A portion will be ICF. I would like to place things that don't belong cluttering the house.

Vic

Almost every house we build has a safe room. One neat thing I seen on one is they used the master bath as a tornado shelter. Its a smaller room, its off the master bed so you can scramble to it in a hurry and the walls were connected to the ceiling which was insuldeck. It was above ground level but with 8" concrete walls I would think you would be safe. As far as a safe room I don't think you want to keep rations in your master bath. It was just a thought. It nice to kick a few different ideas around when you are designing.

I would incorporate a special safe within the safe room in which you would keep all your important documents etc. The safe room needs to be big enough to hold all people comfortable without creating claustrophobia. A tornado is usually done within seconds. From warning to event completion is about an hour at the most. So, one has to think about the oxygen demand in the room. It is also important to think about an immideate threat (tornado) or a nuclear fall-out (permanent). How far does one want to take it with supplies?

I will only go for safe keeping, and tonado shelter. I will have well water and allow the storage tank of the reverse osmosis tank be my water supply.
The tank I use now is a 20 gallon bladder tank. It is pressurized, and would work with the power off. I'm looking into a generator, and battery back-up power. As far size goes. I was thinking 12'x 20' for the utilities and room for people for the just-n-case Tornado. as far as ventillation i would be open
for any suggestions as well of a back-up battery system. If a Nuclear issue happened. I probably won't hide in my home.

Vic

vic, let me ask you this: if a nuclear fall out was to happen where would you hide if it was not your home?

Manfred,

Unless your the president, I believe it won't matter. What have you planned for this. I feel if I worried about every little thing. I would miss out on life.
Do you know something we don't know?

Vic

I know about the Swiss having buit whole cities in the mountains to accomodate their population. But since a Nuclear fall-out is such a long event m- what does it matter?!

The safe room should be designed efficiently to store all your valuables and house you for several hours if necessary.