Secret passages, hidden caches, trap doors, etc for survivalists

[Hare of Caerbannog]

WOW mobilus that's cool!
+1 for you! Nice find.
What a set up.
Makes you wonder how many of these are around that don't get busted.

[mobilus]

Thanks, Hare.  People have been going "underground" forever.  I remember spelunking in a little-known cave in north Florida when I was in jr. college and there was plenty of signs still around from the Indians that had used the cave centuries before.  Think about how long a well-built underground BOL would last if it was designed in such a way as not to use pumps to move water.  Check out the following links for some neat underground dwellings (and a few above ground).


http://www.scribd.com/doc/1010038/Part-1Welcome-to-My-Underground-Bunker-

http://www.silohome.com/

http://www.thedailygreen.com/living-green/blogs/recycling-design-technology/treehouses-building-green-recycled-homes-460509

http://green.yahoo.com/blog/daily_green_news/228/six-surprisingly-comfortable-cave-homes.html

[No Prob Rob]

I had a small room in my home that had a ten foot ceiling. Lots of wasted space so I build a heavy duty drop down ceiling. Access is a return air vent complete with dirty filter. I had to duplicate climate control vent and lighting but now I have a space that is well.... shall we say "inconvenient".

[inthego]

WOW! minus the pot, it is the best SHTF setup I have seen.  Even grow your own food. 

[liftsboxes]

Love the drop ceiling!

[Hare of Caerbannog]

I had a small room in my home that had a ten foot ceiling. Lots of wasted space so I build a heavy duty drop down ceiling. Access is a return air vent complete with dirty filter. I had to duplicate climate control vent and lighting but now I have a space that is well.... shall we say "inconvenient".

Very nice!

[IowaFreak]

http://www.harrr.org/mattiafpappalardo/hideAny.pdf

Sorry about the link...not good at hyperlinking 

Anyway here is a .pdf book that shows smaller spaces that can be turned into hiding places.

[perseus_m31]

I just came across this at instructables.  A step by step on how this guy built a bookshelf to hide a door to a crawlspace.  It looks pretty neat
http://www.instructables.com/id/Hidden-Door-Bookshelf/

First time inserting images below so bear with me if this doesn't work.

[inthego]

This is my Fav thread.. Thanks  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^


 

[JGreene]

Around here everyone has a basement, but to put one either under that one (double depth foundation) or next to that one covered by dirt with an escape into the outdoor shed.. or having a basement under the garage.

Problem with the mass of growing lights in the previous posts.  Around here they've busted people after being tipped off by the electric company!   I guess if you have a $3000 electric bill they consider you for surveillance!

[Saint]

Awesome thread and completely motivated me - we've actually got a "built in" secret area that I was going to take down to expand the garage...silly me! The house we bought was a ranch converted to a colonial - in the conversion they moved the front wall "out" (forward) 3 feet and left the original garage and basement (same level) wall - so there is a 2 foot wide, 30 foot long "corridor" below ground level running along the front of my house - with an entrance (5'x5' opening) in the garage...I WAS going to bust the (now non-load bearing) wall out and widen the garage...great stuff you guys, just great!

[Freshman Preppy]

I wonder if the state confiscated that cave? 
Auction time???  :-)

[thenoocher]

It's FRAHKENSTEEN....this is the best thread on the whole forum.  Drop ceilings, underground pot gardens, siswolf with obscure mel brooks references.  This internets thing is really something!

[inthego]

It's FRAHKENSTEEN....this is the best thread on the whole forum.  Drop ceilings, underground pot gardens, siswolf with obscure mel brooks references. 

Young Frankenstein. 

 
Love Mel Brooks

[The Infidel]

I am planning to build a "secret" room under some existing stairs in two or three weeks , check back later for the " before I broke the wall" , the " during the big ass mess", and the " damn that's awsome" photos!

[bernardclare]

With highest regard to everyone who has expressed a concern about code inspections, but ... why so eager to please government authority? If we are preparing for a SHTF scenario, there may not be any local authority. And if there are, they won't be concerned with whether your bunker meets national code.

Also, if the code enforcement inspector discovers your home contains "interesting" features, don't you think the local SWAT team will soon know about it? "What's he doing down there? Looks suspicious to me."

If you are competent to do your own work, why do you need government imprimatur? Beyond the (rare) case of outright builder incompetence it's about upping government revenue, not about your "safety."

