Thread: Bomb shelters
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Zeke Zeke is online now
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Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Long Beach CA, the sewer by the sea.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RNajarian View Post
The idea of having a bomb shelter always intrigued me.

My house is raised 3 feet from the ground. Two years after buying it I was under the house in this crawl space doing some electrical work. I noticed in the center of the house a series of cinder blocks arranged in a rectangle.

When I crawled over to it I noticed a cement lined pit 6 feet deep, 4 feet wide x 5 feet long. It was the “room” for the old 1920s gravity fed heater system. The area over it had tiles installed making it inaccessible.

When I remodeled the house I regained access to my newly discovered cellar. Unfortunately gaining access to it is a lot like getting into Grandpa Munster’s lab, via a trap door.

It is being used for storage now, but would love to somehow convert it into a man cave.

Congrats on your bomb shelter, it not only a conversation piece but hopefully a functional part of your house.
I've been in several of those pits for gravity heat systems. The systems had their faults but they worked great. The old systems could fill a cold house with heat very quickly. However, they are wasteful and most had asbestos everywhere.

One further note: you could locate a water heater in the pit and plumb in a passive water circulation system and have nearly instant hot water at upper floor faucets.
Old 10-12-2021, 09:27 AM
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