Building a hiding shelter in my Basement

Aw Hell...just Booby-Trap the entrances...gut's and entrails will pile up...

Much easier after reading that prior post

Dang...if only I'd thought of that...

TOOLS REQUIRED:
15# Long Handled (fiberglass) Sledge Hammer
D-Handled (fiberglass) Shovel
Potato Shovel
Coal Shovel
5-Gallon Buckets (Steel or Plastic)

DAY #1:
Walk into the basement, pick a south facing wall, move all the junk from in front of wall, arrange said junk out of the way, sit down, drink a cup of Joe, stare intently at said wall, determine angles, contours lines, joints meeting joints. Go upstairs, do what comes natural. Think about Day #2…

DAY #2:
Return to basement, grab 15# sledge hammer, take final look at wall, reassure yourself that it will be okay, raise hammer above right shoulder, whack said wall with utter vengeance and superior energy.
Step back, contemplate you’re an idiot, smile, shake head, and whack freaking wall again. Continue whacking until bricks/concrete breaks, pieces of former wall mess up floor, and breathing becomes hard due to dust, consider using a respirator, tell self “screw it” and whack the wall some more.

DAY#3:
Explain to wife that whacking walls won’t destroy house, hand her wallet, suggest extended shopping trip, or mini-weekend at in-laws with kids. Return to basement, finish whacking wall until opening big enough to crawl through, hope like hell rains don’t come early, or massive earthquakes shakes area, whack the wall again.

DAY#4:
Call wife, insure still married, no child support obligation on the horizon yet, smile, kiss-kiss-bye-bye, hang-up telephone, stumble to basement happy, fill buckets with pieces of former said wall, haul into garage, dump into trashcans, return to basement, repeat process until freaking worn out, look at wall, smile some more, and call it a day.

DAY #5:
Reassure wife that you’re not insane, explain to kids it really IS a playroom, return to basement, stare at wall, remember that you always finish what you start, grab shovel, start digging hole, while digging hole and filling buckets, envision an entire underground population survival center complete with amusement park and tidal pools, realize that your slathering, contemplate that you might actual BE insane, continue digging hole and filling buckets into the wee hours of the morning, drop exhausted into bed, wishing you’d got some before she went to sleep, sigh, close yes, nite nite

DAY #6:
Look at large hole in wall, realize that dirt cave-room might collapse, remember sprinkler system is right above drop everything, hammer like hell to lumber yard, use credit card, return home relieved, start unloading 12”x12”x10’ pressure treated timber, haul each piece into basement, stop, catch breath, consider that you ARE insane, but remember that you ALWAYS finish the job, spend next few hours huffing and puffing up ever-growing basement steps until done, call it a day, shot, shower, shave, and crawl into bed beside wife, actually get some, sigh, nite, nite

DAY #7:
Shore up dirt cave in basement, consider this could be the gate into hell, smile, shake head, tell yourself that you stupid, and start digging again, keep digging until 10 foot by 10 foot by 8 foot dirt cave with 12x12 lumber walls and roof magically appears in former said basement wall, smile, go upstairs, shot, shower, shave, crawl in bed with wife, knock her socks off and rip down the headboard. Smile, sigh, nite, nite

Day #8 through Day Number ??
Return to basement, smile when kids drool and wife in awe, remember headboard incident, smile some more, hand her wallet, send her shopping for new headboard. Contemplate future earth inhabitants discovering your hidey-hole as a national treasure, shake head, know your Nucking Futs, contemplate how to hide HUGE FREAKING hole in basement wall looking like the gates to Hades itself, vow to fix, design clever looking wooden wall length shelf, built clever looking wood shelves, attach multiple hinges, install nifty hidden latch lock, stand back admiring own ingenuity, move washer and dryer in front of former said wall field expedient safe room, call it a day, shot, shower, shave, crawl in bed beside wife, take her breath AND knock her socks off, sigh, nite, nite, contemplate supplies and gear now required, can’t go to sleep, roll over horny, stare at wife, tell self screw it, and get on internet until wee hours of morning …

Just my thoughts…

reply to post by Hx3_1963

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Thats the Idea I was shooting for, we had done something like that as kids as well, I was thinking if need be put spoiled rotten food in the fridge freezer as well to deter second/third hardcore looks.... TY

reply to post by Ophiuchus 13

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Holy crap dude, whatever your smoking please mail me some...

Pure Unadulterated Midnight Energy

In all seriouness though, having a safe room isn't a bad idea at all.
You will just have to become creative in its construction.

It really ot that hard, just takes a little planning, and lots of hard work.

Years ago I helped a friend of mine with building a bomb shelter in his basement. It tooks us eight weekends in a row, and when it was done, it served the purpose. Double layer of cindr blocks walls, triple reinforced with rebar. Each block hand filled with concrete, a series of steel plates welded acorss the top as a roof. The hardest part was hauling in buckets of dirt to cover the top of the roof.

when it was all done, the hand-made 1" thick door would be almost impossible to get through, and the walls were thick enough to prevent near area explosion from penetrating.

A couple of years later, he modified it by tunneling in from the garage as an added escape hatch.

