Retreats on the cheap?

[Technik]

You need to always have a couple of those vents and they should be well hidden so no one can fidle with them. These are very tough vents too, it's not the ones used in normal buldings.
I think having a bunker style basement is a great idea - it doesn't cost much, can be used as a storage for your preps and if TSHTF this will be the safest place to hide.
I know it sounds a bit out there - "building a bunker" - but first of all it's nothing more than a basement with a couple add ons and secondly we need to think different to be able to survive.

[SW_pheonix]

You need some serious filtration for a reliable bunker.
If you are going to spend any amount of time sealed in a concrete box, there will be a build up of Co2 and the oxygen will get used up.
The easy answer is pump in air from outside, but it may be contaminated with radiation, chemical or biological agents etc. It needs to be filtered to be safe.
There are lots of ways you could in theory filter it.
Pre filters are easy to make from cloth, foam, mesh, wire wool and you can get some really good fine stainless steel mesh on ebay.
You could use various easily available filters for home appliances like a stack of Dyson hepa filters to remove fine particles. A big cylinder of activated carbon (pool filter) for removing chemicals. New oil or air filters from cars. Filter plates from cooker hoods have a partical filter and carbon. Or some water filters work with air as well like the big paper filters.
UV light, silver treated filters/material to kill biologicals. Or a cylinder full of 'Microban' plastic shavings or copper swarf will trap and kill bacterial.
Temperature might be an issue. If it was a nuke or earthquake there could be firestorms above and the air would be very hot. Also most filters don't get rid of Carbon monoxide.

The other option is to seal it air tight and remove the co2 with something like lithium hydroxide scrubbers and replace the oxygen from tanks. But that is a very easy way to suffocate if you dont know exactly what you are doing and dont have proper sensing equipment.
You also need to think about air presure. You don't want to open the hatch to emerge into a brave new world only to die of the bends!

A possible idea I have thought about is to have scuba equipment in the bunker. So only seal it air tight just before 'the event' (if you know when it is coming???) sit there all relaxed and quiet for a few hours breathing from scuba tanks.
If in doubt about the air quality being pumped in. wear a resporator and have a huge stock of filters.

[Technik]

That's some really good ideas there Phoenix. Before I start on the bunker project I will do some serious research, at the moment finding the best spot for it is a problem.

[diamond lil]

What happens when you open the door of the bunker and find the whole world is a Chernobyl ? What's the point of surviving only to be slowly poisoned ? Not being picky, just thinking aloud

[SW_pheonix]

What happens when you open the door of the bunker and find the whole world is a Chernobyl ? What's the point of surviving only to be slowly poisoned ? Not being picky, just thinking aloud

Depends on what the rad count is and what caused it. If you stay underground for a couple of weeks the radiation would be drastically reduced and the longer you stay in the bunker the better.
Even with quite a high radiation level like the area around Chernoble, you could live decades without any noticable side effects. Apparently there is some old folk who refused to leave the area after the reactor melted down and some are still there now (or so I have heard). Happily eating radioactive friut,veg and animals.
They figured that they were old anyway and would be dead from natural causes long before any cancers due to radiation started to ail them. Which is probably a good way to look at it.
For the young, then its a different matter. especially if they want to have kids to repopulate.

It all depends on the rad count.

[diamond lil]

Thank god there's one good thing about getting old !!

[axelt123]

That's some really good ideas there Phoenix. Before I start on the bunker project I will do some serious research, at the moment finding the best spot for it is a problem.

i am considering this option mayby a log cabin on top ect but i was thinking that if you have a high water table you can place it under ground without need pumps. I think i would have to look at having an above ground shelter covered in soil and plenty of shrubs to hide it.

[Technik]

Anything above the ground is less efective but if there's no other option then a well covered building with thick walls would be all right.

I wonder if anyone in the uk already has a bunker?

[the-gnole]

I wonder if anyone in the uk already has a bunker?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... blast.html

When tensions between the West and Russia were at their peak and nuclear war seemed a real possibilty, Mike Thomas bought his dream home.

It had almost everything he wanted - four bedrooms, a big garden and sea views. But something was missing.

So worried was Mr Thomas, 56, that a nuclear strike was imminent he decided to build an underground bunker capable of withstanding a blast 80 times bigger than the one that devastated Hiroshima.

[Technik]

Now that's a proper prepper! And from now on he's my idol