Storm Shelter build

[3Ts]

My wife and I contracted to build a house to our specs and finally found a builder that was willing to build it. It's around 2100 sqft, not especially challenging, but we're out at the limits where he normally builds. We have several unique things we wanted and as it was built we challenged him on some of the things he (meaning his subs) were doing. For example, his sub used a sanitary tee to tie 2 horizontal drain lines together (not allowed by code). There are other things y'all helped with (specifically a multi-wire branch circuit) that I ended up making him open up the wall and doing it right. The electrician was not happy with me and has not been back - of course, I told the builder I didn't want him back on my property as well. This is to let you know the house is done. One of the things y'all wanted to see was the storm room that we built. So, - -

First, We tried to use the FEMA construction drawings located here:
https://www.fema.gov/media-library-data/1418837502817-920f09bb8187ee15436712a3e82ce709/FEMA_P-320_2014-ConstructionPlans_508.pdf

found out that the builder couldn't figure them out. And had never done a storm room before.

We also selected a storm door from here:
Tornado Doors

They have a really nice door, but it is a long lead time. I told the builder that it was a long lead, but - - you guessed it! It wasn't ordered until just before it was needed.

The builder originally estimated 4 months to build, we figured 6, with 9 at the most. It took 1 year.

I have a series of pictures that I will be posting, but I have a really slow internet so it may take a few days to get them put up. So be patient, I'll get them there eventually.

 

[3Ts]

Here's the beginning of the storm room. It serves as the master closet. You're looking thru the master bath into the master closet.

Something just doesn't look right here, but I'm not sure what it is.

 

[3Ts]

I went back to the house plans. They put the door opening in the wrong spot! This is a custom design, not one of the builder's stock plans - for that matter he does not have stock plans. Every house he builds is different, so one would expect the subs to refer to the blueprints when placing walls, doors, and windows. But, there are some things we did not catch until it was to late. (Yes, we could have forced it, but did not think it was worth the conflict.) This door, however, was a big impact on what we planned to do with the closet, so we had him move the door to the correct position. You can see the new blocks added to the right side. There is supposed to be rebar in the 2 cores on each side of the door. Now there is only one core with rebar on the left and 3 cores on the right.

 

[3Ts]

Now that the wall is up. Let's take a look at it. 1st, that's a 6" knife between the motar and the block. There are a few places where you can see light thru the wall.



2nd, The cores at the top of the wall are not supposed to be filled in - there's supposed to be at least 1" to tie the different courses together. And the rebar is supposed to be bent over into the ceiling pour to tie them together. There's a minimum spec and this isn't it.



3rd, The ceiling is supposed to be 6" thick minimum. That is a 2x6 form board so the concrete is less than 5". I could understand if the concrete was at the top of the form board, but it isn't.

 

[3Ts]

Here's how they supported the ceiling while they poured the concrete. They used a 4x8 hardie panel with the wood grain up for the form. (The room is supposed to be 8'10" feet wide inside to inside of the block) turned out to be 8'2". Like I said earlier, not all the walls were put in the right place. An inch or two I understand, but 8"?

Now, the ceiling looks beautiful with the wood grain embossing. There are no cracks in it. This will come up in decisions later as well.

 

[3Ts]

View attachment 563196

Now to install the door. - - OOps! The door was damaged by a fork lift and they tried to patch it. A close up of the patch follows. This is a custom house, one would think they'd read the blue prints. The door doesn't fit the opening. The opening is to wide and the door that was ordered is for a thinner wall.

View attachment 563197

 

[3Ts]

I'm NOT accepting that!

It's a long lead time item, but back to the factory for repairs/replacement.

Finally gets back and now how to get it embedded in a concrete wall that's already up? Take out some blocks that are in the way of the anchor pins and try to squeeze concrete between the blocks and the steel frame.

 

[3Ts]

Yes, that is a finished counter top, plumbing fixtures, and cabinetry. (unprotected)

 

[Lelandwelds]

I feel your pain. My builder just stalled and made excuses and promises. Convincing promises. When he was mostly paid, he slowed the work rate until he just quit showing up and answering calls.

Make certain you have enough retain age to guarantee he finishes correctly. Or just finishes. I wish you success.

 

[Paddy]

3Ts,

Everything about this is crazy. How complex can laying concrete block to make a "box" with a poured concrete ceiling??
We have a poured concrete home, 450 cubic yards. We call it our "safe house".

ICF's make it quite easy, but I have the feeling your contractor could messed that up too!

 

[redman135]

3Ts attatchments ***196 and ***197 come up invalid.
This is tear your hair out stuff. A storm room should get extra attention to detail not less as it appears to be.

 

[TractorGuy]

I feel your pain. Having a house built was the most stressful thing I've ever done. My contractor did absolutely nothing to monitor subs and head off problems. His philosophy was they mess it up they have to fix it. The problem with that attitude is you end up with a bunch of cobbled up patches where it could have just been done right to start with. What made mine worse was I saw all the problems about to happen and warned him before they did. They were all simple common sense things you could look at and see were not right.