Good luck...

heres a simple Cheep sloution two prong on basments may be commin in your area but not aloways im sure . now just get ride of the basment door . make it match the rest of the wall with say a light fixter that dobbles as a wall (door ) relise . in other words contructed right it looks like the rest of the wall in that are untill u hit the hidded door relise.
simple cheep all it takes is a copple hinges a trigger going to the light fixter and some excat cutting of dry wall .
then in the basment its self build a secondary wall out of cement or block leaving 3 feet of space between walls again with the hidden door .
retreat there incase of house burning or they find the first hidden door
total cost would be under 1k .
ide be glade toake you up blue prints or just take this and adjust to your needs
more expensive but even better hidden door is putting tile on the wall
that hides the door as tile can be bough in colth sheets 1 by 1 and can be cute and placed in a none streaght line braking up the i can see a line .
in the area were the door opens at the tile is just not mortered for thous few inches and u cant tell.anyway have fun

Good idea except for one point...you'll have to disguise any outside features at ground level that would suggest the property has a basement such as window lights, ventilation grilles, hatches, coal chutes, or other access point (including hard-paved or other pathways indicating a traffic-point

Same for inside the house...foot-traffic wear on flooring that stops suddenly at a wall would be a dead giveaway of something beyond

The one I alwats considered was if you had a basement. you build a wall that cuts off a decent sized space to hide in, but build no door or window, just a wall. then cut a hatch in the floor from the room (or coat closet preferably) above it on the ground floor. you just run in the room and drop through the floor and shut the hatch. you don't need to actually dig or renovate.
the same can be done with a closet on the first floor. just remove the door, and drop in from the second floor.
this kind of thing is nice because all you have to do is take two or so trips to a home improvement store and your set. no permits or danger. also the drop down is nice because you can lock the trap door from below by attaching a cord to the hatch and then to an anvil or even a hook in the floor.
Even if they pop it open, you'll suprise them with an up-shot from the 12 guage right?

i have studied tunneling somewhat on the internet and here are a few thoughts concerning a bunker or tunnel:

a bunker or tunnel must be supported so that you won't be killed or injured in a cave-in!

must have a fresh air source, deeper tunnels can get fan-forced air down a pvc pipe; perhaps run a vent pipe up that looks like a hot water tank chimney, or some other camoflage

tunnels can be dug in a vaulted shape (like an "A") for less chance of cave-in

tunnel entrances must be reinforced; that's where they are weakest

the deeper a tunnel is the less chance it has of cave in; 10' or deeper is best; but soil structure depends a lot too: soft dirt will cave in more likely than hard

tunnels into hillsides unlikely to flood, on flat areas tunnels can flood after rains

can water-proof a bunker with plastic sheeting and tar before putting in the concrete

I would just wall off part of the basement and line it and the rest with drywall so that it would match.

Even the cops would be unlikely to take a tape measure to the basement to see if it matched the floor area of the home. and even if they did they would just think a addition had been put on the home without a basement under it.

On one end put some shelves and a hidden door with more shelves on the face of it but can be released with a hidden catch.

All the homes i have lived in have had hidden spaces for secure storage.

I always trusted hiding my guns and other valuables in this hidden storage rather then a gun safe.
If someone knew they had time they could break into a gun safe.
But few thieves would look for a hidden storage space when they saw my gun safe thinking that all the guns and valuables would be in it.

i sold one home i lived in and never told the person about the hidden storage.
he later sold the place and i got to know new owner and one day he invited me over.
It was fun to show him the hidden space after he had lived there for 5 years and had never found it or even guessed it was there.

[edit on 7-11-2009 by ANNED]

I have thought of this a lot. I would put a fake closet in, that swivels, so the door looks like a storage shed when opened fromthe outsdie, and from the interior entrance, the door looks like a closet. Then you have your in and outs, both disguised with shelves and stored crap etc, that you don't really care about. Lock down the closets/shevles, from the inside.

I cannot believe all of you have not even thought of THERMAL IMAGE

en.wikipedia.org...

It's a great idea in theory to hide in your basement, but in practice...not.
Only a matter of time before they find you...time that could have been spent getting the hell outta dodge.
*Exit stage left.

Not much on "instructions" available for such a structure, since it would be entirely dependent on the layout of your basement, construction, etc.

I'm assuming here your purpose is to have a quick "hide-out" available in so you can avoid detection if someone comes looking for you, not a long-term living space you can bunker down in when SHTF. Someplace you would stay in for a few minutes or hours, until the coast was clear.

Frankly I don't see the purpose if you're looking to build a long-term hideout. You'll need way more than what could fit in the corner of your basement. Better off defending yourself or bugging out.

A false wall would be best. Vertical wood paneling works really well to hide your entrance door, since your door seams can run along the same lines as the seams in the paneling. Practically invisible and doesn't require alot of really creative carpentry. Plus it's really cheap.

The door should be skinny and run all the way up to the ceiling, and should open INTO the room. It should have a lock on the inside and nothing on the outside. Yes, if someone leans up against the wall or something it may swing open, but once you're inside, you can lock it, so that won't happen.

Insulate the walls and door to help contain noise. Sheetrock is thin.

Ideally the false wall should run along the entire length of your exterior basement wall. This makes it nearly impossible to detect. Just a long, skinny room, 3-4 feet wide, running the entire length (or width) of your basement. If you do it in just one room, an observant person might notice the dead space in an adjacent room and wonder if there's something behind that wall.

Don't worry about some super-heavy-duty barricade or lock for the door unless you plan to fortify the entire room with steel panels or concrete walls or something. Remember there's only a couple layers of sheetrock between you and the bad guys. If they know they're in there a few swift kicks will be all it takes. Spend your time & money on making it invisible.

Store some bottled water in there, a few MRE's and some air-tight containers you can use to relieve yourself in case you're there for awhile.