[Meg]

How many of you have a Panic Room or know of someone who has one in their house or houses? If you have one, what supplies do you have in the Panic Room?

[Meg]

I'll add this. Do you have a special room in your house or know someone who does and what supplies are in it? Also, IF you had a Panic Room, how would you supply it? These are easier questions I believe. :tup:

[Pepper]

I don't have a panic room. I do however, have a pantry that is well stocked. And I have a bedroom closet stocked with water. Maybe Alan will pop in with a few suggestions on how to stock a "panic" room. He usually has some very good suggestions.

Pepper :)

[blueridge]

No, not at this time - but it'd be a real fine idea to have seriously secure "root cellar"...which doesn't arouse anyone's attention (especially building officials, contractors, banks, etc.)...

It's not what you call it, but rather what it *is* that counts. :D

[FrmlyZ]

Meg:

"Do you have a special room in your house or know someone who does and what supplies are in it?"

Special room: yep, the bathroom. It contains TP, soap, magazines, and the usual stuff. :)

Fill me in: what is a panic room.

Best Wishes,,,,,

Z

[Meg]

Meg:

"Do you have a special room in your house or know someone who does and what supplies are in it?"

Special room: yep, the bathroom. It contains TP, soap, magazines, and the usual stuff. :)

Fill me in: what is a panic room.

Best Wishes,,,,,

Z

FirmlyZ, a real "Panic Room" is a steal lined room that is "hidden" within your house so no one knows where it is. It's best to chose a huge room you already have and have a panic room installed by professionals. Your original room will look just the same and no one will ever suspect you have a hidden room in there.

There should be a separate phone line and phone in the room. Your cell phone won't work in a panic room due to the thick steel walls. All kinds of supplies like LOTS of water, food that can be eaten cold and ways to open it. A toilet. An emergency medical kit, flashlight, lots of batteries (rechargeable are good). Don't forget all your animal supplies should you have a pet so you can grab your pet, run into the room, close the door and NO ONE but NO ONE can get in except perhaps using a torch and even THAT would take a long time. There wouldn't be time because you would have used the special phone in the room to call the police to come to rescue you. Also remember to stock the room with up to date medications both precription and over the counter.

Still, even though you have the phone, it won't help you if you use your panic room in case of environmental disaster like a hurricane or tornado. However, should some interloper get into your house, you can run for that room, slam the door (it looks like a wall panel) and you will be safe.

Panic rooms can be used for all kinds of things. Just in case you will be in there for a while due to hurricane or other environmental reasons like a bio-invasion, you should also keep books, games and things to keep you occupied.

There are so many uses for a panic room. No one or nothing can penetrates it. By the way, it is a well ventilated room with it's own source of ventilation.

Edit: Don't forget a battery powered radio. I don't think you can get TV reception in the room though due to the thick steel walls. Also, if you don't have a room already large enough to add a panic room, one can be built onto a room of your choice and still no one will know it's there with the "panel" looking door.

BTW these rooms are also referred to as Safe Rooms.

[FireDance]

Where's Helen? She can explain a panic room.

Seriously, this is a really good subject. I would like to see pricing on this and some examples. Got links?

[Meg]

Hi FireDance. Here is one link: http://www.stormsaferoom.com/
You can google and get some more.
Here is another: http://www.tornadosaferoom.com/

Well, I hope you're sitting down. :P Depending on where you live and the cost of living, the charge for installation of a decent Panic Room (or Safe Room) can run as much as $100,000. :eek: :lol: That is the price more or less. If you have the means to pay that much, it is so worth it! They are real life savers in case of intruders, hurricanes, tornadoes and bio-threats or actual bio-invasion. For a primo Safe Room, one can pay as much as $500,000. :yes:

Now, remember in this cost, there is all the special plumbing, wiring, separate phone and many more extras that are not connected to your present dwelling. Also the steel is up to 6 inches of solid steel. The construction and labor is included in the cost I quoted.

[A.T.Hagan]

Yep, I've got a panic room. It's the family bathroom. When the tree fell during Huricane Jeanne and punched a hole through the roof and ceiling it was directly over the bathtub.

That caused a good deal of panic for a time until I could get up there to get the tree off and the hole covered.

.....Alan.

