A safe room at home provides a secure place to protect your family from emergencies such as storms or criminals. You can also use it to protect artwork, jewelry, and other valuables from burglars and damage by fire or water.
While it’s easier to build a safe room as part of a new construction, you can also add one to your existing home. Just choose the right room, then add reinforcements to make it secure.
Of course, that’s not all there is to it. You have to consider several factors when building a safe room like level of security, budget, ease of access, ventilation, and what you plan to use it for. You also need to decide between getting a pro to build it or going the DIY route.
Types of Safe Rooms
The first step is deciding what kind of safe room you want to build in your home, depending on what you want to use it for.
- A panic room protects your family from human attacks such as kidnappers, home invaders, or rioters.
- A storm shelter is designed primarily to protect against severe weather like storms and strong winds.
- A gun safe room keeps firearms safe from both burglars as well as curious kids.
- A vault room is mainly for storing valuables.
- An emergency survival safe room is designed for prolonged human occupation during extended emergencies.
It’s important to know what type of safe room you want before you begin any construction to ensure you design and build it right. A panic room may have different considerations (e.g. extra-secure locks) to a storm shelter (waterproof, wind resistance etc.).
You can also design a general purpose safe room that protects against multiple dangers.
Choosing a Safe Room Location
Once you’ve decided what kind of safe room you want, the next step is picking the best location. The ideal location will depend on the size of your safe room, ease of access and how easy it will be to reinforce.
Safe Room Size
If you are building a safe room to accommodate 1-4 people, a small bedroom, closet, or bathroom can be retrofitted into a safe room. Small safe rooms also work great for securing valuables or storing firearms.
For larger groups of people, consider choosing a bigger room like the garage, basement or a large bedroom.
Ease of Access
If the safe room will be used by people, then ease of access is essential. You want people to be able to easily reach the safe room in the midst of an emergency whether it’s a tornado, an earthquake, or a home invasion.
Consider locating the safe room on the same level that most people sleep, especially kids and the elderly.
The path to the safe room should be clear of obstacles and designed in such a way that it bypasses potential intruder points like the living room.
Reinforcement
If possible, choose a location that makes it easy to reinforce your safe room. A location that lets you take advantage of your existing home structure such as a strong external wall makes reinforcement cheaper and easier.
A room with fewer doors and windows is also easier to retrofit into a safe room.
Building a Safe Room In Your Home
You have three options when it comes to constructing a safe room in your home:
- Get a pro to do it — This is the best option. There are plenty of engineering considerations that go into designing a secure safe room. Hiring a professional ensures you get everything right. You don’t want to find out during an emergency that your safe room is not up to snuff.
- DIY — If you have good construction skills and the right tools, you can build a DIY safe room in your home. It may not be as secure as something built by a pro, but it can work for low to medium security situations.
- Pre-built safe room kit — You can get a pre-built safe room kit that you assemble inside your chosen room. The kits are expensive, though, and you may need a pro to help with assembly. Below is an example of such a kit being assembled.
Whatever option you choose, building a safe room involves reinforcing the walls, floor and ceiling of a room to provide all-round protection.
Depending on your budget and desired level of security, you can construct your safe room from steel, reinforced concrete or wood. Panic rooms can also be built using ballistic panels (bulletproof/bullet resistant).
You’ll also need to reinforce the door and windows, with the best option usually being replacing them with stronger alternatives and adding high-security locks.
Large windows are a weak point so these are typically covered or replaced with smaller plexiglass windows.
In addition to reinforcement, there are other elements to keep in mind when building a safe room. Ventilation is one of the most important, otherwise your supposedly secure safe room could actually be dangerous for your family.
You also need to think about supplies like food, water, and a first aid kit. You may also need to install communication and surveillance systems to call for help and monitor what’s happening outside.
Don’t forget sanitary needs; you may need to install plumbing especially if you expect to spend a significant amount of time in the safe room.
Final Thoughts
With the help of a pro, it’s possible to turn just about any room in your home into a safe room. You just need to decide what kind of safe room you want, which room will work best and, what materials you want to use.
