The showdown that pits North Korea’s Kim Jong Un against Donald Trump has once again raised the specter of nuclear annihilation. And that has done wonders for the bomb shelter industry.
Sales and inquiries have spiked, according to several of the U.S. companies that make money from doomsday fears.
“The increase in demand is everywhere. We are getting hundreds of calls,” said Ron Hubbard, president of Atlas Survival Shelters, a firm based in Montebello, California. Inquiries have slowed down as tensions have eased over the last week, but Hubbard said he still expects to have a banner year, selling 1,000 shelters at an average price of $25,000 each.
Man, the guy that runs that shelter company gets interviewed on a regular basis every few years. it seems. Next up will be some ‘news’ article about old missile silos being repurposed or something about that Vivos outfit.
I Kinda like the cylindrical shelters, but if it were me I’d put them above ground, build a crib around it, and surround it with concrete…underground shelters just seem like a recipe for headaches with water and sanitation issues. I’d rather have an aboveground shelter, cage it in a couple feet of concrete, and then slap some earth over it to blend it into the landscape.
Was just looking at these guys:
http://risingsbunkers.com/
Like you I would prefer above ground and then harden it, but its interesting they do have regular toilets/showers but no idea of how they get rid of the grey water with their system buried. They do have composting toilets as an option.
During the Boer War there were “Major Rice blockhouses” deigned by a Major Rice. Circular, made from corrugated metal supported by wooden posrts and a frame, they had a large interior area surrounded by 3-4 feet of local dirt/rubble fill retained by another circular corrugated metal structure supported by a frame.
Pictures here: https://www.angloboerwar.com/other-information/16-other-information/1844-blockhouses
Extending the sides over the height of the roof, filling the space between the walls, then adding dirt over the roof, would be cheap way to build an above-gound radiation shelter. Done right, it’s a workshop or guest cottage until needed.
IIRC, some years back I saw an article about an outfit in the midwest building concrete grain silos with a slip-forming technique; as the circular form was filled with rebar and concrete cranes raised it slowly. An additive to the concrete caused it to set faster so the form could be lifted at something like 6-8 inches per hour. Once you start you can’t stop, but at the end of 180-200 hours you have a complete 100 ft silo. For a 12-15 foot tall house it’d be probably done in one long day.
I’ve seen 2-story houses built entirely above grade so the “basement” is the ground level (public space) with the bedrooms, etc. above. It would seem easy to backfill however much dirt you needed around the “basement” on those. Radiation protection would be needed for the “basement” ceiling, but maybe a concrete “ceiling/floor” would do it.
Radon is another thing to take into consideration in several parts of the US. For those who might not know, it’s a colorless and odorless radioactive gas that seeps out of the ground.
https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-07/documents/zonemapcolor.pdf
For a temporary shelter it may not be a major concern, but if the shelter area is intended to be a living space as well, a radon mitigation system is a must. Fortunately, an effective radon mitigation system can be rigged very simply, with materials from any hardware store.