Above Ground, Below Ground Storm Shelter, Best Material…
Buying a storm shelter is an important decision, and Torshel is committed to helping you choose the best type of shelter for both your home and budget. Both underground shelters and safe rooms offer maximum protection for storms. We encourage our clients to compare the quality of our shelters, installation methods, and the company’s reputation before choosing and proceeding with the investment of their new storm shelter. There have been reports of cases where companies have poorly installed in-ground (underground) shelters that slip out of the ground and cases in which a person died inside a safe room due to poor design. Some companies put profit above the lives of those who purchase and use their products.
At Torshel, we focus on helping our customers protect the lives of their loved ones. We only install the highest quality storm shelters available in the market and stand behind our work by offering a 10-year warranty. In addition, we make ourselves available before and after the shelter’s installation.
IN-GROUND (UNDERGROUND) OR ABOVE GROUND STORM SHELTER?
In-ground professionally installed shelters offer maximum protection against tornadoes. Still, they are not recommended for people who live in flood-prone areas, near a river or lake, and/or in areas with high water tables. They are also not recommended for those in a wheelchair or elderly customers.
If you have limited space in your garage, an in-ground storm shelter is a great option. Those who live in a mobile home, or do not have a garage, or maybe have a garage with post-tension cables, can use an outdoor in-ground shelter.
Before buying your in-ground shelter, you must call 811 to ensure that no buried utilities are in the chosen area of installation.
All Torshel’s in-ground shelters come with a rugged steel hydraulic jack capable of lifting 8-tons. The heavy lifting capacity of this tool comes in handy should some debris fall on top of the shelter.
Our safe rooms offer protection against tornadoes up to EF5 and have been rigorously tested. As a result, they meet or surpass FEMA standards and can also be used for protection against hurricanes. Some of the advantages of a safe room are:
- Safe rooms are relatively easy to install. They are ready in just a few hours.
- Safe rooms that are properly bolted to the concrete and built with heavy-duty steel and frame inside offer better protection than those made with plates only and no frame inside.
- Torshel bolts all of its shelters and uses a frame for all safe rooms it installs.
- If you are moving, you can take the safe room with you.
- People in a wheelchair, the elderly, and those with other accessibility issues are encouraged to get a safe room rather than an in-ground shelter.
- Above-ground shelters can be installed anywhere during the early construction stages of a house.
- Torshel safe rooms can also be used as a panic room or safety vault.
- Our modular shelters can be installed inside your closet or any room, as long as you have a solid and suitable concrete slab.
Some of our clients will feel safe while underground during a storm. Others will only prefer an above-ground safe room. Both types of shelters are great options against storms, as long as they are properly manufactured and properly installed.
Best material. Steel, Concrete or Fiberglass?
Best material. Steel, Concrete or Fiberglass?
In the industry of storm shelters, the above-mentioned materials are used in the manufacturing of storm shelters.
When comparing different options, our clients often ask us about the reason we don’t sell fiberglass.
Concrete Storm Shelters
There are still homebuilders or homeowners building safe rooms out of concrete blocks. We understand that sometimes money may not be enough to afford a steel shelter, but while trying to save some money they put their clients and families at risk.
If you must have a concrete shelter, the thickness of the unit’s walls must be 8”, and the concrete at least 4,000 PSI of strength, reinforced with .5” rebar every 12”. Otherwise, the shelter will not be strong enough to withstand severe tornado/hurricane wind forces.
In the following picture, one can appreciate how a piece of wood becomes a bullet that was able to penetrate a concrete sidewalk. This is something that doesn’t happen to our safe rooms made of steel.
Fiberglass Storm Shelters
Storm shelters made out of this type of product have some advantages: they are cheaper, and weight less; they are easier to transport, and they can last over 500 years. There is no human being that will live that long. However, they do have several drawbacks. They break with time, provoking water leaks, and mold. In addition, in the presence of fluctuating ground temperatures, and shifting earth conditions, spider cracks tend to develop. Over time, a fiberglass unit will present premature failure. Similarly, there have been reports of several cases where fiberglass shelters float out of the ground due to the water pressure.
What Happens If a Storm Shelter Is Not Properly Anchored?
At Torshel, we only use steel reinforced units with strong steel frames. If the unit will be buried, it is protected with an epoxy resin, accompanied by a corrosion inhibitor such as a “sacrificial” anode.
All our in-ground shelters are well anchored to the slab with iron rods, and if the unit will be placed outdoors, 5-cubic yards of concrete is poured around its perimeter to keep it from “floating” out of the ground in the vent of saturated soil conditions.
There are several companies that do not anchor storm shelters in a proper manner. The following pictures show the results of inappropriate anchoring procedures.