I’m looking into buying one of your tornado shelters and am curious about how they are anchored to the slab. How do you anchor your storm shelters to a slab foundation?
We anchor the safe room to your reinforced slab of adequate mass and geometry by using Red Head brand wedge anchors. FEMA recommends 10” maximum spacing, our spacing is 6-10-10-6-10-10-6…you get the idea. Each anchor “officially” provides around 3500 lbs of hold down resistance and even more shear resistance. However, we installed a safe room for a Mechanical Engineer from Hilti ( one of the world leaders in bolting and anchoring fasteners), and he told us they and other manufacturers use a safety factor of 13 when publishing their spec sheets. So in reality, each bolt literally provides about 50k lbs of hold down before it fails, and the number of bolts in your storm shelter is determined by the size you order. FIY- after all the hysteria and shrill reporting calmed down in Moore, investigations confirmed that ALL safe rooms and storm shelters in the storm’s path withstood the tornado and there wasn’t a single fatality or injury to anyone in a shelter.
For more information visit www.tornadoalleyarmor.com or call toll free 918-518-1551