Lee
Guild of Calamitous Intent
Finalizing plans on new construction, I'm doing an interior storm shelter at the end of a hallway. Room will either be filled blocks or a monolithic pour. Leaning toward monolithic, might be over kill, but I'm thinking about making permanent forms out of some 11 gauge steel.
Right now I've got a ~4x7.5' "closet" that will be a shelter.
I need to put a door in it. I was shopping for lower end vault doors, but after some research, none of them meet the FEMA 320 standard for tornado shelters. I've changed my focus to "tornado doors."
Priority #1 is tornado rating, I'm sure some of the vault doors are sufficient, or I could even build something skookum enough, but if it's got an official sanctioning body's stamp of approval from testing, it'll make "the boss" a lot happier. If she's happy I'm happy.
Priority #2 would be fire rating, a lot of the low end vault doors I've looked at are hollow, and don't have fire seals, of course I could stuff them with rockwool, hang drywall inside, add seals, etc.
Priority #3 I want it to swing in, the door will be inward facing, and if the whole house falls down on us, I'd like to be able to at least open the door and see, holler for help, dig myself out, rather than having the door pinned shut.
Priority # 4 it would be great if it looked more like a typical residential interior door, and less like the door to the X-Men's Danger Room.
ProSteel's Vanguard door has my attention, as meeting all of my priorities, but I'd love to find something similar, for about 1/2 the price, it seems to be around $2,500 at any of their vendors that actually advertise their prices.
Anyone have any experience with building their own interior tornado shelter? Any recommendations for another product? I know you have opinions, lets hear them.
Right now I've got a ~4x7.5' "closet" that will be a shelter.
I need to put a door in it. I was shopping for lower end vault doors, but after some research, none of them meet the FEMA 320 standard for tornado shelters. I've changed my focus to "tornado doors."
Priority #1 is tornado rating, I'm sure some of the vault doors are sufficient, or I could even build something skookum enough, but if it's got an official sanctioning body's stamp of approval from testing, it'll make "the boss" a lot happier. If she's happy I'm happy.
Priority #2 would be fire rating, a lot of the low end vault doors I've looked at are hollow, and don't have fire seals, of course I could stuff them with rockwool, hang drywall inside, add seals, etc.
Priority #3 I want it to swing in, the door will be inward facing, and if the whole house falls down on us, I'd like to be able to at least open the door and see, holler for help, dig myself out, rather than having the door pinned shut.
Priority # 4 it would be great if it looked more like a typical residential interior door, and less like the door to the X-Men's Danger Room.
ProSteel's Vanguard door has my attention, as meeting all of my priorities, but I'd love to find something similar, for about 1/2 the price, it seems to be around $2,500 at any of their vendors that actually advertise their prices.
Anyone have any experience with building their own interior tornado shelter? Any recommendations for another product? I know you have opinions, lets hear them.