Designing an addition for a potential customer who would like to put an addition on to their home.
They are looking to add a master bath and walk in closet on a slab.
Existing house is on a slab so there is no place for them to hide in the event of a tornado.
I have a booklet from FEMA and I know of a Texas Tech study which have guidelines for the construction of storm rooms.
Any one ever built one before and/or have any information on their construction?
Look closely at these common locations for hazardous materials in older homes.
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Replies
I'll be going to a "Disaster Resistant Construction Educational Seminar", sponsored by Dupont, a week from tomorrow. The confirmation e-mail I got mentioned a StormRoom(TM) with Kevlar. So maybe they're going to try to sell me something, too, even though they said that was not the case.
If there is something I can pass on that will help anyone here on the forum, I will.
Neil, design carefully and do your research.
I'm not exactly designing the safe room aspect of it, that can be handeled by an engineer for liability reasons.
They want a place to hide in a storm, understandable since a tornado missed their hosue by less then a mile, but they also want walk in closets and a master bath.
I'm thinking make seperate his and her's walk in closets, take one of them, and turn it into a "storm room" By making them seperate, I figure I can shield it on 3 sides from a direct impact and also cut the costs down by not having a huge room.
mainly just a concrete room with lots of rebar and a concrete roof
I saw a TV show with a piece about a company building "storm rooms" that were basically concrete septic tanks. Two piece (top and bottom halves) put in a hole on-site with basement type stairway entrance.
WOuld something like this work? WOuld the site allow for it?
Not for this particular job, but interesting you mention it, we do have a job coming up with a septic tank being used as a storm shelter for a girlscout camp... I don't know many of details of it though, other then it won't work here.
Thanks though
With stuff moving sideways at you at hundreds of miles an hour, by far the best idea is to be below grade. Let your shelter dodge rather than resist the impacts.
-- J.S.
Hello, My house is built on a slab, I had a shelter buried with the access in the master walk-in closet. It sits low enough to be covered with plywood and carpet, can't even tell it's there.
Mike
couple years ago lowes sold a big fiberglass round thing that you buried. it was about twentyfoot round. I would just hate to hide in it without power, a/c, bathroom, ventaltion, refrigerator, cable tv.
Any room for an ICF closet in the budget?
Good planing and interior/exterior finishes could hide its' existance. Adding a slab ceiling would really make it a vault, but would add to the cost.
Let us know what you come up with for both design and cost.
Dave
Think you better give them a reality check. No above-grade structure will survive a Catagory 5 tornado.
Went by Jarrel Texas, (just up IH 35) after the Cat 5 twister, and the destruction was unbelieveable. Bare slabs of site-built brick homes. Sucked the asphalt, concrete sidewalks, and even grass off the ground.
If you do build this, I'd have a waiver of responsibility for anything above a Cat 3 twister...
Tom: I know of only one totally above ground bldg designed for resisting a Cat 5 twister - it was a nuclear weapons manufacturing bldg. Had 24 inch thick reinforced concrete walls and an equally robust roof. Doesn't mean there are no others! Can't recall what the door was like.DonThe GlassMasterworks - If it scratches, I etch it!
you might want to contact Polysteel. They are in Albuquerque, NM.
They manufacture ICF panels and a product called lite-deck which together give you foam insulated concrete walls/roofs/floors. They have information on safe rooms that exceed FEMA design criteria.
If you can't put it below ground, this is probably one of the better alternatives. It takes a lot of rebar and labor to put together but it works. I just poured my first house, 2,000 square feet with 10' walls 6" thick. The pour took four hours to pump in 40 yards of concrete.
A lot more labor intensive than framing, but very solid.
-K