Site the room in the house plan
Where the room sits decides how fast people reach it, how strong it can be made and how discreet it is. Settle this while the house is still being designed.
How
- Put a storm room on the ground floor or below ground (if flood risk allows), in the interior of the house, away from windows. FEMA notes bathrooms, closets and small storage rooms work well as interior safe rooms.
- For a detached or outside shelter, FEMA and ICC 500 limit travel to 150 ft (about 46 m) from the nearest house entrance (US example).
- For an intrusion room, people must be able to reach it quickly from bedrooms at night.
- For a secure store, choose a place not easily seen by visitors. UK police advise against the main bedroom, which burglars often search first, and the UK Home Office advises keeping firearm cabinets out of view from inside and outside the house.
- Plan a solid floor slab and solid walls to anchor safes into. Avoid lofts and damp cellars for valuables: heat and damp damage contents and weaken fixings.
- Tell only the household where the room is. FEMA does recommend telling your local fire and emergency services where a storm shelter is so rescuers can check it after a disaster.
- For fallout or chemical incidents the best refuge is in the core of the house, with the most mass around it, and below ground if flood risk allows (secure-24).
- Fix the location before the house foundations are designed (design-14), so the room's slab and anchors are designed with them.
Do these first
Sources
- Safe Rooms and Storm Shelters (Building America Solution Center). US DOE / Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, accessed 2026-11
- Residential Safe Room fact sheet. FEMA, accessed 2026-11
- FEMA P-320 Taking Shelter from the Storm: Building a Safe Room for Your Home or Small Business (6th ed., 2nd issuance). US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), accessed 2026-11
- Keeping your belongings safe. Avon and Somerset Police (UK), accessed 2026-11
- Firearms Security Handbook 2020 (accessible version). UK Home Office, accessed 2026-11
- Nuclear Explosion (Ready.gov, archived December 2020). US Department of Homeland Security (via UNT web archive), accessed 2026-11