Building the Ultimate Safe House

[Ken_McE]

Slashdot discussion regarding building storm/flood/fire proof homes. From our perspective, there are interesting suggestions on how to make a good safe place to keep our lights.

http://it.slashdot.org/story/12/11/02/230258/building-the-ultimate-safe-house

 

[AnAppleSnail]

Bugging in works.better some days than others. If you have enough money to build tough enough with (say) two months shelter endurance, and some post-disaster plan, then you might be set. I can only bug in if my job will be here after the storm. Otherwise, off I go into the sunset with my resume and family. No money, no life.

 

[idleprocess]

I recently had the pleasure of breaking into my own house after arriving at work and discovering that I only had my car keys on me - it was an eye-opening exercise. I was fortunate that I had not engaged the deadbolt on the door between the house and the garage and happened to have my garage door opener so I had access to a number of tools. My first thought was to see if I could spread the door with some of the Jorgensen clamps I had onhand, but those were not reversible. I then improvised a spreader with some scrap lumber. Despite successfully spreading the frame somewhat, there was not sufficient clearance for the latch to release (nor was there room to try to manually creep it forward). I foolishly tried to use the door handle itself as a pry point and only succeeded in bending the stem by about 15 degrees. At this point there was little point in subtlety so I grabbed the sledgehammer and about 4 blows later the handle failed spectacularly, allowing me to rotate the latch and open the door. The entire process took about 20 minutes and generated no attention from the neighbors (I did this in the garage facing the street with the door open) ... a determined thief could have gotten in within 2 minutes' of gaining access to the garage (and they would need the opener and/or take the time to break down the garage door itself).

Many years ago, a break-in at the family home was foiled only by the stupidity of the thieves. A neighbor across the alley watched a utility/service-looking truck pull into our driveway and thought little of it - even when one of the occupants stood in the driveway and looked around in a vaguely uncomfortable fashion. The neighbor immediately realized something was very wrong when the other occupant jumped over the fence into their backyard a few minutes later, only to realize they were being observed. Both would-be thieves then vanished in short order. We all concluded that the neighbors' lower 6' perimeter fence was the sole factor in preventing that incident.

Fortified structures for security against intrusion is about deterrence and physical security. Deterrence factors include security lighting, alarms, and lack of visual/sound cover. Physical security include tough doors, security films on windows, pick-resistant locks, reinforced door frames/walls, etc. Both can be implemented on existing structures with varying degrees of success.

Hardened structures capable of surviving disasters are a somewhat different discussion. There is only so much that can be done with existing structures to deal with large-scale forces such as hurricane/tornado winds, earthquakes, or floods.

Security fortification features seem a good deal easier to implement on existing structures than disaster hardening. At some point you need to look at cost-effectiveness and assess how realistic your plans are - lest the producers of Preppers ask you to appear on their program so they can make you look like a nut and their experts can do the analysis on your plans after-the-fact that you should have conducted earlier.

 

[DUQ]

Wow idleprocess and KEN_McE replying in the same thread :ooo:

 

[idleprocess]

Wow idleprocess and KEN_McE replying in the same thread :ooo:

Is that one of the 7 signs or somesuch?

 

[DUQ]

Is that one of the 7 signs or somesuch?

Nah, I just don't see long time members post in the same thread that often. I was just thinking out loud.

 

[Cyclops942]

Nah, I just don't see long time members post in the same thread that often. I was just thinking out loud.

Then here's a third long-time member posting in the same thread, just to freak you out even more.

 

[idleprocess]

No need, I think I already killed the thread.

 

[RBR]

.....

 

[Steve K]

German hurricanes?? Is there such a thing?

Anyway.. that is a good point. There are ICBM missile silos here in the USA midwest that have been decommissioned and turned into homes. I'm not exactly sure why a person would want to live underground, but it is certainly novel! If nothing else, it is safe from the tornados that are fairly common in this area.

