Budget Bomb Shelter

I am not personally building one as the Minister of finance(wife) wouldnt allow such ridiculous pursuits however i am free to build it in my head.
Now i would suggest that worst case scenario would be a nuclear war and surviving with minimal resources would be difficult but it's better than hiding under the table or stuffing the loved ones inside a lead lined fridge.
This shelter will be based around a shipping container buried as deep as feasible but not deep enough that the dirt on top is going to collapse said shelter or make entrance tunnels to long.
Select a suitable area for the burial,leaving as much natural vegetation on top ass to aid camouflage and allow external protrusions to be hidden.
Your going to need a ventilation shaft,a periscope shaft and an entrance shaft and these could all be combined,you will also need some sort of drainage pipe for waste and water run off.Pvc pipe should suffice for these and the waste drainage should be directed as far away as possible and allowed to flow freely ,so these should all be planned before you bury the container.
Now i am basing this on a three month stay without leaving,it could be longer depending on fallout and proximity to blast so the main priority should be clean water storage and food.For water 20 litre food grade drums are a good option and get as many as you can afford and work out daily allowances and stick to it ,they can also be used as seats.An old fridge or two are a good option for food storage as they are sealed against your other surviving friend ,the cockroach.Old fridges (working or not it wont matter)should be available at next to nothing cost,just pick one with a good seal.Pick the foods you want to store,something tasty and long lasting any canned stuff will do and nuts ,dry biscuits,spreads etc ,I am sure if you are reading this you will know what to pack so i want go into to much detail.
Washing and toilet facilities ,maybe a shower screen in the corner and an old shower base connected to the drainage pipe you already put in.this area can be used for most cleaning but go easy on the water.If you have enough water a flush toilet can be used or collect your washing water and use it to top up the cistern manually.Remember basic sanity you dont want any sickness in here.
Power supply.not that hard really just a good car or truck battery or deep cycle if you can afford it, charged by a bicycle with the rear wheel elevated and tyre removed running a belt from the wheel to a car alternator hooked to your battery,this serves not only charging your battery but will give you good exercise as well,should produce enough power for a low wattage globe ,radio ,CB radio, a small portable DVD player,an extraction fan(like the ones in computers)these use minimal power and can be reverse wired to act as cooling fans,grab a few to play with.Any other low power use products you want to throw in .
Morale and boredom will be one of your biggest challenges,you must keep you spirits up as depression will be knocking on your door often and is like a virus which can be hard to destroy,You dont want to be fighting with family members in such a small dark confine or if alone, fighting with yourself.
Pack books,pens ,video games and make the kids ride the bike to charge while they play.
Use the periscope before you think of venturing out into the brave new world to check for wild animals or marauding gangs and just treat it like a long camping trip or pretend your in jail or a castaway or on spaceship heading for mars,use your imagination.This is just a very basic example and i welcome comments ,suggestions and any input.Thanks Time goes suprisingly quick and you will be back at work rebuilding your lives in no time .The best medicine is laughter so enjoy your experience in the fallout shelter and always look on the bright side of life(da da da da dadadada dada)

reply to post by 12voltz


Yep it could work as you say, with one caveat: You have to account for ground water accumulation, water collects in holes and the best way around this is to start at grade and cover the box with earth.
Realistically this is out of the range of possibility for most.

I think you have some good advice here but me personally, I wouldn't care to stay stuffed into an underground shelter for weeks. I would go bananas after a couple of days.
Besides, in the event of nuclear war the world above ground wouldn't be worth coming out to see.
If I get any warning I'll just put out a lawnchair, light up a smoke and wait for the inevitable.

Another possibility would be to take an old underground storage tank and convert it into a shelter. If would be heck to clean up but they are big and pretty strong.

reply to post by mordant1


Do you mean (by grade)build it on top of land then cover with earth?It will only be short term anyway so i dont think this will be too much of a problem.
But it could be in areas of heavy rainfall so a little silicone could prevent any short term leakage . By going underground you are little more protected from radiation and the walking dead trying to get in.Thanks for the input.

or you can do what i did. buy a cave and live in it rightnow i am siting in my motorhome rv next to my cave for back up if stuff go down hill

great thread, i really would like to build some sort of fallout shelter for security or storage and im not wealthy by any means so this is right up my ally.

sounds like a solid plan, im just wondering how deep do you think the container should be buried, and how exactly do you get it in the hole?

is there anything special to the ventilation shaft? or is it just a spout sticking out of the ground?

