Building a Real-Life Panic Room (2025)

01-27-10, 11:14 AM

I just found this article after watching the movie "Panic Room", and I thought it was super interesting.

How to Build a Panic Room in Your Home | eHow.com

Just wanted to get everyone's thoughts on it. I'm not really worried about home invasion (knock on wood), and I don't live in an area where weather would force me into a safety-type-room (again, knock on wood), but it's still fun and interesting to think about.

Anyone out there have a panic room? Seen the movie? Etc.?

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01-27-10, 12:08 PM

The devil is in the details and details on how you would actually do what is suggested is lacking.

If you have to stay hid for more then a few minutes before police arrive in urban America something is very wrong. In rural America would help ever be more then 30 minutes away?

Run a generator? These bad guys wouldn't hear see the exhaust.

Hanging Kevlar on walls isn't going to prevent a ten year old from busting through the Sheetrock used in typical home construction. And where do you get the Kevlar from? The Paranoid Outfitters Store? Well you could substitute steel plates. How thick? How good are your welding skills. How many hundreds of pounds of sheet steel can your kids hold up while you weld the ceiling plates to the walls.

Of course this all assumes that the people after you have never heard of C-4 or a plasma torch... and just why are they after you?

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01-27-10, 02:26 PM

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01-27-10, 03:24 PM

Here in Tornado Alley, "safe rooms" are becoming common in new residential construction. Usually a safe room is a reinforced concrete room either in the basement or on the main floor, equipped with a metal door, light, and not much else. Here, a safe room is designed as a safe refuge during a tornado, so any occupancy would be just for a few minutes (unless a tornado actually hit, of course). Although they're not advertised as such, most safe rooms could also be used as rudimentary safekeeping rooms, offering more protection for your valuables from fire and tornado than any other location in the house.

In new residential construction with basements, the safe room is usually a bump out in the house foundation, usually with the front porch acting as the "roof" of the safe room.

At least here in the midwest, paranoia hasn't hit the point to where homeowners are taking refuge from home invaders or government agents flying in black helicopters!

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01-27-10, 03:50 PM

In Texas where basements are all but unheard of but high winds can be a fact of life there have been University studies on constructing small interior rooms to withstand high winds. That makes sense. I think though panic rooms rank right up there with pick proof locks and home alarm systems as things that are feel good things to do that have little benefit.

Sure if your spouse works for the mob or you fled from a small country where you were an evil dictator a panic room might make sense but it needs to be professionally designed and built.

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01-27-10, 04:37 PM

I have thought about building not a safe room but just a walk in safe to house my firearms and other items. I have the a couple doors (one just a commercial rated fire door and the other a real safe door and frame.) Thought of many ways to build it using cinder blocks, rebar, steel mesh but pretty much comes down to money and the fact nothing is going to stop somebody from breaking into it given enough time.

Sad thing about the movie: why didn't it have holes to shoot out?

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01-29-10, 09:52 AM

If there are holes to shoot out of, wouldn't those holes work the other way around for the intruders?

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01-29-10, 10:06 AM

Call it a multi-purpose security room. When you start talking to your insurance guy about adding all of your toys onto your home owners policy, he wants pictures and appraisals. That cost alone could make a dent in the construction costs. Very little fits in a safe deposit box and at the additional insurance costs to cover everything, a secure home space makes sense. Then toss in all of the items that can never be replaced at any cost and it is a good idea.

If you choose to make it a bit habitable, that's one option. Fire proof and conditioned for sure and if it is well hidden, the bad guys won't even know where you are.

Bud

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01-29-10, 10:13 AM

Haha, I guess we can also take this discussion into a direction of...if you did have the means to build a panic room, what would you want in it?

I'll get the ball rollin'....if I were to do it, I would basically make it like a man-cave, sound proof it the best I could, throw in a Lazy Boy, a fridge, first aid kit, nice sized TV. In the corner of the room, I'd have a "hidden" tile I'd remove that hides a safe to put all my valuables, along the lines of what Bud9051 mentioned in his posting.

I would build it behind a bookshelf, accessed by pulling out a series of books. Could get away from the wife for a while if I kept it secret enough, and would suffice for a home invasion!

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#10

01-29-10, 11:49 AM

There isn't much point in having one unless you can get your entire family to it quickly and have an alarm to give you time to get in. You wouldn't need an air supply or anything as long as you had a reliable way to call the cops. As mentioned below, they'll get there relatively soon in most of the country.

Probably the best approach would be to enforce all rooms in the house that way nobody has to move around if something happens, but that's expensive which is why practically speaking panic rooms are not much in demand.

This article, like most on ehow, is a waste of time I'm afraid. It talks about a toilet. Sorry if you are in your panic room for that long the "solid core" exterior door would be long gone as would the hinges. Do you know what sort of strength it would take to withstand repeated blows from a 12 lb sledge hammer? Well, you could ask my concrete slab in the basement, but of course it can't answer because it's destroyed. The only way to build a panic room to withstand any concerted effort would be with a great deal of concrete and/or metal (hopefully lots of metal).

BTW here is a panic bed. Bulletproof "anti-terrorist" bed with air-supply, toilet - Boing Boing

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#11

01-29-10, 02:23 PM

To get some ideas, go the the FEMA site they have some great plans for "safe rooms" below grade, above grade and exterior buildings. They are all designed for tornadoes (not just wind but for projectile protection, which is really tougher.

You may not want to incorporate everything is you are nor concerned life safety, which they are designed for. The guys at the university in Texas must have fun shooing 12' 2x4s at wall and trying to destroy them. Actually, the most common and practical are reinforced concrete block or reinforced concrete, unless you want to build the sheets of steel laminated between layers of 3/4" plywood. They generally have reinforced concrete ceilings and are designed for tornadoes and not the puny hurricane conditions.

There is some details that may not fit all conditions since the metal doors open inward to allow people to get out after the 2x4s and sticks debris are piled up, but here are some good ideas.

The door hardware for and inward swing does provide security since it is not exposed, hardware specs are also interesting as are the ventilation suggestions. - Nothing manditory.

Most I have seen are in basements or used for bathrooms stacked on a storage room or as closets in a slab on grade foundation.

Dick

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#12

02-01-10, 11:45 AM

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