[Meg]

A.T.Hagan OMG! :eek: I hope no one was harmed. That is so horrible and frightening. I sure hope you had a clause on your insurance to cover natural disasters. I do. It's certainly worth the extra money paid for house insurance and what happened to you is a prime example!

[Brihard]

Predictably, anyone who wonders what one of these rooms is, exactly, can rent the movie 'Panic Room'. It's actually not a bad thriller...

[FrmlyZ]

Meg:

Thanks, I now know what you are talking about. I had heard them called secure rooms.

Not thinking of any here. I can't see any other houses from my yard. I am in the middle of a forest. In the surrounding area, where there isn't forest there are cows. Nice docile Angus and a lot of them. They graze in their fields between the forest land. Don't think we are much of a target for anything.

My first floor is 2250 sq ft with three walls underground. Good enough for tornados. I guess I will go with that. :)

Best Wishes,,,,,

Z

[nanna]

If I did, I wouldn't tell :D


nanna

[Potemkin]

If I did, I wouldn't tell :D


nanna

Exactly. I am saying I do, or do not, have one but if I did I wouldn't be telling anyone.

I always wondered why all of the reliance on food, water, chemical toilet, etc. if the only purpose was to wait it out until the police got there?

There are a couple of other variants people might be interested in knowing about.

One variant, developed by a university for the tornado area has you taking a large closet, probably the master closet, and pulling off all of the sheetrock from the walls.

The sill plate for the walls are lag screwed to the floor or the concrete slab. 1/2" plywood is placed on the walls and ceiling. Another layer is added rotated 90degrees. Everything thing is sheetrocked, floated, textured and painted.

The door is replaced with a steel core door with hinges secured with 3"screws into the studs. A deadbolt is installed and both the deadbold and knob latch is attached with 3" screws.

They shot large 2x4 boards at about 100mph and no penetration.

I have also seen expanded steel panels used with a sheetrock overlayment.

The other variant is similar to the one above but the plywood is replaced with bullet resistant kevlar sheets with come in 4'x'8 sizes like plywood. (They are rigid with an epoxy matrix. The back of the door has its own piece to cover that area.

Sheets can be had to stop a 9mm all the way through .308.

[JC Refuge]

Meg, this is of course a good and interesting topic.

No doubt, one can spend as much money as you want to get a saferoom. But to say it will cost "$100K, more or less" is wildly misleading and unnecessarily discouraging.

Granted, if your definition of a saferoom is a room of five- to six-inch thick steel, then you're probably right about the cost. But there is little need for that kind of overkill for the usual threats one tries to prep for.

Of course, for the individual prepper, everything will depend upon where you want to install your saferoom in your house (as a part of new construction is highly preferable) AND exactly what threats to your safety you want to mitigate.

You've provided links to a couple of high-priced (but unproven value) saferoom/shelter providers. I will say that I recently did some serious shopping around for an appropriate shelter for my needs (as I was about to build an addition to my home) and found that there are some questionable outfits out there willing to take as much $$$ as they can squeeze out of you for what it is they deliver (doubtless, an as-yet unusual niche product/service that can thus try to justify premium prices).

But one does not need to ante up to that level to get in the game. In fact, DIYers can build top-notch saferooms/shelters for a few thousand dollars. You can also work with local contractors who don't specialize in these things to get a decent shelter made at a more reasonable cost.

And I did also find at least one shelter/saferoom provider who literally delivers the goods at a fair and affordable price across the nation. Below is a link to an outfit that will custom fabricate a fallout shelter or storm shelter or saferoom for you, deliver it to your doorstep wherever you live in the US, and install it. And I can testify that you will be mightily impressed with the quality and value of what you pay for.

http://f-5stormshelters.com/

Many of the members here no doubt have read the lengthy threads (that included photos) that Homepark and I have posted in the last several months at TB2K on our F-5 shelters. They can be found in the B.S. on that board. Suffice it to say, we both ended up with good sized, super-secure rooms that guard against all threats (that can be reasonably prepped for) for roughly $20K ... obviously far more do-able and justifiable for people today in stable economic situations. And at that price, you might even figure to get close to that returned to you dollar for dollar in home value increases going forward.

[fruit loop]

Because nobody else is supposed to be in it but me, or whoever I choose to invite in.

Everybody else who tries to get into my safe room will get their ass blown away!