Stealth Urban Underground Shelter

[Swift Chameleon]

a good idea with the paint cans

[2muchstuff]

Do you have a basement? Dig it from inside the house.

[Fred Nietzsche]

Tell them your going "green" and building a solar heating system and this the the heat sink / water storage tank. Use a pre-cast tank and put a small shed over the access point. Hide in plain sight.

After you get it in place, tell them you ran out of money.

With everything going on in the world they will soon forget about you and your "solar system...

[ColoAngus]

Cut a hole through your basement wall and dig it out into the yard. More work but no one will see. When you are done, build a hidden doorway. People do this sort of thing when they have a crawl space and want to add a basement. Actually not as much work as you might think. You could haul the dirt up into the garage and haul it off to dump.

[woowoo2]

Originally Posted by Jerry D Young

What about an nice size above-ground dual wall dual use shelter. A yard shed, for example that is actually a shelter.

This is what I am doing.
A solid concrete shed.
Permits and all......

[LibraryCacher]

I knew a dude in who went through his basement floor.
I think he went a little nuts with bracing because he used a column every 5'.
But basically what he did was dig a 5'x5' room 6' high then poor a concrete footing in each corner for a floor jack, then dig anther 5'x5' and repeat, eventually replacing the jacks with steel columns and bricked the walls. He disposal method was bags into the dumpster in the ally.
Not the brightest idea for many locations though.

[Jericho]

Originally Posted by snoop37

Landscape, Landscape, Landscape!

!snoop!

Yup! Spread it around the back yard and make some decorative hills and such. Mound up the ground and plant some nice looking plants.

[Jericho]

I read about a couple that enlarged the scrawl space to make a basement. Bug from inside the garage, I think. They had a hell of a time getting all the dirt out. It is a LOT to move. They worked with 5 gallon pails, not paint cans, and the tow of them took a long time. Trailer fulls of dirt out... which they traded. They were very strong afterward.

If you can keep it on your land, I'd go that route, but even then, the volume of dirt may raise suspicions.

Be careful.

[northidahofisher]

I would have to say I like the pool idea best.

You can get the permits, dig the hole, pour the concrete, with straight walls ("for doing laps"), drains, steps, etc. Then you suddenly run out of funds, and your budget for the next year or so is frozen to not allow completion, and you "just want to cover it up so you can have a yard, and maybe in the future uncover it and finish the project".

Cover it with either steel I beams and plywood that "you got at a salvage yard for really cheap", or 2x10's and plywood your dad/brother/uncle/etc had in their garage.

Then cover with multiple plastic/wood layers, then cover with dirt. Keep the part where the steps are very thinly covered and you will be able go in and use lighting and finish the interior walls, and whatever else you want, with no one knowing your in there doing things.

But that's just an idea.

[brent2]

You will generate TONS of dirt more than you think. One of the things we don't usually think of ahead of time is that the dirt in the ground is highly compressed - when you dig it out it fluffs up.

I just finished hand digging a 6' deep, 8'x9' hole in my backyard for a cinderblock root cellar. It is a LOT of work, but you sure will get stronger! TONS OF DIRT!

OPSEC - unfortunately, my next door neighbor knows that it is a root cellar. No idea how many he might have told...I thought a lot ahead of time but couldn't come up with anything plausable or a believeable lie. They are somewhat treehuggers and both of us have chickens and we plant a garden, so I figured they'd think it was neat and back to nature type stuff. So far that seems too have been sufficient.

Cement floor is in, cinder block walls and water proofing just finished today. Roof goes on in the next few days then dirt on the sides and roof after that. I'll just miss the rainy season.

The only thing different I'd do would be a structure on top FIRST to keep noise down (pick-axing) and eyes away.

Best of luck! PS - Plan on doing some nice things for the wife during the process. All that dirt around is going to get into the house and make for an unhappy woman...

[Swift Chameleon]

Unfortunately no basement and not enough room to keep the dirt around. So I will have to haul it all away. I know too well how much dirt you get when digging. Too many trenches dug by hand as a kid to replace drain lines. With everyones ideas, I am thinking the pool might just be the safest bet. It will easily explain why im using a jackhammer and pickaxe and digging down 10'. I can easily build a ceilling after "funds run dry". You guys are awesome loving all of the ideas.

[wedweb]

Try, shed and tornado shelter. Yall have tornadoes right?

[TnHusker]

Two words: The Greenbrier. The Dept of Defense hid a fallout shelter there for 30 years by using the construction of a new wing of the hotel as cover. Use a construction project to mask the construction of your project. Pool or septic system are good. And don't tell anybody what is there.

[53convert]

tornado shelter dude.tornado shelter...........

[nomadjanet]

I think the small pool project idea is great. Acutaly buiding a small pool would be a great thing, think of the possible quantity of stored water. If your neighbors get nosey about the construction tell them the contractor makes a big deal about insurance on his jobs and no one can be there as a bystander or the insurance on the job is voided.

[mnprepper]

As Misterbig mentioned the safest and most stealthyw ay will be to put a shed in and dig inside it. Everynight youc an load the soil into your truck and go dump it somewhere.

[MichiganPatriot]

I have an idiot neighbor - a real busybody. I suggest looking for a landscape company or a home and garden store to have arbor vitae trees on sale. Large ones here normally cost around $70, but can be found for $40 on sale, and that's for 7'-8' trees. They're full evergreen type trees. If you have the money, buy 5 or 6 trees and strategically plant them to hide your project from your one neighbor. It's probably going to be cheaper than building dirt mounds in your back yard and putting fancy landscaping on them... that's IF you were going to do that before excavating and constructing the walls, etc.

[creepin50]

you could also do an addition thats only underground then get a vault door installed in your basement. Pricey but would be very secure.

[tulag]

Waco and Ruby Ridge HAPPENED people. Big Brother is a very real threat. The LAST place to bury/cache anything is on property that you are known to be involved with!

[TnHusker]

Originally Posted by tulag

Waco and Ruby Ridge HAPPENED people. Big Brother is a very real threat. The LAST place to bury/cache anything is on property that you are known to be involved with!

How does that work. I mean burying/caching on property your not known to be involved with most likely means that you don't own it. Or you have purchased it without using your own name. That could be a legal problem. If you don't own it then that means you are trespassing and anything you leave behind could be considered abandoned property. Granted, I'm not a real estate lawyer and I could be wrong. If there are any lawyers or knowledgeable real estate agents around could you chime in here.