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Keep in mind that a safe room can be more than just storm shelters. The door must be supported on both sides and is best mounted in a pocket inside the shelter and used only when the room is occupied as a shelter. Now a person could go all out and build a very plush safe room. Consider a fireproof filing cabinet for documents, or a bookshelf if you have lots of material in binders or small document boxes. ​You like the whimsical nature of it. You might even consider having a little fun with the concept. Or, it might be a fairly simple project. During new home construction, the builder can reinforce the walls near the shelter. That’s why more and more people, especially homeowners living in tornado-prone areas, are building concrete safe rooms in new and existing homes. All safe-room designs, even for rooms inside the house, are engineered to provide a room that’s completely independent of the house structure and bolted down to a concrete slab. If you build in a corner, you’ve got two walls already. You’ve even got a basic idea of what you want the room to look like. Here are a few factors to consider before building a concrete safe room as well as guidelines and resources for safe room construction. What do you plan to do with it, and how big do you need or want it to be? If you do decide to build a safe room for convenience and easier access during an emergency, the FEMA guide suggests that a safe room be anchored to the building’s foundation and have reinforced masonry walls. Designs for the saferooms financed with FHA-insured first mortgages must follow guidelines developed by the FEMA, with the cooperation of the Wind Research Center of Texas Tech University. Are you going to use it for document storage as well, or just for gun storage? So a tornado shelter can pay off, especially if you live in a vulnerable high-wind zone area. Having a well-constructed concrete house with wind-resistant features will certainly minimize the damage in strong winds. Some state and local governments have engaged in grant programs with the federal government to partially subsidize the construction of safe rooms. We show you a type that you can build yourself. A room for gun safes isn’t just any room and should be laid out accordingly. Concrete masonry can be used in new construction, on existing homes, and in stand-alone saferooms. A good quality gun safe dehumidifier will be great for this. Safe rooms and storm tornado shelters are still embryonic in design, but the room we show below is the sturdiest, most DIY-friendly design we found. It's available from FEMA at no charge by calling toll free (800) 480-2520. In addition to extreme wind events, concrete safe rooms can provide protection from other disasters, including earthquakes, fires, and blast forces. For tornado-prone areas, you should locate your safe room so that you can reach it as quickly as possible from all parts of your home. If you’re at home when the warning comes, staying put will give you the best odds of survival. This can be bolted to the floor or wall. A room or basement you can convert is the first thing. A little elbow grease and the building materials will all but guarantee your family’s injury-free survival in any storm that comes down the pike. This has the effect of literally turning a room into a walk-in safe. The three most common methods are with ICFs, concrete masonry and conventionally cast concrete. It offers many designs to consider, depending on the design of your home and local building practices and materials. Have you checked with your homeowner’s insurance to see if a safe or vault room might give you a discount on your premium? Even if the house disintegrates around the safe room in the teeth of a tornado, you’ll be snug and safe inside (but scared to death!). This is where you have to make sure your location can handle the weight of what you have planned. Add some other emergency supplies, and you’ll be turning you room into the  best possible safe for you and your guns. Even a Category 1 hurricane (at the lowest end of the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale) can have winds as high as 95 mph, and a relatively minor EF 1 tornado can unleash winds exceeding 100 mph. Homes built on a concrete slab that is installed on compacted or natural soil are said to be built "slab-on-grade." Having your own hidden room for gun safes is the stuff of movies. With these types of home, serious consideration should be given to building the saferoom as a separate, exterior slab-on-grade structure adjacent to the homes exterior, with access provided through a door installed in the wall. This makes it more difficult to build inside the home than either the home with a basement, or a slab-on-grade home. Our latest shed is also a pavilion—and you can build it, too! If you are using the safe room for more than just storage, you’ll need to add more utilities. The Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) guide for safe room construction included plans for conventionally cast concrete safe rooms and reinforced concrete masonry safe rooms. Safe room cinder block construction is a major undertaking, and requires both masonry and carpentry skill. Get the "National Performance Criteria for Tornado Shelters" here. Concrete blocks are another quick, relatively simple method for building a saferoom. on each side. The main factors that influence the cost of a concrete safe room include: The cost of retrofitting an existing home to add a safe room will vary with the size of the home and its construction type.