Outside Concrete Shelter

[dragon5126]

Hedgehog you need to check the ground water situation. Make sure that you plan for water problems, sumps will help with this. Also if you want to do this by yourself take a look at blue walls which are a concrete form that is made from foam that go together like blocks and then you pour the concrete. They look good but I do not know about the costs. If you are going to put in block and have not done it before I am going to be using Blue Max Liquid rubber, take a look at their website it is interesting. Ames' Blue Max Liquid Rubber One thing about block I was told do not go more than six high then let it dry then six more, this will prevent blow outs. Do not forget to put in bonding beams with the block. Also they make some drains that go against the wall to channel off the water if you have drainage. I understand that Op Sec is important however when you are doing things in concrete and you can get in a cement truck it is a plus. I would think that for those of you in tornado country a shelter would be the norm so that putting in a hardened one would not draw the attention that it would in my location.

Cant find the links right now, but there several companies that sell modular poly structures that would fit his bill. They look similar to oversized septic tanks with various fittings for what amounts to human sized "habit trail" set ups like they sell for hamsters and gerbils. Not the greatest for radiation protection unless it's buried deep enough or concrete is used but theey are made out of the same stuff as plastic 55gallon barrels.

[bacpacker]

There is a septic tank manufacturing co around here that has started selling prefab storm shelters. I haven't took a look at them yet, so Ihave no idea about the size, cost, or anything else. I'll try and get some info on them and throw it up on here.

[dragon5126]

If they are made the same as the ones I have seen and are of similar size they are almost a no brainer for a storm shelter. Up north here they aren't too popular because everyone has basements. If my yard was larger though, I'd find an excuse to stick a system in the ground and plumb entrances into the basement and the garage as well as an outdoor hatch hidden in the hedges...

[bacpacker]

We have a basement as well and the land lays so that I think one of these would fit that bill quite nicely.

[Sniper-T]

How about starting above ground, then burying it? within a short time frame, it could be relandscaped in short order to look like a natural mound.

Start with something like this: Tents that turn into concrete in less than 24 hours. [VIDEO]

[Stg1swret]

Do a search for ICFs ( Insulated Concrete Forms) they are easy to work with and can be used above and below grade. You can design any shape building you want, and would work great for that "shed" entrance to an underground shelter.

[Sniper-T]

Some friends and I have discussed the concrete tent idea at some depth and I had planned on doing some experimentation this summer, but time just didn't work out. what do you guys think:

Proposal: see if regular tents, either nylon or canvas would work in this same manner.

Methodology: set up test tents in appropriate places around my property, then use a spray bottle with a cement/water mixture to spray the tent, just enough to wet it, then allow the concrete to set. repeat.

Variant: Assuming the first few coats work, add a strength membrane, such as geotextile, for subsequent coats


Concern: the concrete would react with the nylon and disolve it
Solution: switch to canvas, use a fast cure cement, coat the nylon prior to spraying

Concern: The immediate weight would collapse the tent in whole or in part
Solution: reinforce poles, ties, etc.

Concern: The zippers/flaps would be rendered useless, impede access/egress
Solution: apply petroleum Jelly to the zipper until enough coats are built up to retain rigidity. replace zipper with usable door/window system

Concern: Design usable door/window system.
Solution: hatches? create solid structure and cut concrete afterwards

???

Thoughts??

[ravensgrove]

This is fascinating. I need to build an above ground root cellar, our water table is too high for a below ground one. We cloche everythign in straw now, but I need a long term solution. This sounds promising.

[ravensgrove]

Well scratch that, holy heck the big concrete canvas one is $28,000 and the smaller size is 22,000. That's not happening....back to earth bags.

[helomech]

Well scratch that, holy heck the big concrete canvas one is $28,000 and the smaller size is 22,000. That's not happening....back to earth bags.

If it lasted more than 10 years I would order one of them.