Putting a Storm Shelter in a Garage Floor: What One Day of Work Looks Like

Spring in East Texas means storm season. Most years the sirens come and go and nothing happens close to home. But anyone who has lived here a while remembers the years when it did, and that is when people start asking about storm shelters.

This past May I was on hand for an in-ground storm shelter install in a garage here in East Texas. I took photos through the day, and I want to walk through what it actually looked like. The process is simpler than most people expect, and there are a few things worth knowing before you call anyone.

The shelter on install morning, before any digging started.

Why the garage

A below-ground shelter in the garage floor has a lot going for it. You can get to it without going outside, which matters when the wind is already blowing and the rain is coming sideways. It takes up very little room once it is in, because the lid sits flush with the floor and you can park right over it. And it does not change the look of the house or the yard.

The tradeoff is that someone has to cut a hole in a perfectly good slab. That is the part that makes people nervous, so here is how it went.

The install, start to finish

The shelter was delivered first thing in the morning. It is a prefabricated unit with a sliding lid, and it sat in the yard while the crew got set up.

Next, a mini excavator broke out a rectangle of the garage slab. It is loud and dusty, but it goes faster than you would think. Once the concrete was out, the crew dug the pit, partly with the machine and partly by hand around the edges. Under that slab was the same red clay you find all over this part of Texas.

The pit dug through the slab into East Texas red clay.

By early afternoon the shelter was set down into the pit and leveled. Then the crew poured new concrete around it and tied it back into the existing floor. The photos from this job run from about eight in the morning to a little before two in the afternoon. In one working day, the garage went from a plain slab to a finished shelter with a sliding lid.

The finished shelter, flush with the garage floor.

What to ask before you buy

I am not a shelter dealer, and I do not sell them. But I have spent a lot of years around construction and around houses, and these are the questions I would want answered.

Does it meet ICC 500? That is the national standard for storm shelters, developed with the National Storm Shelter Association. FEMA's guide for homeowners, called FEMA P-320, builds on it. A reputable seller will tell you plainly whether their unit meets that standard and can show you the paperwork.

How many people will it hold? Under ICC 500, a tornado shelter for a one or two family home needs at least 3 square feet of floor space per person. That is tight. If you have a big family, or you expect neighbors to come over, size up.

What about water? A below-ground shelter is only useful if it stays dry. If your garage ever takes on water, or the lot sits low, talk to the installer about it before they dig.

Who is doing the concrete work? The shelter itself is only part of the job. A clean cut, a solid pour, and a lid that sits flush all come down to the crew. Ask to see photos of their past installs, and ask how they tie the new concrete into the old slab.

Will anyone know it is there? Many cities and counties keep a list of residential shelters so first responders know where to look after a storm. Call your local emergency management office and ask whether they have one.

Is it worth it?

For a lot of East Texas families, I think it is. The work takes about a day, the shelter disappears into the floor when you are not using it, and it gives you somewhere to go when the sky turns green. It can also be a plus when the house goes on the market someday, because buyers notice when the safety question has already been answered.

If you have been putting it off, the off season is the time to do it, before spring storms are on everyone's mind.

Greg McKinney, Mineola, Texas