well hello

[Baloo]

hello guys
i thought i better say hi, my name is Andy and im just south of birmingham, im glad to see forums still exist i cant be doing with FB,
ive always been a prepper i guess, i have planned ahead for years the possibility of being independent to the grid and having supplies to last years intrigues/appeals to me, im really looking for anyone who has built a bunker and how they did and what they have included like ventilation/air scrubber, mains power or batteries , water tanks inside or outside ? escape tunnel or just one in and out, water ingress ? etc etc
ive just retired and now is the time for my projects, about 30 years ago i bought a few acres and sought planning for an agricultural barn which was a battle back then i cant imagine how difficult it must be these days, anyway to get to hard ground to biuld on i had to move hundreds of tons of earth and the council specified that i could not remove from the site to protect the lanes from lorries coming and going and suggested i mounded it up and let it grow over, so i did i created a horse shoe shape mound some 20ft high and 100ft long and left it for nature to take over, this has given me the perfect location to burry a bunker ( i think )

anyone actually built a bunker on here ?

thanks Andy

[Arzosah]

Hello Andy/Baloo, welcome to the forum - love the idea of buying a few acres of land, you've got the possibility for long term tree planting right there.

No, I haven't built a bunker - it's not on the planning list either, I'm afraid, though I find the concept fascinating. I'm glad you managed to landscape your land effectively and didn't need to struggle with the planners, very energy-sapping, that is.

[Baloo]

Hello Andy/Baloo, welcome to the forum - love the idea of buying a few acres of land, you've got the possibility for long term tree planting right there.

No, I haven't built a bunker - it's not on the planning list either, I'm afraid, though I find the concept fascinating. I'm glad you managed to landscape your land effectively and didn't need to struggle with the planners, very energy-sapping, that is.

Hi land was a lot cheaper 25 years ago when i started this, or was it l still had to go out and get a second mortgage and then a second job to support it, but time flys by at an incredible speed and i find myself retired with both mortgages paid off long ago if i recall correctly land was 2.5k an acre 25 years ago now its 10k an acre have wages gone up by a factor of 4 in 25 years ?, not that it matters it is what it is, as for trees i plant around 800 every year i started out with typical english native trees but the deer mullered them so i moved over to willow trees they are cheaper to buy and much more resilient to bark stripping deer and they grow fast as a bonus, in fact i think willow is the only tree that is an agricultural crop the ones i buy are supposed to grow 3m a year but mine must be on a diet as they average about half of that but its still enough that i can coppice them for fire wood and have a never ending supply, i can probably find picture of the wood if your interested
the bunker is the last part of my plan i just want some where to be able to hide out in the event of some sort of disaster, ideally unknown to anyone else, ive left enough space for a bunker 40 ft long and 16' wide with 8ft of cover maybe a touch wider if need be
thanks Andy

[Arzosah]

That sounds great - and I'm always enthusiastic about pictures of trees

[jennyjj01]

... the bunker is the last part of my plan i just want some where to be able to hide out in the event of some sort of disaster, ideally unknown to anyone else, ive left enough space for a bunker 40 ft long and 16' wide with 8ft of cover maybe a touch wider if need be
thanks Andy

Hi Andy and welcome,
OMG, your survivalist instincts are on an industrial level, compared to most of us here. The nearest competitors that I can think of are those few who own homesteads with big gardens and wells. Emphasis is totally different in that they seem inclined to be self sufficient in food while you seem to aspire to be self sufficient in fortification.

I look forward to reading your other prepping ideas, as I bet they would fill gaps in the knowledge here.

How much extended life expectancy would you envisage your bunker giving you if it were ever needed, in such an event as might occur? Compare that to how much lifetime you expend building it.

If you do proceed with the project, you might want to not tell us anything that would help us find it, because you can be sure to be a popular guy if the asteroid strikes.

[Baloo]

That sounds great - and I'm always enthusiastic about pictures of trees

well heres a few pics for you, these were taken yesterday, grey and dull not very inspiring but my fuel supply still grows well enough

[Baloo]

That sounds great - and I'm always enthusiastic about pictures of trees

and heres a few from the summer, a much more interesting place at that time of year, i started with an empty corner of the field and drove an old jeep round leaving tyre tracks and then proceeded to plant trees each side of the tracks to create a wood that has various trails winding threw it, each year i plant another 800 or so trees so it gets bigger and bigger, willow have become my favorite as i can just coppice as many as i want and replant them at no cost well apart from a bad back from all the planting lol, l enjoy my time in there particularly mowing the trails on my home made mower the smell of fresh cut grass appeals to me, i must be weird lol

[Baloo]

... the bunker is the last part of my plan i just want some where to be able to hide out in the event of some sort of disaster, ideally unknown to anyone else, ive left enough space for a bunker 40 ft long and 16' wide with 8ft of cover maybe a touch wider if need be
thanks Andy

Hi Andy and welcome,
OMG, your survivalist instincts are on an industrial level, compared to most of us here. The nearest competitors that I can think of are those few who own homesteads with big gardens and wells. Emphasis is totally different in that they seem inclined to be self sufficient in food while you seem to aspire to be self sufficient in fortification.

I look forward to reading your other prepping ideas, as I bet they would fill gaps in the knowledge here.

How much extended life expectancy would you envisage your bunker giving you if it were ever needed, in such an event as might occur? Compare that to how much lifetime you expend building it.

If you do proceed with the project, you might want to not tell us anything that would help us find it, because you can be sure to be a popular guy if the asteroid strikes.

Hi
im not sure im any different from those with homesteads who want to be self sufficient and im not into fortification more secrecy, if no one knows its there then its not a problem to anyone and that throws up the first decision to be made do l ask for planning permission ??? because that blows any ideas of it being a well kept secret right out of the water, the council will post my application on lamp posts nearby asking for objections, they will write to the nearest houses asking for their views on the project so this really sends me down the secret route, do it and tell know one !!!
i would like to be able to survive for 6 months or at least thats the target, i have a large barn within a hundred feet of the proposed site that has mains water and electric that may or may not stay on depending whats happened , but the barn offers a huge space on the roof for solar panels that will look like they are powering the barn but the cables can run underground to the bunker and i will drill a well l see that as a fun project..
as for expending lifetime building it all thats the fun part i dont smoke i dont drink and i dont go on holiday playing on the excavator is a great past time i find it therapeutic crafting the earth
i will post up about how i intend to construct as im sure it will raise eyebows lol

[Arzosah]

Thanks for this! The tracks idea, going ahead with the vehicle and *then* planting is a really good one - though there seems to be a *lot* of tracks?

The barn sounds brilliant, and I understand your concern about being known to have a bunker, but I guarantee you, if it gets found out - by a teenager playing with a drone, for instance - you'll be in the national newspapers as quick as anything. Surely, if the barn is so big, you can make a hidey hole in there?

[jennyjj01]

Hi
im not sure im any different from those with homesteads who want to be self sufficient and im not into fortification more secrecy, if no one knows its there then its not a problem to anyone and that throws up the first decision to be made do l ask for planning permission ??? because that blows any ideas of it being a well kept secret right out of the water, the council will post my application on lamp posts nearby asking for objections, they will write to the nearest houses asking for their views on the project so this really sends me down the secret route, do it and tell know one !!

i will post up about how i intend to construct as im sure it will raise eyebows lol

I'm not a lawyer but as I read it, you would need planning permission.