the bike generator is it really as simple as taking an alternator and connecting it to a car battery and rigging it to a bike?

reply to post by LurkerMan


in my cave i have a sun and water power generator

reply to post by alex1980


Hows that RV going,will it fit in the cave? You might find this interesting
www.spiritofmaat.com...

the cave is for back up if anything happens.i dont pay taxs are or 9-5 job anther i make doing hostjobs at rv campssites they paid cash no taxes

reply to post by LurkerMan


Thanks .As far as depth go's the deeper you put it the more radiation protection you will have,but then it may need some reinforcement against the weight of earth on top,maybe some structural posts inside will help but i would suggest searching for details on the load limit on your shelter,you dont want to be buried alive.Getting it in the hole comes down to money ,a crane would be the easiest option but expensive ,if you can get it dropped near your hole on some sort of roller system could be used like some logs and you tow it or push it down into the hole via an incline.As for the ventilation shaft ,a low power extraction fan mounted in pvc pipe sticking up through the earth could do but it may need some sort of filter against dust ,smoke and radiation and camouflaged or hidden by a small bushy shrub ,same applies to entrance tunnel,preferably above the surrounding ground so water wont fill it .The bike generator works and it is a simple setup although not recommended for high power usage,Standard wheel to alternator gearing should work ,the larger the bike wheel , will equal faster alternator speed but will make it harder to pedal as you increase the load (power you are using)Experiment with a mountain bike with multiple gears .You wont be using much power unless you plan on bringing all the mod-cons ie microwave oven,dishwasher(mother in law might be a useful addition).Here are some links you may find useful
www.undergroundbombshelter.com...
www.alternative-energy-news.info...

or buy a cave like me two spots open any one like a spot

I have heard it suggested that you dig a hole, pack the floor good, perhaps use gravel or even lay a concrete foundation, and then get one of those super huge solid steel dumpster that are about 6 or 7 feet tall and flip it upside down onto the foundation. The side that "Flips" open is then converted to a door. Then you frame out the mold around it and pour concrete over the top and bury it for extra protection.





You can buy old dirty ones for relatively cheap. You can also combine multiple dumpsters to enlarge it and increase the size of your shelter by using welding/torches to cut doors/weld the dumpsters together.

There you have it.

reply to post by 12voltz

There are a few ppl who use cheap "tin horns" or culverts to
make a budget shelter.

The fact that it is metal would likely help a great deal with EMP
and it needs 3 feet of earthen equivalent mass around it.

Round tubes do better with pressure, than square boxes.

www.backpackfever.com...

Another man has shown how to make a short term one with
just a shovel and a folding saw from the wilderness.

www.oism.org...

There is more than one way listed.

The longest you should have to stay underground is 2 - 3 weeks,
unless in an area that was saturation nuked.

www.oism.org...

You can get an old civil defense meter with a booklet on how to
operate it and calibrate it off Ebay, or you can make your own
makeshift kearny meter, some ppl even sell them as kits.

en.wikipedia.org...

After that there are particles out there that can get in the food,
but they have a half life of 27 years or more.

en.wikipedia.org...

Standard fallout meters will not pick up some of the trace amounts
of these isotopes and it will require something beyond a CDV-777.

www.civildefensemuseum.com...

The water issue can be dealt with via a solar still, nuclear winter
could last for years and all animal life will likely be dead if it is a
large scale attack.

The still will likely accumulate radioactivity over time, some materials
do not accumulate as much.

Plants can pull up radioactive particles into them, so it will take great
care to make it after a large scale event.

Chernobyl showed the radioactive plants as an example.





[edit on 29-7-2010 by Ex_MislTech]

reply to post by Ex_MislTech


It's highly unlikely that mass use of ground bombs of any serious yeild will be used to any degree when an emp is so easy, clean and results so devastating. Those agents intending mass depopulation are unlikely to deny themselves the use of the land they so desperately crave to control and use for themselves, as their narcissism is what drives their desire for mass murder for others and luxury for themselves.
Preparing for radioactive fallout is out of the reach for most and IMHO unnecessary.
More likely is that your hungry and desperate neighbors will do the masters bidding without being so much as a suggestion from the malignant ptb

If you really want to look into a budget bomb shelter, research the Vietnam tunnels.

They did ok with bombs, and were cheap as.

reply to post by NuclearPaul


Yeah great, now all you have to do is get several thousand friends with the time and shovels.