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"Safe Room." The first question I have is, "Safe from what?" Intruders, fires, tornadoes, hurricanes -- what? The chances are that, if you can't provide a confident and definite answer, you're not ready to consider a safe room.
My sister and her husband had a safe room built into the basement of their home. It is intended as fire-resistant storage [essentially a very large safe] for their firearms and valuables, and as a refuge from tornadoes and other violent weather. Because fire-resistance and livability have a couple of mutually exclusive requirements, some work-arounds were required.
Yea, well, that lesson was reversed over and over when American soldiers with flame throwers got shot in the back from little tunnel openings away from the apparent tunnel entrances. Thousands of miles of tunnel all over Vietnam including in cities and towns proved impenetrable other than by carpet bombing.
Good point.
Actually, you are reading my mind.
If you really wanted to build something VERY effective then have tunnel down to a bunker with a couple different hidden exits.
Just pointing out the limitations of something as static as a safe room.
There's a movie from 2002 with Jodie Foster, Panic Room - if you get a chance, watch it just to see a few possible drawbacks to the fortress mentality.
My family rented a house many years ago that had a concrete room off the master bedroom. You got into it by squeezing past the built in shelves at the back of the walk in closet. It had a small steel door with multiple sliding bar locks on the inside. Once closed you would slide these long heavy steel bars through the door and into the wall to keep the door closed. That same house had a full basement with a concrete ceiling and a tornado shelter built into the ground in the back yard. That was a fun house to play in as a kid but I think the owners or whom ever built the house were just a bit paranoid. Especially since this was in the northern burbs of chicago...
I have a 'safe room' - it's my basement, with an outside egress in the back. The egress has a (hidden and set-back) steel door on the outside, a narrow unlit short hallway with steep and uneven steps (and a suddenly low roof to nail anyone who is over 5 feet tall with a resounding headache) and a barred folding door at the inside end. I only fear midgets... the inside access is a solid maple door that leads into a steep, dark, and narrow stairwell. If you are in the basement, the walls of the stairwell are set so that you can see (and shoot) clearly anyone coming down without being seen.
Our "safe room" is basically for tornadoes, which are infrequent but possible. We pretty much figure that, between our neighbors with guns, our overprotective dog, and the distance we are from any known or frequented highway, we will have plenty of early warning of anything else. IMHO, "safe rooms" are for fearful city folk with toys, lots of electronic gewgaws, and not enough space or too many neighbors to practice the three S's.
Good points, all! That said, we do have a few safe "areas" at our present suburban/rural home, and plan to have many more when we build (which is the best way to do it). Stone, steel, concrete, and sand bags give great ballistic protection, if that's what you wish to be "safe" from. Underground or hillside hideouts easily made with large culvert) will give protection from nuclear fallout, if that's what you want to be "safe" from.
Where we are going, I don't think we'll need to worry about either of those. I do worry about my grandchildren, when they visit, getting to the firearms, so they will be 'hidden in plain sight' so that I can reach them when needed. I like the idea of having numerous small outbuildings (tool sheds, etc) where food and other supplies can be hidden, yet have room for people if there was a fire at the house. Living out in the woods (where I've never actually lived), presents numerous challenges, and fire at the house is NOT something you want to deal with in the dead of winter (when they usually occur) without having another shelter for protection.
Many years ago I was looking for a storefront location for my martial arts school and found an old bank, complete with a huge, working vault - this puppy was around the size of a healthy 1-bedroom apartment - and I couldn't help wondering how useful it would be as a "retreat".
Of course, I had no interest in saving myself ( I was a loan at the time) so I didn't put a deposit on it or check it out further - I just withdrew...
I heard this term "Safe Room" and google-imaged that term. I want to know if anyone here has a safe room and what activities they can do in that room. It sounds like a small room with nothing much to do. It seems people today use it to store valuables or hide from tornados. In a SHTF, it would be used to protect yourself from desperate people, criminals, or radiation.
I was told it would be a good idea to have one built as part of my off the grid home construction.
It's for easily spooked "special people" to hide in until the cops show up...
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