Underground room/bunker

Just posting for my father, who is interested in building a cheap, underground room which is not connected to any other buildings like a basement.

He's a big Lord of the Rings Fan, and so it's basically a hobbit hole, I'm just wondering if anyone knows of links to websites that would have info on building underground rooms, or if anyone here has any useful info about it.

Crowbarr

Depends what you want it for.

I live in tornado country, and here it is possible to buy a "prefab" shelter in steel. You just have to dig the hole yourself. Most of the mfg'ers are just welders who started this as a sideline.

I think FEMA used to have a section on constructing subsurface shelters, for both fallout protection and general refuge. I'll see if I can find it on their site.

www.fema.gov...

www.survivalring.org...

www.officialdisclosure.com...
aboveground

Just did a quick google search

Here's some resources:

FEMA document 320: "Taking Shelter from the Storm - building a storm shelter in your home.
I know you were talking about new construction; but I bet most plans you find will be for modifying existing, because most consumers will be tied down to their present real estate.

An optimistic little website that sells pre-fab fallout shelters

The vigilant folks at The American Civil Defense Association have a lovely technical library. A bit pricey, but then, isn't security worth the extra price?



Have fun
.

Just make sure your underground shelter isn't in a Flash Flood Zone... I'm only half joking, think about being in the prefab type that you dig the hole for and has a hatch that opens out or up.
Then Imagine a storm hits with tornado warnings. You take the family and squeeze into the buried over sized tin can.
Then a flash flood hits sending tons of water on top of your shelter (or anything heavy, like a car) making it difficult to impossible to open.
I know that sounds ridiculous but people could actually find themselves in this position and end up drowning.

I live in france in an old farmhouse situated in the heart of the cognac vines (literally). Most places like mine have at least one "VAT" which was (and are) used for the fermentation of the grape juice. I have 3 of them and will soon be converting one of them for "emergency" use. They are made from 6-8 inch thick reinforced concrete and have an access hatch on the top and various drain holes on the front. They are situated in a stone building with 2 foot thick stone walls and massive oak beams! Although mine are not that big, I could get me, my cats and a whole bunch of supplies into it. Water can be stored in one of the others and fed into it. People who wish to renovate old property here often ask me if I could remove their vats (I am a builder). When I finish laughing I suggest other uses for them which may involve something a little less drastic (storage usually involving removal of one face and inserting a door). My point is...concrete and reinforcing steel are cheap, strong and practical, easy to work with and the structure would stand up to quite a pasting even above ground. It is also excellent at providing fixings for shelving and space saving. You would be amazed what you can do with shuttering and pouring of concrete and if you dig it into the ground it is really simple. Dig hole, pour base, shutter sides, pour sides, shutter roof, pour roof. You can incorporate seperate areas for water, waste, ventilation etc etc. There are no limits and if you use the "Hobbit Hole" approach, you can go with arched corrugated metal as the frame and build around it and expand to your hearts content. In the future I will knock 2 of my vats into 1 or just go out the bottom and see how far down I can go, nice chalky rock (my water table is around 15 meters down!) then I go sideways as far as I want. No risk of running into neighbours here, ha ha. So...always more than one way to skin a cat eh!