our tornado shelter

After the storms in May rumbled through producing several severe tornadoes across a 3 day period, we decided it was time to have a shelter installed. After checking around on the web and talking with several people we chose an in-ground shelter that can be installed in your garage in the existing slab. We hired RC Enterprises out of OKC. I actually ran into them doing a large shelter installation in our neighborhood and was sold right then. Ours was finished in one day, albeit a long day. There are several crews who work on the shelter and each one does a specific job. Rusty's father shows up first to mark and cut the concrete. After that, Jerry Butler arrives to start the digging and installation. Jerry supervised the whole thing on our job and ran all of the equipment except the concrete saw. Afer the hole is dug and preppred, they can install the shelter. However, Norman requires a 2" vent which will cost you $100 extra, and about an extra half hour to add this as the shelters do not come with the vent pre-installed. When the shelter is in place, and leveled to the existing grade of your slab, they backfill with sand up to about the last third of the sides, then add 1500 lbs. of concrete. Rebar is installed near all 4 corners, which rests on the lip welded to the outside of the shelter (see pic). The ends of the rebar are then angled away from the shelter so they are placed under the existing slab, effectively locking the shelter in place. Then more concrete and the finish work. The small cost us $2220 installed. Would have been $2120, but remember the $100 for the vent. According to their flier, the large is $2695 installed and seats up to 8, whereas ours is listed as "up to four". I just bet that we could fit 6 if the need was really there. Jerry mentioned that he had heard of a family who fit 13 in the large size, so I guess it is how many you want to fit in there. I contacted Rusty at 830-6577 (mobile) and he came out, looked at the garage and let me know what would need to be moved to facilitate installation. One more thing: Norman requires that the shelter be at least 5' from the footings of your foundation, so unless you want to have an engineer come out and certify that it is OK and provide a letter to city of Norman, you will probably not be able to park a car in the side of the garage that you install the shelter. You can click any pic for the full-size version.

Hope you have a great day,

Wayne