Shopping storm shelters-Survive-a-Storm Shelters any good?

[Grendelshooter]

Our house has a small room that was obviously intended as a small office space that we wanted to turn into a storm shelter.

Survive-a-Storm Shelters are the ones that keep popping up when I go looking. They quoted me $7200 for installing a 6x8 saferoom into the existing space.

I have zero frame of reference for this type of thing but that doesn’t seem too bad to me, assuming the company and product are legit.

Can anyone here comment on their company and the quality of their product?

 

[Tanis143]

I'll put it this way. I lived in Moore when the May 3rd of 1999 rolled through. A house my family lived in when I graduated HS was picked up with half the solid slab foundation going with it. Literally all that was left was half the slab. It was not the only house that had that happen in our old neighborhood (my mom and siblings hadn't lived there for 3 years by that point). If you are going to spend that much money, buy an underground shelter. It would be the only thing that would survive an F5E tornado.

 

[Snattlerake]

We thought long and hard about this subject. We had no yard space to put one in. We had no home space to install one. We saw the devastation tornadoes can make and thought the above ground shelters are just another target for debris or become debris. We even looked at the shelter under the bed that hydraulically expands but it needs a battery to upkeep besides still being above ground.

We finally decided upon an in ground in the garage. You do not have to move the car because the door slides and there is plenty of room to climb down in. It does not flood because we are up on a hill compared to the street. It took a half day to install and it was very reasonable in cost. I highly recommend Flat Safe as a product and company.

https://flatsafe.com/

 

[Tanis143]

When houses get destroyed like this, you do not want to be above ground. Even those "F5 rated" shelters would not withstand having a 2 ton truck dropped on them. This was from my mom's front yard after the 2013 Moore tornado. So far she has lived in 3 houses that have been damaged/destroyed by a tornado in Moore. And yes, she still lives there. And now you know where I get my hard headedness from

 

[Hangfire]

Can't offer a recommendation on the brand shelter that you are considering but in this part of the country, if the funds are available, everyone needs a tornado shelter of some sort.

Considering a shelter mama and I walked across the street and ask the neighbors if we could get down in their newly installed in-ground / garage floor shelter to see what we thought once inside with the lid closed.......saying we both felt uncomfortable is a understatement.

We went with a 4' wide x 6' long x 6 1/2' tall in the garage / above ground shelter made by Ground Zero who also installs in-ground shelters......we've had it since early 2014 and have only had to get in it once but luckily the tornado passed a couple of miles south of us.

Oklahoma storm season is just around the corner and now is the time to start thinking about a shelter......don't know how it is now but when we got ours Ground Zero had a two month waiting list on installation.

 

[TwoForFlinching]

What company had all that publicity after the Piedmont EF5? It took homes down to the slab, but there were above ground safe rooms peppered across those neighborhoods.

 

[Hangfire]

What company had all that publicity after the Piedmont EF5? It took homes down to the slab, but there were above ground safe rooms peppered across those neighborhoods.

The Ground Zero brand had at least one above ground shelter that I know of survive the last big Moore tornado.......I ask them for a recommendation and he said he'd call a woman in Moore to see if she'd like to call me and she did.

She said that her husband was at work when it hit and her and her two kids rode out the tornado in a Ground Zero above ground......the house was gone when they opened the shelter door but her and her kids were just fine.

She did say that the noise inside the shelter was deafening with debris hitting it......I've got two sets of ear muffs in our shelter.

 

[swampratt]

Tornadoes are like catfish sometimes they hit hard and take all the bait and other times they nibble and leave you some on the hook.
You take your chance if it is going to be one that takes all the trees and slabs or just takes a few items and leaves others.
Look next to a couple of those above ground shelter pictures.

Sheetrock wall looks excellent and the 2x4 structure still stands tall. must be F5 rated.

The wood paneling looks better than the shelter in the next pic.. must be old hard wood.. Bet it is also F5 Rated.
Glass is not even broke in the car.
Those pictures were nibbles.

Under ground is the only really safe place if you get a big hit.

 

[Tanis143]

View attachment 145986 View attachment 145987 View attachment 145988

The Ground Zero brand had at least one above ground shelter that I know of survive the last big Moore tornado.......I ask them for a recommendation and he said he'd call a woman in Moore to see if she'd like to call me and she did.

She said that her husband was at work when it hit and her and her two kids rode out the tornado in a Ground Zero above ground......the house was gone when they opened the shelter door but her and her kids were just fine.

She did say that the noise inside the shelter was deafening with debris hitting it......I've got two sets of ear muffs in our shelter.

They are lucky. Those above ground shelters were meant to protect against small debris hitting it (even seen a video where they can stop a .50 cal non-armor piercing round) but something bigger hits it, like the truck in the picture I posted, and it will take the shelter out. Yes, your chances of surviving an F5 tornado are higher in a shelter like this, but the best shelter is below ground.

 

[swampratt]

woman killed in above ground safe room door was hit by debris and failed.
Further research showed it was not an F5 storm door

https://www.koco.com/article/brad-experts-investigate-safe-room-tornado-death/4298140