Our Safe Rooms are designed to protect your family from intruders, whether it's terrorism, civil unrest or just a robbery. But we build them with an important difference: our Safe Rooms remain secret.
If you are making inquiries about Safe Rooms (also called Panic or Storm Rooms) you probably have some information. But you may not know that the typical Safe Room is almost always missing a critical factor: secrecy.
If a dozen construction workers know of your Safe Room, your safety may be reduced rather than increased. Why? Because criminal elements may learn of the Safe Room and target you, figuring that you're wealthy. It gets worse. Since they know of the Safe Room, they may come at you in a way that prevents you from reaching it, perhaps when you get out of your car or when you're taking the garbage out. Plus, they may come prepared for the possibility that you do reach the Safe Room, cutting phone lines and bringing a cell-phone signal jammer.
One other introductory point, in case you don't know, is that you can buy a modular Safe Room online, even at Amazon. But while the prices are attractive, the cost of erecting it and integrating it in your property (electrical, ventilation, etc.) can more than double the price of the unit. Plus it's an eyesore and can't be used for much else.
For far less money we at ConsultResearch can custom-build a Safe Room for you. One that looks like a normal room and can be used as a walk-in closet or small office. And we design and build it in such a manner that only very few, trustworthy people know about your Safe Room. The approach, in brief, is this:
The best time to incorporate a safe room is to plan for it in preparation for new construction or remodel, but to have it done after all the construction and inspections are completed. Our team provides guidance to the owners early in the design of the house or remodel so that they work with the architect and contractor to incorporate a suitably sized room and include a few seemingly innocent features that will be needed for the Safe Room. Neither the contractor nor any of its employees or subcontractors ever finds out about the future Safe Room; whether the architect knows is up to the owners.
When all the inspections are done, our team converts a standard room to a Safe Room. When it's done, the Safe Room can serve its other normal function (e.g., a walk-in closet).
Our team consists of three (3) people. It is led by Ernie Martin, who has a Masters Degree in Engineering from Caltech and amassed a distinguished industry career (more here). Mr. Martin has had a 40-year interest in architecture, and has designed and supervised the construction of three houses. More importantly, he has developed proprietary techniques for the cost-effective inclusion of important features of a Safe Room. The other two people are highly trusted and talented construction craftsmen who are well known to Mr. Martin and have worked for him for over a decade.
WINDSTORM PROTECTION AND FEMA SPECIFICATIONS
As indicated at the outset, our Safe Rooms are designed to protect your family from intruders. For reasons that are important, they do not meet FEMA specifications. However, they can provide adequate protection against even the strongest hurricane. This topic is addressed in detail here.
COST
In a moment we'll look at other aspects, but first we thought you might wish to have an idea of what our Safe Rooms cost.
The cost will depend largely on the size of your room and your requirements. However, the following paragraphs provide some guidance.
What we call a "standard" Safe Room, described in more detail later and typically converted from a walk-in closet measuring approximately 6' wide by 8' deep, will cost you under $10,000 in South Florida (we can do it anywhere but the cost would be higher). It will cover nearly 100% of intrusion scenarios. The outside walls are masonry (concrete block). The ceiling and all the interior walls are armored and then covered with drywall, the door is steel and has multiple locks and is designed to prevent entry, and the Room is equipped with uninterruptable electrical power and multiple telephones.
In virtually all intrusion scenarios the procedure once inside the Room is to lock the door and call the police, so you typically need protection for under 15 minutes -- enough time for the police to get there. However, the "standard" Safe Room has enough air for a family of 4 for up to 2 hours.
Three options are available to enhance the Safe Room. Each cost around $2,000, and all three around $5,000. The Ventilation Option adds about 20 hours of endurance, and can be easily extended to 40 or even 60 hours. The Fire Suppression Option gives you the ability, from inside the Safe Room, to drench the areas around the Safe Room if the intruders start a fire. The Video Option provides a hidden camera that views the areas around the Safe Room and displays the video on a tablet (e.g., iPad) inside the Safe Room, allowing you to see threats and to make sure it's really the police which has finally arrived.
Obviously, to complement the Safe Room, we expect you to have a good burglar alarm system that includes an external siren and panic buttons throughout the house, including one that we will later relocate to the Safe Room.
Whether you choose the "standard" version or one of the enhanced versions, our Safe Rooms provide extraordinary safety and we believe they are the most affordable option available.
The next page describes the Safe Room, with an image, including some of its proprietary features and how we do it.
