In Part 1 we told you of an inconvenient truth: that the typical construction of a Safe Room may increase your risk, because of the large number of workers that know of the Safe Room and can leak it to criminal elements. We at ConsultResearch do it differently, so only a very few, trustworthy people know about your Safe Room.

Here we tell you how we do it -- it's brief, under 3 minutes reading time.

Let's work with an example to understand the features of the Safe Room and the process from start to finish.

The image at right shows a simple sketch of a 1-story home planned for South Florida. At the top right corner of the image is Walk-in Closet 2 (WIC 2), in the Master Bedroom area. Exterior walls are masonry (i.e., concrete block). With our guidance, the owners worked with the architect, without necessarily divulging the future Safe Room, to size and locate this closet to allow its conversion to the Safe Room. At the red dot just outside the closet the owners also specified an electrical outlet, a phone outlet and an alarm panic button, and they specified the location of the A/C ceiling vent at the blue rectangle. Again, all of this was done through the owners working with the architect, and it's up to the owners whether they divulge the eventual conversion to a Safe Room.

How we do it and some of the features are described below.

When construction and all inspections are completed, our 3-man team of highly trusted craftsmen will take about a week to convert Walk-in Closet 2 into a Safe Room by making the changes detailed below.

  1. All of the closet hardware (rods, shelves, etc.) and all of the drywall on the ceiling and the two interior walls are removed, thereby exposing the studs (they can be either wood or metal).

  2. The electrical, telephone and alarm wires from the outlets shown in red in the image are "fished" from the back of the electrical boxes and relocated to the inside of the Safe Room.

  3. The A/C ceiling vent is extended downwards and sheathed in ballistic Kevlar so that an intruder firing a weapon through the ceiling vent cannot reach people in the Room. A closure is installed allowing the vent to be closed in case intruders try to inject noxious gases.

  4. The ceiling and interior walls are lined with ballistic Kevlar, which is both screwed and glued to the studs, as shown at right. The "standard" Safe Room uses Level 3 sheets that will stop the most powerful handgun ammunition (.44 Magnum) and resists breakage from repeated hits of a sledgehammer or hatchet.*

  5. The standard door is removed and replaced by a security door; more on this below.

  6. Drywall is installed on top of the Kevlar, and the joints and nail holes are then plastered and sanded.

  7. The room is painted and the closet hardware (rods, shelves, etc.) is reinstalled.

  8. A small set of shelves is installed at the far end of the room to house survival equipment stored in the room, including cell and regular phones, uninterruptable power source ("UPS", to light the room, charge cell phone, etc.), water, and first-aid kit. Because these shelves take so little space, essentially all of the Room is available as a walk-in closet.

When finished, the interior of the Room looks like a normal closet. The small shelves with survival equipment are easily hidden behind hanging clothes.

Only the door included in the "standard" Safe Room identify this as a Safe Room. Shown at near right in the image, it is a steel unit with a steel frame, 4 heavy-duty hinges and 3 Grade 1 deadbolt locks. Its look may be different from the other interior doors of the house, but two things can be done to substantially disguise it. First, go back to the floor plan sketch above and notice the direction in which the WIC 2 door opens; when it's fully open, a visitor can penetrate almost completely into the Master Bedroom without seeing the door. Second, a woman's long dress hanging from the door will do a good job of hiding it.

Other door options exist -- like the security 6-panel door shown at far right -- which may more closely resemble the other interior doors used in the residence but at such a high cost that it will nearly double the cost of the entire project.

FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO ORDER

Please call Ernie Martin directly for more information on how to proceed. Some of the Options mentioned in these pages are not described here because they involve proprietary information, but can be covered in person.

Mr. Martin may be reached by phone at 305-562-0565 or by e-mail at ERMartin@consultresearch.com.


_______________________
* Thicker Kevlar sheets are available to resist ammunition from assault weapons, but the materials and installation cost is higher, partly because of the weight (a 3' X 9' Level 3 sheet used in our "standard" Safe Room weighs 108 lbs and is about the limit of what can be installed by a 2-man crew).