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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Tell me about your storm shelter
If you have one--is it sloped, flat, or do you have a safe room? Do you know anything about why one is preferred over the other? (specifically the slope vs flat). What company installed it? Price? I've only found 1 company that gives their price online so I'm just looking for an estimate. What size do you have? Are you happy with that or do you wish you would've gone larger? How many people/animals can fit? Any other info that you think is improtant? You can PM me if you'd rather share info that way 
TIA!!
I may have to sell a kidney, but we're getting a d@mn cellar.
TIA!!I may have to sell a kidney, but we're getting a d@mn cellar.
Re: Tell me about your storm shelter
We bought our shelter from Smart Safe Shelters. Ours is a flat top. It took only a day to install it in our garage. They are really pricey, but IMO worth it. We spent about $2800. They have a smaller model than ours, but you can go inside them and see how it fits. Last night we had 2 adults, 1 child, and 2 dogs (plus supplies).
One tip though: When you get one buy a small fan to put done there. It does get very hot. We just had an extension cord running through the air hole to keep it going.
We have one in the new house. They haven't installed it yet (which was stupid on their part because they poured the foundation already) but they're supposed to be soon.
It was $1500, but I'm not sure if he got some sort of special rate. I'm not sure what company we're getting it through. It's a flat top the goes in the garage, I don't know what the difference is between flat top and sloped. I think it fits "6 people." I quote that because they're so tiny that realistically you could probably fit 3-4 people. 6 people could probably CRAM inside.
We thought about getting a safe room (inside the master closet). We decided we wanted to be underground. I can see the appeal of safe rooms (you'd have a lot more room, less uncomfortable and crowded, you wouldn't have to worry about debris on top of the shelter and being trapped). I just remember on May 3 hearing Gary say "if you're not underground you're not going to survive" so that's why we decided to get an underground shelter ... JUST in case.
I thought about this last night. We were at a family member's house who has a safe room. While we were waiting for the storm to hit us they kept showing footage of two homes--one that was completely wiped off its foundation, and the other one where only the basement was left.
I want an underground shelter.
We did. We decided that we liked it installed in the garage so we wouldn't to go out of our house. Plus we didn't have enough room in our backyard to install one outside. Was the one you were in yesterday outside away from the house. I always thought those were a lot bigger inside. Typically the shelters installed in the garage aren't as big as those can be. If we really tried we can probably fit 4 to 5 people in ours. One thing I was thinking about is the garage shelters are really steep walking down. We have a mid-size dog that we can pick up. I don't know if your dog would be able to walk down there by himself. I know he is fairly large.
I would suggest going around and just get estimates and trying out as many as possible.
I just talked to a builder about this a couple of weeks ago. He gave me rough numbers for the types that they typically put in homes (for one-family sized shelters) and they ran
Outdoor access, underground shelter - $1000
Garage access, underground shelter - $2700-$3000
Safe Room, above ground - $8000-$11000
He also took me to see a safe room, which was really not much more than reinforced concrete walls.
We did. We decided that we liked it installed in the garage so we wouldn't to go out of our house. Plus we didn't have enough room in our backyard to install one outside. Was the one you were in yesterday outside away from the house. I always thought those were a lot bigger inside. Typically the shelters installed in the garage aren't as big as those can be. If we really tried we can probably fit 4 to 5 people in ours. One thing I was thinking about is the garage shelters are really steep walking down. We have a mid-size dog that we can pick up. I don't know if your dog would be able to walk down there by himself. I know he is fairly large.
I would suggest going around and just get estimates and trying out as many as possible.
Yes, the one I was in last night was in their backyard--maybe 10 feet from their back porch? I think for us the backyard may be the better option. We have plenty of room in the yard and not much room in the garage. Good point about the stairs--I had a hard enough time going down them yesterday, I hate to think about Maddux going up or down stairs steeper than that. Definitely have to think about steepness when we start looking.
I saw that last night too! S scary. I guess part of the issue with the underground shelters in the garage is that oil or chemicals in the garage can spill and get down there making it dangerous. Apparently the safe room is somehow bolted to.the slab so the tornado.would have to pick up the slab too. I don't know that I buy that though. I feel like the bolts could break. He is looking at putting in a room under the stairs or something now.
I get that if you have some sort of chemical spill, it could reach the shelter and that would be a problem, but isn't the likelihood pretty low? I mean, I'm pretty sure I've never had any oil or chemical spills in my garage of any kind and I'd guess most people would say the same.
We don't have one of any sort but my parents do and we visited them yesterday. I love theirs because you access it from the back living room. There is a bookcase in there that swings open. You look at the ground and you can see the stairs going underground, there is a metal door that closes at ground level. It was dug and poured about 20 years ago we really have not used it too many times, they store holiday decor down there. On May 3rd we had 26 people and probably half a dozen dogs. It is HUGE and when we build a house we will put in a similar setup. Large enough to allow neighbors to hop in and inside the house to protect you from the approaching weather.
BTW, please make sure you register your shelter. If the house or other debris ends up on top of you want the rescuers to know you guys are down there.
IMO, I think builders need to start putting storm shelters in when they build a house in Ohlahoma and any place else that tornadoes are common. Just tack the price on with everything else.
I want to get a shelter installed. Like I told DH the other day, I do not want to plan on where we need to go if something happend, I just want it to be common sense, esp. with kids.
there was a blurb on the news about flat safe Thursday night.