Other homes have steel doors to one or more bedrooms that can be bolted closed to provide time for security forces to arrive.įor strong storms or tornadoes, a storm safe room must be built to withstand high winds and flying debris, even if the rest of the residence becomes severely damaged or destroyed. In some cities, the entire upstairs area is grilled off, as well as every window and door to the home. Foreign Service members overseas when they are living in cities with a high crime threat. State Department often uses steel grillwork much like a jail to seal off parts of a home used by U.S. Safe rooms in the basement or on a concrete slab can be built with concrete walls, a building technique that is normally not possible on the upper floors of wood-framed structures unless there is significant structural reinforcement to the building. They might also connect to an escape shaft. Some safe rooms may also have externally vented ventilation systems and a separate telephone connection. The hinges and strike plate are often reinforced with long screws. More expensive safe rooms have walls and a door reinforced with sheets of steel, Kevlar, or bullet-resistant fiberglass. Sometimes, the ceiling is reinforced, or gated, to prevent easy access from the attic or from an overhead crawl space. The most basic safe room is simply a closet with the hollow-core door replaced with an exterior-grade solid-core door that has a deadbolt and longer hinge screws and strike-plate screws to resist battering. A mockup of a safe room is shown in the foreground.

FEMA Mitigation provides information on building safe rooms inside homes for areas of the United States prone to high winds.

Building a saferoom