How can I make a hidden storage bunker.

I thought about this a bunch since first posting the question. Here's the best I came up with:

Get cinder blocks and mortar delivered from Lowes.
Get wood and gravel delivered from Home Depot to another part of the farm.
Rent a Bobcat mini backhoe.

Dig a hole.
Drop gravel into the hole.
Build 4 walls with cinder block - surround outside with more gravel.
Cover with a roof of well reinforced wood. Cover this with a large tarp.
Make a sort of "manhole"
Backfill the hole.

As far as I can see, this is the best way to do it cheaply and without arousing suspicion.

 

Cinder blocks will not work, water will run through them like shat through a goose. You have to use poured concrete, you do not have to pour it all at once but it has to be poured to keep water out.
Cinder blocks have a lot of air in them.

 

How about that tar stuff they use on the outside of basement walls - good for cinder blocks?

 

When you add together the cost of the blocks, water proof sheet membrane and J bolts how does it compare the cost of poured concrete? For the reinforcement you could use old fence wire since its only job is to hold the concrete to gather if it gets broken up. You could either rent, make, buy, or rebuild a dilapidated mixer. What goes further for the same money poured concrete or blocks?

 

paranoid about people stealing stuff so that could be a good place to put my junk. I should look into how much one would cost me. I’ve got a bulldozer and a back end loader so digging a hole is no problem.

 

All these companies offering bunkers etc the price i think makes it cost prohibitve for the regular Joe... It would be awesome to have some sort of way to construct these underground structures so they are structurally sound and useful and cost effective...

 

I haven't read the whole thread, so excuse me if it's been covered. I read an article in I think Back Home about root cellars. The article showed the value of a septic tank. It's kind of costly, but done right could be worth every penny. I think the total cost came in under 3K. The key is to find a concrete place locally that pours septic tanks and start asking about options. In the article, they were able to pour an entry/ stairwell.

 

storage

I have been looking into building a root cellar. There are a lot of old designs using railroad ties. The big thing to plan out is does it need to be dry. Anything underground will have a high humidity rate. This is needed for food storage but hard on metal.

Have you thought about just pouring a safe room with a vault door when you set the fondation.

 

Maybe this idea has already been discussed but get a fallout shelter from safecastle shelters and when you build your house out in your remote location they can tie the shelter into your basementand if you truly want it consealed put a false wall in front of it or even a motorized bookcase door where the "handle" is a book like in all the good old horror movies did back in the 40's-50's. Yeah It's going to cost you but you have storage and shelter in case of dire emergency. Then you can Camoflage all your vent pipes, air intake pipes and other things that may or may not come up out of the ground, Like extra Egress points that you can dot the countryside with. Yes it will be very expensive.

 

I looked into buring a cargo container, I found decent 45'long 8'wide and 9'tall containers for 2750 plus shipping. Bury one or two and connect them together sounded like a good idea. I was thinking of cleaning and replacing the floors since there just wood, then painting the whole works.
Add a foundation in the bottom of the hole with drain tile around it to a sump crock then pump out any extra water.

That is until I did a little research and found this on the web;
Shipping Container Building Engineering
About half way down the page he talks about burying the shelters, and states how they can't take side loading.
So to save money I thought maybe it would be feisable to dig a hole add a foundation then drop in the container and pour the creat around it.

Just a thought
Monty

 

With regard to the cinder block idea.. I have thought of this many times and the best way I can come up with to add strength and waterproofing would be to pour cement between the holes in the cinder blocks with rebar stakes.

Then again, cost of the blocks is n/a to me, I have connections.

I am curious about the idea of rubber layers? I have not researched much EMP proofing- that is something I need to learn more about, can anyone point me to a thread?

urb

 

Monty,
Many people are burying these shipping containers now. Yes, the strong points are the corners. But, you can either internally or externally reinforce the sides. There was a guy on "The Survival Podcast" recently that has buried a shipping container. He used steel "c" channels and reinforced the structure internally to handle the load.

Can it be done? Yes. Is it worth the cost? That's a question only you can answer.

 

You might want to look at doing something like this.
Bomb Shelter (blast, biological & chemical)

BWM

 

I know of a few houses in my area that have "extra" septic tanks...most of them originally built as a safe place to grow pot (a good portion of the mediom sized propertied were bought with pot proceeds in the 80's). The ones I have seen would be tough to live in, but make great storage areas that would give one the option of abandoning the property temporarily with little chance of stores being found.