Events could turn out that after your painstakingly gathered supplies are "officially confiscated," a uniformed raider might thank you for telling them all about what you were doing. So why tell them?

[Mr. Bill]

Howdy, bernardclare, and welcome to TSP Forum!

With highest regard to everyone who has expressed a concern about code inspections, but ... why so eager to please government authority?...

Reason #1: we are also preparing for non-SHTF scenarios.  In which case you may want to eventually sell your house, and any modifications will be discovered by the purchaser or his inspector, and if you've installed some non-code stuff it may cost you a lot of money to fix it before your house becomes salable.

Reason #2: the codes do actually incorporate a lot of accumulated knowledge and experience, including things that are not obvious to the average handyman.  Sure, some parts are arbitrary and stupid, and I hate mandatory code inspections by government agents -- but having an independent pair of eyes checking stuff can still save you from possibly dangerous mistakes.

[Freshman Preppy]

When I was a young man, we bought our first home.  It was being built and I didn't know a lot about much of anything.  The stairs leading upstairs were at the back of the living room.  Where there would usually be an under the stairs access door, the builder planned to put in the kitchen breakfast bar.  So, the left side of the COULD be under the stair storage was in the living room. Couldn't do anything there.  The front, directly under the top stop, had a breakfast bar attached.  The right side was a wall in the guest bedroom and there was a door leading off of the kitchen to get into it. 
One day after all of the crew had left and before the drywallers came in, I went to that side of the stairs and  put in a horizontal stud.  A few months after we moved in, I took out a drywall saw and cut out the hole.  It was the perfect size for one of those short (about 4') furnace doors.  It looked just like the other doors in the house, only shorter.  I mounted it, put in a deadbolt, and ran some electric so I could have a light.  Basically, I had a built in gun locker that even the builder didn't know about.  It was easily concealed because if you opened up the bedroom door, the new short door was behind it.  A casual, or hopefully rushed, intruder would open the door, look in the room and see nothing of value.  I put in shelves, racks, and a few other little hidden details as well.
When I showed it to the person who bought, he got a look on his face that showed me he totally understood the value of the room.  I just went back and read over this.  I hope it makes some sense!

[JC Refuge]

Well, as you know, we are in the saferoom/bunker business. Not all customers, but certainly many shoot to have their doors/hatches well hidden. My own hatch is hidden under a huge custom-built roll-away piece of furniture.

Here is a nice site for some hidden door ideas, appropriately named:

http://www.hiddendoors.com/galleryThumb.asp?category=13

[reefmarker]

I live in an area that would have been a first strike for soviet nukes back in the 50's and 60's.  It no longer is of interest.  Back in the 90's when I was looking for my first home alot of the scientist from the 50's were retiring and selling their custom built houses.  This lead to alot of interesting house hunting, but alas we went with new construction and lost all the neatness of an old house.

Anyway, the two things most of these houses had where no load bearing interior walls, and bomb shelters not under the house.  These were not small houses as the people that had them built had big paying jobs, in the range of 2500 to 4000 sq feet.

The non-load bearing walls were to allow for the house to fall apart and not crush the people with the insides.  Walls fall out roof falls down, but maintains its shape so your nice single level ranch becomes a short teepee.  This meant tough exterior walls that sometimes even slanted outward.

The neatest things were the bomb shelters.  Usually they connected to the house in the basement and they would go out under the driveway.  In most cases the driveways were now covered with carports or garages, but originally they were not covered.  The idea was suppose to be a big thick hunk of concrete (the driveway) to stop high speed chunks of the neighborhood, and a deep concrete box under that to protect you from the zoomies the bombs let out.  Some still had the dig out doors that were made to allow you to dig you way out to the surface outside of the house, since house would collapse into the main entrance.  I always thought they would fill with water and would be a pain to maintain, but people that had them loved to sleep in them!

[texican]

While it's not completely impossible to do,.. I think it is increasingly more difficult.  While DW and I were building our house in 2005, we walked through other houses that were under construction.   Tried to imagine what the spaces would be used for.

With inspections and code regulations today, everything has to have a reason, ...  And if you have someone else build it for you, then someone knows about it.  I believe in Egypt that when the pyramids where being build, they would entomb the craftsmen when done so that the secrets would not be disclosed,..  Can't exactly get away with that now.  

If you build it all yourself, you can...