 

[AnAppleSnail]

In a sudden disaster, the crack-end of nowhere might be okay. But in hard economic times, good luck keeping a job and food on the table with a 120 mile commute...

 

[RBR]

.....

 

[Steve K]

In a sudden disaster, the crack-end of nowhere might be okay. But in hard economic times, good luck keeping a job and food on the table with a 120 mile commute...

I've heard of some artist type folks who had converted an old missile silo into a home. I don't think they believed in conventional jobs. Otherwise, maybe you could convert the silo itself into a rock climbing facility? I've seen that done with the interior of a grain silo here in Illinois (yeah.. not exactly a way to commune with nature, but no worse than going to a gym).

Hardening a building against tornados is certainly a concern. A small town about 30 miles from me got clipped by a tornado 8 years ago or so, and completely wiped out a small manufacturing business. The employees had taken shelter in some underground restrooms and all survived. ....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Roanoke_tornado
It convinced my employer to beef up the sheltered areas in the building where I work, which I do appreciate!

 

[Illum]

No need, I think I already killed the thread.

No you have not, thats my job, continue please. :)

Cost effectiveness is a big factor... given the defendability [if thats a word] criteria alone, most ranch type houses don't put up that much of defense. A safehouse prevents not only conventional window/door entry but also protects the occupants from non conventional entry. Most building codes don't put up enough safeguards to prevent a car from entering the house simply because the probability is so scarce. Fortifications on an existing structure will never be better than a building initially built and designed with fortifications in mind. This is why coastal batteries were erected from scratch as opposed to fortifying lighthouses.
To undergo the design of a house with bunker capability will require extensive knowledge and know-how to build it yourself [not many contractors outside the military are familiar with this stuff], and once you do and done every neighbor on the subdivision will know where the nearest bunker is after witnessing the materials that went into it.

 

[idleprocess]

Anyway.. that is a good point. There are ICBM missile silos here in the USA midwest that have been decommissioned and turned into homes. I'm not exactly sure why a person would want to live underground, but it is certainly novel! If nothing else, it is safe from the tornados that are fairly common in this area.

From what I have seen of the process, converting ICBM silos appears to be a phenomenally difficult and expensive undertaking. While the quality that went into their construction was phenomenal, the siting and engineering was often not so great - they required steady maintenance and constant pumping to keep them from filling with water. Most sat abandoned for decades or more, and most of the equipment is long-removed or near-irreparably broken. Takes extremely deep pockets, a long timeline, or both to convert one. Already having experience with building trades (and associated tools) relevant to such heavy-duty construction wouldn't hurt either.

Cost effectiveness is a big factor... given the defendability [if thats a word] criteria alone, most ranch type houses don't put up that much of defense. A safehouse prevents not only conventional window/door entry but also protects the occupants from non conventional entry. Most building codes don't put up enough safeguards to prevent a car from entering the house simply because the probability is so scarce. Fortifications on an existing structure will never be better than a building initially built and designed with fortifications in mind. This is why coastal batteries were erected from scratch as opposed to fortifying lighthouses.
To undergo the design of a house with bunker capability will require extensive knowledge and know-how to build it yourself [not many contractors outside the military are familiar with this stuff], and once you do and done every neighbor on the subdivision will know where the nearest bunker is after witnessing the materials that went into it.

A true fortified residence can't really be done in a residential section of town. It would need to be done in a rural area or a commercial/industrial part of town where exotic construction isn't unusual. It would also be so expensive as to be a questionable proposition for anyone with any interest in treating their home as an asset they wish to recover value from.

