Safe room

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Boneyfinger

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i would like to build a safe room off of my existing basement under a porch area in the front of my house. Should I remove the porch and build that way( which I would rather not do) or can I cut out my existing foundation wall, support the doorway and begin to dig and build up that way? I have average building skills but less experience with cement/ foundations.
 
If you break thru the wall you might be surprised and already have a room under the porch if it was a poured foundation. I have a friend that did exactly that only he was looking for a root cellar.
 
Is the porch above ground and is it concrete or wood. How big is the porch? if you are much below ground level you may devalope a drainage problem?
Anything is possible but there are a lot of questions that would have to be dealt with.
 
If you can take the porch off to build under it, then it may not be as safe as you would want; especially if it is a wood porch. That won't make a safe roof.
Start with a small exploratory hole in the foundation to see what's behind there. be sure to know where your pipes and electric are located, and be careful that you don't disturb any foundation drainage that might be there.
 
It is possible either way but is likely easier and faster to remove the porch and put it back. But really that all depends on the existing porch.

I am doing something similar on my addition in the spring.
 
bud16415 said:
If you break thru the wall you might be surprised and already have a room under the porch if it was a poured foundation. I have a friend that did exactly that only he was looking for a root cellar.
Click to expand...
that would be nice, but from the looks of the porch foundation I would be very surprised.
 
nealtw said:
Is the porch above ground and is it concrete or wood. How big is the porch? if you are much below ground level you may devalope a drainage problem?
Anything is possible but there are a lot of questions that would have to be dealt with.
Click to expand...
the wood porch is above ground on bricks that match the brick house. It is full length of the house and I really don't want to disturb it if possible. The basement is older blocks. This house was built early 1900's
 
A small hole to get just a camera inside to see what you can under there? Do floor joists land on the front wall where you would like to put in a door?
 
It all depends if the porch foundation goes down deep enough. If not then you need to somehow extend it down.
 
If you start from the outside you'll make it easier to remove dirt, pour a footing, build and waterproof the walls then backfill. A couple of issues are having to remove and rebuild the porch but also letting curious neighbors know what you're doing. Not a great idea for any safe room if you want to maintain operational security.
The down side from doing it from the inside is having to move soil and block in and out through your house. Plus you never know what you'll find once you start cutting out the wall and digging like Andy Dufresne out of Shawshank. Cut out wall, dig, dig, dig.....find 6" water main....oops!
 
When I was a kid they were called bomb shelters and the reason I was told was because the Commie’s were coming. Every generation has a new reason to want to hunker down at home.

safe-room.jpg
 
I've always thought about a bomb shelter or safe room but then I think if there was something so bad that everyone else was killed off do I really want to prolong the inevitable just a little longer?
 
Here is a pic,trouble loading others off of phone. Each outside side has the brick column, the inside is brick. Under the porch area all I see are a few spare bricks and dirt.

image.jpg
 
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