Safe Rooms

Creating In-Home Protection

As we seek to turn our homes into safe havens, more of us are installing rooms that offer protection from natural disasters and from intruders.

Often doubling as a master bathroom or a closet, these rooms look completely normal on the surface, but thanks to heavy-duty construction and flame-retardant material on the walls, they provide protection from tornadoes and hurricanes. To prepare for a possible break-in, people also are equipping them with video monitors that show the home's interior and yard.

Although it's sometimes possible to install a safe room in a garage or basement, it is typically difficult and more expensive to create an interior safe room within an existing structure, especially one with a crawlspace foundation. You can more easily install a safe room as an addition made of concrete or concrete masonry.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency suggests providing 5 square feet of floor space per person for a tornado shelter and 10 square feet per person for a hurricane shelter.