For the average homeowner, it's a far more effective proposition to focus on more realistic aspects of security - worry less about making your building so secure that it would take a main battle tank to penetrate it and more on mundane risks like burglary/breaking-and-entering

Time and resources permitting, I'd like to do the following on my house:

• Steel entry doors with steel frames - highly unlikely to be kicked in and the frames are far more resistant to spreading
• Security doors - Essentially outer screen/storm doors with solid construction and locksets, adds another barrier between the house and the outside world
• Security film on windows - 3M (and likely other companies) sell exterior window films that make windows perform similar to automobile windhsield glass when broken. Rather than shattering when struck, the glass becomes a mat that takes significant effort to penetrate and the window frame itself becomes the weak point instead of the glass. Also downright invisible relative to security bars.
• Perimeter eaves lighting - For the power it takes to run a twin floodlight fixure or two, I could light the perimeter of the house well enough to thoroughly discourage prowling around the property at night without making the house look like a football stadium on game night
• Perimeter cameras - Be nice to be able to smash an icon on the smartphone and get an overview of what's happening outside. Versatile cameras with sharp daytime color and useful might images (IR-illuminated) are fairly inexpensive. Easy enough to get a system with software motion detection that uploads stills / video offsite as well.
• Tool cage - Locking up all the tools in the garage would remove an incentive to break in as well as making it harder to use my own tools to break into the house directly; watching some of the trends in the neighborhood (more rent houses), probably a good plan.
• Gun safe - I have some inexpensive lockers securing the shooting irons presently; I need to upgrade to a legitimate safe that has a level of security beyond resisting a 5-minute smash-and-grab
• Storm shelter / panic room - A bit fancy relative to the other ideas, but I have an interior bathroom and under-stairs closet that woud be good candidates for some reinforcement as a storm shelter and - with a good stout door - a quasi-panic room

The above laundry list represents some semblance of layered defense. Some of it is deterrence / early warning, some of it is intrusion-resistance, and some of it is mitigation should the house be broken into. All are practical to retrofit to an existing structure without altering the exterior much.

 

[Chauncey Gardener]

If you have the money:


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ummer-guests-The-Safe-House-right-street.html

Perhaps not as fortified as it would appear. The walls are made of wood.



http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=related&v=giEfpV8hUwk

 

[idleprocess]

If you have the money:


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ummer-guests-The-Safe-House-right-street.html

Perhaps not as fortified as it would appear. The walls are made of wood.



http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=related&v=giEfpV8hUwk

As soon as I saw the hinges for the swinging elements I knew something wasn't right - can't support anything as dense as concrete with such modest hardware. The dorky front door that's no better than the back door to a retail shop cemented it (sorry, bad pun). While it's an imposing structure at first glance, its fortification features look pretty weak - for appearances only. I wonder if the designer started off with the idea of making a passive climate-control house with movable elements first, then supplemented it with the quasi-security elements later.

 

[Chauncey Gardener]

The house is situated in a small village at the outskirts of Warsaw. The surroundings are dominated with usual „Polish cubes" from the sixties and old wooden barns.
The clients' top priority was to gain the feeling of maximum security in their future house, which determined the building's outlook and performance.

The whole building is a concrete monolith, while it's mobile parts -- for the sake of considerable size -- are light steel trusses filled with mineral wool. As a result, the building is perfectly insulated when closed.
The whole house as well as the mobile elements are clad with cement-bonded particleboards - Cetris and waterproof alder plywood fixed to a steel construction and painted with dark wood stain, which resembles the wood widely found on the surrounding houses and barns, and makes it fit well into the rural landscape.

[url]http://m.youtube.com/watch?gl=US&hl=en&client=mv-google&v=giEfpV8hUwk&fulldescription=1

<a href="http://m.youtube.com/watch?gl=US&hl=en&client=mv-google&v=giEfpV8hUwk&fulldescription=1" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">
[/URL]

 

[idleprocess]

Price I pay for hurriedly skimming an article with numerous photos interrupting the text - spend all the time looking at the pics and miss the text after the first couple of pics.

 

[Chauncey Gardener]

Small price really. Having only wood walls for protection, perhaps mounting four M-134's, one on each corner of the house might help to dissuade would-be assailants. :eek:

~ Chance