 

[3Ts]

JD855guy - that's what happened here as well. Same philosophy.

When I interviewed builders I had specific questions, one of which is "How often will you be at the site?" This one's answer was once a week. Well, that didn't happen. He also told me that it would be built according to code, but I found out later he didn't know what the codes were. :banghead: A builder that doesn't know what the codes are???? Isn't the builder's purpose to be sure the subs do what they are supposed to do? So I pointed out to the builder where codes were not being followed. Well - - now you have a sub you've been working with for years saying they meet code and a homeowner (who typically does not know construction or codes) saying they don't meet code. Who would you believe? Once I realized he didn't know the codes and what the subs were telling him, I got out the code references and sent them to the builder. I also got my electrical code book out and showed it to the (2nd) foreman in front of the electrician.

The 1st foreman got caught ordering much more material than needed for the house, returning the excess and pocketing the refund.

The builder also told me much later that when they put the floor outlet in the middle of the slab that the floor guy wouldn't do it right. So, you'd think the builder would be there to make sure it was done right. Nope, we now have a chiseled piece of concrete in the middle of a stained and polished slab. We'll be putting a couch over it.

Building this house could have gone so much smoother and quicker. The builder did suggest changes during construction that really ended up enhancing the house and we accepted and his price for the changes which was very reasonable and could have been much higher. The house came in really close to the budget we'd allocated. We've gotten very favorable comments on what the inside of the house looks like. The outside is intentionally rather plain with Hardie Plank all around and steel columns at the porches. If we'd not been here watching the construction every day we'd have a different opinion, but we know what's under the paint.

I'll get a picture of the finished storm room and get it posted later. In the meantime, a few thoughts on how this went down:
- I'm not happy with the construction. It does not meet the drawings, specs, codes you name it, it doesn't meet it. I also don't like paying twice for a door because the builder made a mistake. However, it does look good now. The FEMA specs seem to be for an EF5 storm and we're on the edge of the tornado belt and far enough from the coast that Cat 2 hurricanes should be the strongest we should see. There is more rebar in the block walls than required by FEMA. The concrete ceiling was mixed by on-site mixer and lifted in-place in 5 gal buckets and I believe it to have a higher strength than required by FEMA. There are no cracks in the ceiling concrete. I did talk to a structural engineer (via phone) about all these problems and he feels it will be ok. The one concern I do have is how well the one side of the door is anchored in the wall - no answer on that. The door is on an interior wall facing away from the direction the storms come from. Any missiles the storm would throw would have to come thru 2 other walls to get to the door. So I think we'll be ok, just not as ok as following the plans would have made it.

 

[3Ts]

Here's the '196 attachment. It shows the 1st door being installed with the attempt to patch it. You should be able to zoom in to see it better.



and the '197 attachment shows a closeup of one of the places they attempted to patch it.

 

[thepumpguysc]

Wow.. what a nitemare.. The pic of the door is something else.. How in the world were they gonna finish that out.?? {cover it up}

 

[EddieWalker]

Thank you for posting this and sharing your pictures. One day I plan on building a safe room in my garage. It's a priority when tornadoes are in the area, but seems to get put down at the bottom of the list the rest of the year. On the FEMA Plans that I've looked at, getting the footings right is a really big deal. By any chance did you take pictures of the footings before they poured the slab?

How did you get insulation between your block wall and the exterior wall?

I have a couple of clients with safe rooms in their houses. They are also their master bedroom closets, which makes the most sense when building new. The latest one that I know of had a lot of issues passing inspection with the city because of venting the room. How did you vent yours?

I'm going to make sure that when I build mine, I will have the door here before I start laying block. Thank you for that tip!!!

 

[2LaneCruzer]

I admittedly haven't read the whole thread, but if I were building a tornado proof room, I would not go with concrete blocks, but with reinforced, poured concrete...at least up to about six feet. Either that, of purchase one of the pre fab units that you bolt to the concrete floor in the garage or on the patio.

 

[dieselscout80]

I admittedly haven't read the whole thread, but if I were building a tornado proof room, I would not go with concrete blocks, but with reinforced, poured concrete...at least up to about six feet. Either that, of purchase one of the pre fab units that you bolt to the concrete floor in the garage or on the patio.

We want to build a safe room in our basement with one side against one exterior wall that is covered by dirt all the way up on the outside. One other existing wall would be an existing non-filled block wall that is an interior wall.

First I don't know, so here is a couple questions.

How much stronger is concrete over filled concrete blocks?

With blocks can one use one piece of vertical rebar from the footing all the wall to the top of a say 7' wall or do you have to tie in several shorter pieces on the way up as one stacks the blocks?

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Wow, sorry for your troubles. I would expect the builder there twice a day. In the morning to conference the subs, and the evening to check their work.

I would like a storm shelter too.

 

[aczlan]

Wow, sorry for your troubles. I would expect the builder there twice a day. In the morning to conference the subs, and the evening to check their work.
I would like a storm shelter too.

It depends on the subs, when I was working construction, 1-3x/week was normal depending on the job and how long we had been working for that GC.

Aaron Z