In my area of Texas, there are no codes, inspectors, permits, or other bs to deal with.  The code, imho, is the bare minimum construction guidelines, for safety.  I'm building a second home, and double down on the code... if a 2x4 will do, I go with a 2x6... bump up on wire also, and plumbing.  Most of my wood is rough sawn lumber, which is automatically larger than kiln dried, planed lumber.

I already have a "dungeon" in, with stone walls on three sides already... later, when that side is finished, it'll be invisible from all eyes.

Normally, I wouldn't divulge details... but this site doesn't have site location listed on our profile... and if I did tell the details... I'd have to go all Egyptian... 

[JerseyVince]

I saw a nice 3 shelf unit on This Old House that was really a set of six foot deep slide out drawers. They looked like 3 wooden frame shelves that you put nick-nacks on but its impossible to tell they were drawers. They were showing how to use a dead space wall between rooms. It was a really nice idea. The drawers were on rollers and looked like they were built like a Snapon tool box drawer and could handle some real weight.

Def something to look into. I cant remeber the companies name ???but i'm looking for it

[inthego]

Def something to look into. I cant remeber the companies name ???but i'm looking for it

Cool, Let us in on that if you remember... 

[Son_of_the_Republic]

I'm currently working my way through the LOST TV show.Never caught it first time round.I want one of those "hatches" in our woods here!

Anyone ever hear of folk selling those old Blast bunkers people used to put in their yards?

[Son_of_the_Republic]

Found this:

  http://www.bombsheltermovie.com/see.html

[JC Refuge]

I'm currently working my way through the LOST TV show.Never caught it first time round.I want one of those "hatches" in our woods here!

Anyone ever hear of folk selling those old Blast bunkers people used to put in their yards?

See our shelter link below in my sig. We don't sell "old" bunkers. Our steel-plate shelters and saferooms are built to customer specifications and are engineered to exceed the highest governmental standards.

FYI, there are a lot of folks out there getting safer with new bunkers. Especially those who have reason to know why they might need them.

[dudekrtr]

I was thinking of an idea that would work in my basement, or any one that has a room sticking out perpendicular to the main part of the house. I figured I could put up false shelves across the end of the room, with maybe 3 feet of storage space behind them; it would just look like the end of the foundation.

Well, my very resourceful and trusted friend said "Why stop there?" and proceeded to describe this: [you'll have to visualize a bit here!]

The same idea, but make it flush with the main cellar space, like one continuous wall. Make an opening of some sort through the shelving on the new wall into the newly created room. Now, here's the real beauty part: Construct a false ceiling in the room, and bring in dirt and place it on TOP of the ceiling. This will make anyone who looked in that area think that the room above was just built over a crawlspace not a part of the cellar.

It would not only be hidden, but isolated from the heat of the main cellar, and thus be a cold cellar. The only drawback is having to maybe stoop over a little.

[JGreene]

We have a finished basement.  It has a number of rooms and closets, the  nice part being, by the time you come in, walk down the stairs (which switches directions with the landing) you are a bit disorientated.  So I'm thinking about replacing one of the walls with brick to match the foundation as close as possible.  Then with a movable fridge or 'fixed' bookshelf, allow access into the bunker.

If I had an unfinished basement, the idea of bricking up one end I think would work well.  As long as the ceiling area where the wall meets the joists looks like the end of the house.  It would be a nice idea to have access to it from the first floor... a closet floor maybe? 

[JerseyVince]

I finally found who made the under stair and in wall hidden drawer shelves. By luck the This old house episode was on tonite that had it. The Co that did it was Good Interiors. Here's a link to the pics, they are kinks crappy but you can see them on page 6

http://www.goodinteriors.com/featured.html

[NPR Jr]

I recently purchased a home and rumor is that under the front porch is a concrete room roughly 8 x 15 that was originally supposed to be cold storage but the door was never framed in.  A neighbor who seems to be of the prepper persuasion brought it to my attention the day I was moving in.  Now that winter is coming and many of my outdoor projects are going to be put on hold I have turned my attention to my "secret room".  I have yet to confirm the existence however it sure looks probable.  Pops (No Prob Rob) is going to be in town for about a week around Christmas and I would love nothing more than to put him to work helping me create an inconspicuous entrance.  It is in an unfinished portion of the basement in the utility room (water heater, furnace, breaker box) and have thought about hiding the entrance with shelving for canned goods etc.   I am really looking for some ideas from those with minds superior to my own.  I will try and get pictures of the area up this weekend to give a better idea of what I am working with.