Make a Shelter Plan #2- necessary supplies to fortify your shelter?

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ReadyMom

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For our 'finished basement' shelter, it would not take much. 2 Small windows and the door from the kitchen to the shelter area.

??? - Wouldn't sealing the area affect the oxygen in that area? How do you deal with that?
 
For our 'finished basement' shelter, it would not take much. 2 Small windows and the door from the kitchen to the shelter area.

??? - Wouldn't sealing the area affect the oxygen in that area? How do you deal with that?
You are asking GREAT questions and I love this series of posts! I do not have an answer to this, but someone will.
 
using the small window would help for ventilation, but you'd want to HEPA filter the window for tiny particles.

be careful sealing... a window may be the only way out in an emergency.

other than that, ^i too don't have the answer
 
It will depend a lot on the type of shelter you are building. For tornadoes and wind storms you want to cover windows and reinforce the door and the foundation. You don't want a tornado shelter connected to the wood framing of the house because the tornado can cause damage that would then extend into your shelter. Venting air through a remote filter is always a good idea and you can use stainless steel flue pipe to take it through the ground to the "buried" filter housing. You should also have an outlet vent to get rid of the moist warm air that can build up over time. Having the filter housing above ground in a tornado shelter won't remain connected for long. Venting for tornado and earthquake shelters isn't necessary ecause you are only going to be there for a few minutes to a half hour or so.
If you are building an earthquake shelter then you still want to cover the windows and reinforce the doors and foundation but you also want to add shear strength to the walls and ceiling.
For a fallout shelter you have to determine what the likely blast load you would be exposed to but if you are more than 25 miles from a target the blast won't be a concern. You need multiples of 100 pounds per square foot between you and the outside to protect you from radiation. That equates to four feet of dirt or concrete (or a combination) between you and the air for a 75% reduction in ionizing (harmful) radiation. Each additional 2 feet will decrease the radiation that will get through by 50%. (six feet will reduce exposure by 87.5% and eight feet reduces your exposure by almost 94%) This distance can include the surrounding walls and earth around your basement but you have to add it at the top (over the ceiling) to get good coverage. Your air vents should go through two 90 degree bends between you and the outside even with mounted filters. The tunnel to a door should also have two 90 degree corners to prevent any direct path for radiation.
In all cases your doors should open into the inside of the shelter so you don't get blocked in your shelter by fallen debris. If you insist on having windows they should also open inward but windows are a hazard in most any shelter - especially wind and fallout shelters. Wind can carry a piece of wood or steel at velocities that will easily crash through a window or unreinforced door causing injury to those on the inside. Radiation has little problem going through a sheet of glass covered by plywood and causing illness or death to the occupants. Even an earthquake can cause a window to shatter so windows are generally a bad idea when designing and building shelters of any kind.
 
Unless windows are made with Lexan, which I believe is polycarbonate, if it's thick enough it will resist bullets, flying pieces of wood or steel, the only problem I've seen with polycarbonate as a window is that it needs to be treated for resistance from eventual sun damage. The Suntough clean corrugated roofs I have over some of our decks is sunlight resistant but will allow over 90% sunlight through. Lexan is or was a patented GE brand and I know that it's extremely strong, I was working in light fixture plant when they got a sample of Lexan that was less than a 1/2" thick, we all took turns trying to break it over a short piece of 6" well pipe with a 5 pound hammer, it dented but never cracked.
 
For our 'finished basement' shelter, it would not take much. 2 Small windows and the door from the kitchen to the shelter area.

??? - Wouldn't sealing the area affect the oxygen in that area? How do you deal with that?

What do you want to fortify your home against? Radiation is one thing and zombies are another.
 
Viking,
Lexan has to be very thick to make it bullet resistant or able to withstand impact from wind blown debris. At 1/2 inch thick it will not stop a 9mm round at close range and at 6 inches it will stop most modern pistol rounds but not a shotgun slug or 30-06. I used Lexan in a window in my old house when the wind blew the window closed and glass exploded over the entire living room. It was the same thickness as the window glass and never broke when slammed closed. I was warned that it would scratch easily and the it would yellow from UV exposure. In the ten years that window was in place neither of those happened. It had direct sun exposure from 1PM to sundown.
 

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