Quality safe shelters

This shelter picture was taken directly from the FEMA P-320, Fourth Edition/December 2014 and shows a "site-built safe room that withstood the impact of the Moore tornado (Moore, OK, 2013)."

The FEMA P-320 is guidance provided by FEMA for safe rooms. Before we dropped a 3,900 pound van from 50 feet onto our shelter, Caleb Holt, PDC Manager for Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service, stated, “with the gravity pull, essentially you’re going to get 195,000 foot-pounds directly impacting this (shelter) and if you calculate that out and think about the fastest wind speed ever recorded in North America, 318 mph, this is going to be in the neighborhood of 1,200 mph.” That’s equivalent to almost 4 EF5 tornadoes bearing down on the shelter at one time! 

Before installation, steel plates are provided to be installed into the concrete slab while it is being poured. These plates are flush with the engineered slab and the steel framed shelter panels are welded to these plates. This welded anchoring system and the 23,000 pound shelter disallow  wind to be able to get under the structure to pick it up or even move it.

After your engineered slab has had the weld plates installed and it has cured, we will have your shelter delivered and assembled. A crane or a forklift is used to install the shelters. We start with the wall panels and weld them to the weld plates as well as to each other. Then, we lower the roof panels in position and weld them complete. 

In additions or remodels, shelters can be tied into the existing structure or stand-alone. During new construction the shelters are framed and finished the same as the rest of the home/office. Additionally, the shelters can be finished out to be a walk-in closet, pantry, laundry room, server room, gun safe or even a tool shed. Please see our gallery for more pictures.