Can a Safe Room Be Put in a Garage?

Safe Room

• A safe room is a specially designed room in your home, designed to keep you safe in an emergency. This emergency can be extreme weather like a tornado or a catastrophic event like a terrorist threat or biochemical leak in your area. Like storm cellars used for shelter in the past, a safe room needs to be strong and securely anchored. The concrete slab used for most garage floors provides a strong foundation, while concrete walls in a garage are sturdy.

Advantages

• Putting a safe room in the garage means you will not need to pour a new slab foundation for it. Unlike safe rooms built below ground, one in a garage isn’t in danger of filling with water during a storm. A safe room inside a garage is better protected from wind shear than one built on an upper floor of your home. If your garage is already built from concrete block, you can use some of the established walls for your safe room and add a sturdier ceiling.

Disadvantages

• A below-ground safe room is more secure in the case of severe winds, like those that occur in a tornado. If your fear is for a biological or chemical attack, a ground floor safe room on the exterior of the house will not work. Chemical contaminants settle on the ground and can seep through walls, even those of a garage. Placing a safe room in your garage takes up space, reducing the area you have to store vehicles and other possessions.

Considerations

• When building a safe room in your garage, make sure it is easily accessible. If you can only enter it by pulling your car out of the garage and putting it in the driveway, you might not have time to get into the safe room when a tornado approaches. No matter where you put your safe room, stock it with water, blankets, food, an emergency radio, flashlights and batteries. You do not know how long you will need to stay inside and should be prepared to spend hours there.